Cost of Setting Up a UK Ltd Company (2026): Companies House Fees

Incorporating a standard UK Ltd costs £100 if you register online or through formation software, or £124 by paper post. There's no minimum share capital: most companies incorporate with a nominal £1 or £100 in shares, which doesn't have to be paid in before registration.

After that, the main recurring official cost is the confirmation statement: £50 a year if filed online, £110 on paper. Everything else, accountants, payroll, a registered office service and legal advice, has no official price.

Companies House can register a standard company in about a day online; paper applications take longer.

• Choose a company name and registered office address in the UK (England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland).
• Adopt articles of association. Most companies use the free model articles set out in law rather than drafting their own; you can also amend them or write bespoke ones.
• Appoint at least one director (a company can have just one) and decide on shareholders and their shares.
• Identify people with significant control (PSCs) — anyone who holds more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise controls the company — and report them to Companies House as part of incorporation.
• File the incorporation application with Companies House, online, by approved software, or by paper, and pay the fee.
• Register for Corporation Tax with HMRC before the company starts trading. No fee is published.
• Register as an employer for PAYE before your first payday, and no more than 2 months ahead of your first payment to an employee. No fee is published.
• Open a business bank account in the company's name, needed in practice to pay salaries and receive income.

These can be the larger part of the bill, and they depend on the provider. Get quotes:

• An accountant, for bookkeeping, payroll, annual accounts and the Corporation Tax return.
• A company formation agent, if you'd rather not deal with Companies House directly; agents typically bundle the £100 incorporation fee into a package price.
• A registered office address service, if you don't want to use your own business or home address, which becomes publicly visible on the Companies House register.
• Legal advice on articles of association, shareholder agreements and director service contracts, if you go beyond the model articles.
• Employers' liability insurance, required by law once you employ staff, covering at least £5 million.

The official one-off cost of a UK Ltd is low, about £100. The real commitment is the ongoing running cost (accountant, payroll, annual filings) and the time spent on UK employment and tax compliance, not the formation fee itself. See EOR vs local entity for when that running cost starts to beat an EOR's monthly fee, or compare your own headcount with the EOR vs entity calculator. For the day-to-day cost of employing someone in the UK either way, see the UK country guide.