UK Company Formation Cost in 2026: The Real Price List

The number the packages advertise is £12.99. The number the government actually charges is £100, doubled on 1 February 2026, and it is only the first line of the bill. For a non-resident founder, the honest first year runs roughly £250 to £700, and every year after that costs about £400 to £1,600 once the address renewals, the £50 confirmation statement and the accountant are on the table.

That gap between the advertised price and the real one is the entire story of this query. A lot of what is still circulating quotes fees from before the February 2026 increase, and rarely assembles the full year-one bill for a founder who does not live in the UK. This guide does both, with every figure dated.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Companies House fees are official as of August 2026; all service-price ranges below are market estimates that vary by provider. Confirm every figure with Companies House, HMRC or a qualified adviser before you rely on it.

The 60-second answer: what you will actually pay

• Verdict. Forming the company costs £100 paid to Companies House, once. Running it as a non-resident costs real money every year: a registered office and service address you must rent because you have no UK address, a £50 confirmation statement, and an accountant for the annual filings. Year one lands around £250 to £700 all-in; the recurring bill is typically £400 to £1,600 per year. The "£12.99 company" is a teaser price, not a total.

Everything below unpacks this table: what doubled, what the packages hide, and which lines only exist because you live abroad.

Companies House fees in 2026: they doubled in February

Two dates explain every contradictory price you will see in the search results:

• Before 1 May 2024, digital incorporation cost £12 and the confirmation statement £13. This is the era the "£12 company" marketing was built on.
• From 1 May 2024, incorporation rose to £50 and the confirmation statement to £34, the first increase in years, to fund the new powers Companies House received under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA).
• From 1 February 2026, both roughly doubled again: incorporation to £100 digital and £124 paper, the confirmation statement to £50 digital and £110 paper. The fees page on gov.uk, updated 2 July 2026, confirms these as the current figures.

So the state price has gone up more than eightfold in under two years, from £12 to £100. Companies House sets fees on a cost-recovery basis: the increases pay for identity verification, register cleanup and enforcement, not profit. That context matters because it means further adjustments are plausible; date every figure you rely on.

Before May 2024£12

May 2024 to Jan 2026£50

From 1 Feb 2026£100

A few neighbouring fees moved too, and one went the other way. Changing a company name costs £20 digital. Voluntary strike off actually dropped from £33 to £13 digital, a detail nobody mentions: closing a UK company is now cheaper than it was. Same-day digital incorporation is quoted at £156 by major agents, though we have not yet confirmed that figure on a primary Companies House page, so treat it as indicative.

May 2024Incorporation fee rises from £12 to £50

18 Nov 2025Identity verification becomes mandatory

1 Feb 2026Incorporation £50 to £100, confirmation statement £34 to £50

1. May 2024Incorporation fee rises from £12 to £50
2. 18 Nov 2025Identity verification becomes mandatory
3. 1 Feb 2026Incorporation £50 to £100, confirmation statement £34 to £50

The "£12.99 company" packages, taken apart

Search this query and you will still see packages advertised between £2.48 and £15.99. None of them are lies, exactly. All of them work the same way, and it is worth seeing the mechanics once so you can read any pricing page in ten seconds:

1. The government fee is extra or "included" at a cost. The £100 Companies House fee is either added at checkout or bundled into a higher tier. A "£12.99 formation" is £112.99 the moment it becomes a real company.
2. The address is the product. As a non-resident you need a UK registered office, so the cheap tier is unusable for you. The tier you actually need, with a registered office and service address, typically runs £99.99 to £315 including the state fee.
3. Year two is where the margin lives. The address that felt included in year one renews automatically at full price, commonly £30 to £100 or more per year. The package was priced to acquire you, not to serve you.

Figures are August 2026 market observations across major UK formation agents, anonymised because individual prices change monthly. The pattern does not.

None of this makes agents useless. A good one files correctly, provides a compliant address and reminds you of deadlines. Just price the whole relationship, not the headline. If you want the step-by-step filing mechanics, including what Companies House actually asks for, see how to register a company in the UK.

Year one for a non-resident: the full bill

Here is the bill nobody assembles, line by line, for a founder with no UK address, as of August 2026:

• Incorporation: £100, paid once to Companies House, usually through an agent.
• Registered office address: £20 to £60 per year (market). Since ECCTA, a PO Box no longer qualifies; it must be an "appropriate address" where documents can be delivered and acknowledged. For a non-resident this is always a rented service.
• Director's service address: about £26 per year (market). Optional in law, sensible in practice: without it your residential address goes on the public register.
• Mail forwarding: often bundled with the address, otherwise £20 to £60 per year plus postage.
• Identity verification: £0 if you can use the GOV.UK One Login app with a biometric passport. If you cannot, an authorised agent (ACSP) verifies you for a fee, seen in the market around £20 to £50 but not yet confirmed against primary pricing. The eligibility mechanics, and why this step blindsides non-residents, are covered in the non-resident guide.
• Accountant: £300 to £1,500 per year (market). Not legally required, but a UK ltd must file annual accounts and a corporation tax return, and almost no founder abroad does this alone.
• Confirmation statement: £50, due within your first 12 months, so it often lands in year one.

Realistic year-one total: about £250 if you are frugal and verify yourself, £700 or more with an accountant onboard from day one. Compare that with the £12.99 headline and you see why this page exists.

• Incorporation, once, to Companies House£100
• Confirmation statement, lands in year one£50
• Registered office, service address and mail forwarding~£100

What you pay every year after

The recurring bill is simpler, and it is where the UK is genuinely cheap at the state level and genuinely not cheap in practice:

• Confirmation statement: £50 per year, the only recurring Companies House charge for a normal ltd.
• Address renewals: £45 to £160 per year depending on bundle.
• Accounts and tax filings: £300 to £1,500 per year with an accountant.
• VAT compliance, only past the threshold: registration is free, but crossing £90,000 of UK taxable turnover in a rolling 12 months makes VAT filings part of your accounting scope. What the company then owes in corporation tax and VAT is a separate subject: see UK corporation tax and, for what you personally owe as a foreign owner, taxes for non-resident owners.

One forward-looking line for your budget: Companies House has announced a move to software-only accounts filing, expected around 2027, which will make a compliant filing tool or an accountant who has one effectively unavoidable. The announcement is on the official Changes to UK Company Law campaign site; timing may shift, so verify before planning around it.

Deadlines and penalties for all of these live in the compliance guide.

Government fee vs reseller price

The same filing, two prices. Order directly from Companies House when you can:

The reseller premium is sometimes worth it, for example when the agent also checks the filing. It is never mandatory, and the gap is widest exactly where the filing is easiest.

What a UK company does NOT cost

Three absences worth naming, because founders comparing jurisdictions often assume they exist:

• No minimum capital. You can incorporate with a single £0.01 share. Nothing needs to be deposited or blocked.
• No annual state levy beyond the £50 confirmation statement. There is no equivalent of a US franchise tax. Delaware charges an LLC a flat annual tax of $400 from tax year 2026 just for existing; the UK charges £50.
• No notary, no apostille, no local sponsor for the formation itself. Cross-border extras appear only when foreign banks or partners ask for certified or apostilled documents, plus courier costs, typically well under £200 per event. Note that agent services carry 20% VAT while the £100 Companies House fee does not, a small line that surprises people on invoices.

State fees as of August 2026. The comparison flips once accountancy is included, since UK filings are heavier than Delaware's, but at the state level the UK sits comfortably between the two. Whether the UK is the right jurisdiction at all, register publicity and 25% tax included, is the subject of why incorporate in the UK.