How to Register a Company in the UK: 2026 Guide

On paper this is the easiest incorporation in the developed world: £100, about 24 hours, fully online, from any country.

What changed is that the 2026 process now starts before the filing itself. Since 18 November 2025, a new director must verify their identity with Companies House and supply a personal code as part of the incorporation filing itself. That step is easy to miss, and the £50 fee many walkthroughs still quote died on 1 February 2026. This guide walks the 2026 chain in order, identity step first, written for founders registering from outside the UK.

The short answer

• Cost: £100 online (£124 on paper). Time: about 24 hours for approval once you file, plus the identity verification step beforehand. From abroad: yes; per gov.uk, "Directors do not have to live in the UK but companies must have a UK registered office address."
• You need: a verified identity (personal code), a company name, a UK registered office and contact email, at least one director aged 16 or over and one shareholder (the same person is fine), your people with significant control, a SIC code, and a statement of capital. One £1 share is enough; there is no minimum capital and no UK visit at any point.

Before you can file: verify your identity (new since November 2025)

This step is rarely walked through properly, so here it is in full.

Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. A new director must have a verified identity at the point of incorporation: the filing asks for each director's personal code, so verification happens before, not after, you register. New PSCs supply theirs shortly after incorporation (within a 14 day window), and existing directors of older companies are brought in at their next confirmation statement, a cycle that completes across the register by around November 2026.

• The personal code is an identifier attached to you as a person, not to any company. You verify once, keep the code, and reuse it across every directorship, appointment and confirmation statement for life. Store it like a password; you will be asked for it again.
• There are two routes to get verified, and choosing correctly from abroad is the decision that sets your timeline:

The practical decision from abroad: if you hold a biometric passport and a smartphone, try One Login first; it is free and remote. If your passport is not biometric, if the app fails on your document, or if you are using a formation agent anyway, go through an ACSP, which is the route built for document-based verification from any country. The one option that does not work from abroad is the Post Office route, which requires being physically in the UK. Companies House publishes the exact list of accepted documents per route, and it evolves; check the current list on gov.uk when you start, since your document mix is exactly the detail that decides your route.

What you need before you file

The checklist that separates a 24 hour incorporation from a bounced one, in three columns: what you provide, what an agent can provide, and what is not required at all.

One detail that is easy to miss: the registered office must sit in the jurisdiction you register in (England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland), and that choice is fixed at incorporation.

Not required, despite what you may have read: UK residence or a visit, a National Insurance number, a UK bank account before incorporating, or any minimum capital. A single share issued at £1 is the standard non-resident setup.

UK company registration: step by step

With your identity verified and the checklist in hand, the filing itself is short. The whole sequence:

• 1. Clear the name. Run it through the Companies House checker for "same as" conflicts and sensitive words, and search the trademark register separately; Companies House does not check trademarks for you. Have a backup name ready.
• 2. Fix the registered office, jurisdiction and email. Decide England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, lock in the appropriate address (yours or your agent's) and the contact email. This is also the moment to set up service addresses if you do not want your home address gathering dust on a public register; more on that two sections down.
• 3. Assemble the people, with their codes. Directors' details and personal codes, shareholders and their shareholdings, PSC details. For a solo founder this is one person wearing all three hats.
• 4. Set the share capital and SIC code. One share at £1 for a solo founder, split as agreed for co-founders; the statement of capital records it. Add the SIC code and accept model articles unless you have a lawyer telling you otherwise.
• 5. File online and pay £100. The application goes through the gov.uk service (or your agent's software, which files through the same registry). Card payment, submission, done.
• 6. Receive the certificate of incorporation. Online applications are typically approved in about 24 hours; paper filings take 8 to 10 days and cost £124. The certificate carries your company number and is the document banks and platforms will ask for first. Your company exists.

1Clear the nameCompanies House checker for "same as" and sensitive words, plus the trademark register.

2Office, jurisdiction, emailEngland and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Fixed at incorporation.

3People and codesDirectors with personal codes, shareholders, PSCs.

4Capital and SICOne share at £1 is the standard solo setup, plus the SIC code.

5File and pay £100Through the gov.uk service or an agent filing to the same registry.

6Certificate issuedAbout 24 hours online. Paper takes 8 to 10 days and costs £124.

1. 1
   Clear the nameCompanies House checker for "same as" and sensitive words, plus the trademark register.
2. 2
   Office, jurisdiction, emailEngland and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Fixed at incorporation.
3. 3
   People and codesDirectors with personal codes, shareholders, PSCs.
4. 4
   Capital and SICOne share at £1 is the standard solo setup, plus the SIC code.
5. 5
   File and pay £100Through the gov.uk service or an agent filing to the same registry.
6. 6
   Certificate issuedAbout 24 hours online. Paper takes 8 to 10 days and costs £124.

FirstIdentity verification, One Login or an ACSP

Same dayName check, office and people assembled

~24 hoursCompanies House approves the online filing

8-10 daysPaper route instead, at £124

DaysEMI account live

WeeksHigh street bank, if you need one

1. FirstIdentity verification, One Login or an ACSP
2. Same dayName check, office and people assembled
3. ~24 hoursCompanies House approves the online filing
4. 8-10 daysPaper route instead, at £124
5. DaysEMI account live
6. WeeksHigh street bank, if you need one

What becomes public when you register

No ranking step-by-step warns you before the filing, so here it is in advance.

The moment the certificate issues, the public register shows each director's name, service address, and month and year of birth, and each PSC's name, service address, month and year of birth, nationality and country of residence. All of it is free to search, forever. What stays protected: residential addresses (when a service address is used) and the day of your birth date.

The practical consequences: use an agent's service address from day one, because scrubbing a home address from the register after the fact is a formal process, not an edit; and understand that ownership above 25% cannot be hidden. If registry privacy is a requirement rather than a preference, the UK is the wrong register, a trade-off unpacked in why incorporate in the UK, and the contrast with Delaware's no-names registry is stark enough that it should be part of your jurisdiction choice, not a surprise.

Fees in 2026 (they doubled in February)

Companies House fees doubled on 1 February 2026 to fund the registrar's new enforcement powers. As of August 2026 the schedule is:

Incorporation, before Feb 2026£50

Incorporation, from Feb 2026£100

Confirmation statement, before£34

Confirmation statement, from Feb 2026£50

One detail worth knowing because it is counterintuitive: while everything else doubled, voluntary strike-off got cheaper, down to £13 online from £33. The registry fees are only the floor of what a company costs to run, of course; the full five-year bill including agents, addresses and accounts is itemised in the UK cost guide.

After incorporation: your first filings

Most checklists stop at the certificate. The certificate is where your obligations start.

• HMRC finds you automatically: your corporation tax UTR (unique taxpayer reference) arrives by post at the registered office within days of incorporation. If an agent hosts your registered office, make sure they forward it.
• Register for Corporation Tax once the company starts any business activity; gov.uk sets a deadline measured in months from starting activity (commonly cited as three months, a figure we re-verify at publication), and the registration is done online with the UTR.
• Confirmation statement: £50, at least once a year, confirming the register data is current. From November 2025 onward this filing is also where identity verification is enforced for existing officers.
• Annual accounts: due to Companies House even for a dormant or tiny company, on a clock that starts at incorporation.
• VAT: registration becomes mandatory only when UK taxable turnover crosses the threshold, £90,000 as commonly cited as of August 2026 (verify the current figure on gov.uk); many non-resident-owned companies trade below or outside it for years.

The full calendar, penalties included, is the subject of the compliance guide.

Registering from outside the UK

Everything above works from abroad by design. The assembled version for a non-resident:

• Your right to do this is explicit. Gov.uk's own words: "Directors do not have to live in the UK but companies must have a UK registered office address." No nationality test, no visa, no visit.
• The address problem is a product, not a problem. Agents supply the registered office, the service addresses and mail forwarding for roughly £50 to 200 per year.
• Identity verification is the step that varies. Biometric passport: One Login from your sofa. Otherwise: ACSP, which exists precisely to verify people "from any country". Budget days, not weeks, but do it before you plan the filing date.
• Banking is the actual filter, not Companies House. The registry will approve a clean filing from almost any founder in 24 hours; a UK bank or fintech then applies its own risk appetite to your passport, residence and business model. That gauntlet has its own guide: opening a UK business bank account.
• Your passport changes the difficulty, not the rules. Eligibility, risk profiles and sanctions screening by origin are covered in the non-resident guide and the country pages: from Russia, from India, from Nigeria, from France.