The eleven steps in order
The slow steps are flagged. Running those in parallel is the difference between trading in a month and trading in three.
The eleven steps
Work out whether you already have a UK tax presence
A UK employee closing deals, or a place of business here, can make the parent taxable in the UK before anything is registered. This is the first question, because if the answer is yes you are regularising a position rather than starting one.
02Choose between a subsidiary and a branch
A subsidiary is a new UK company with its own liability. A branch is your existing company operating here, with the parent liable for everything and, usually, the parent's accounts on the UK public register.
03Verify the directors' identities
Companies House verifies every director and controller before they can be appointed. For directors overseas this is the step most likely to add a week, and it can be done before the company exists.
04Incorporate the company
Name, registered office, directors, the shareholder, the ownership register and the articles. Filed online and normally live within 24 hours.
05Start the bank account, both routes at once
The longest step by a distance. A regulated payment provider opens in days; a high-street bank takes weeks to months for a company whose directors are all abroad. Run both.
06Register for corporation tax, PAYE and VAT
Three separate applications on three separate clocks, plus an EORI number if goods will cross a border. The references arrive by post over the following weeks.
07Put the intercompany arrangements in writing
Whatever the parent will charge the subsidiary, or the subsidiary will do for the group, priced at arm's length and documented before the first invoice. Undocumented charges are the first thing HMRC disallows.
08Set up payroll, the pension and the insurance
PAYE registration before the first payday, a workplace pension scheme ready to enrol, contracts issued, and £5m of employers' liability insurance in place from the first employee's first day.
09Run the books and report to the group
Bookkeeping in the parent's chart of accounts, closed monthly, with intercompany balances agreed both sides so consolidation does not throw up differences.
10File the accounts, the tax return and the confirmation statement
Accounts within nine months of the year end, the corporation tax return within twelve, the confirmation statement annually, and an audit if the whole group is not small.
11Get the profits home, or close the company
Dividends leave the UK with no withholding tax. Interest and royalties need the treaty rate claimed in advance. And if the UK does not work out, a solvent company can be struck off cleanly.
Before you engage us
You tell us where the parent is, what the UK operation needs to do and roughly when. We come back with a fixed quote in writing for the set-up and the first year of running costs, usually the same working day.
The first fortnight
We start identity verification for the directors immediately, because it is the step most likely to hold up an incorporation. In parallel we check the name, agree the share structure and the ownership register position, and prepare the bank application pack. The company is incorporated as soon as the directors are verified, usually within 24 hours of filing.
Weeks two to eight
Tax registrations go in, in sequence rather than all at once, because applications made before the company can evidence UK trade come back with questions. The bank applications run in parallel: a regulated payment provider, which usually opens within days, and a traditional bank if you want one. Payroll is set up ahead of the first hire. Xero is connected and mapped to your group’s chart of accounts.
Every month after that
Bookkeeping is kept current and the bank reconciled weekly. Intercompany balances are agreed with your finance team so consolidation never throws up a difference. VAT returns are prepared and filed quarterly, payroll runs monthly with the filing made on the day, and where you take management reporting the pack arrives on your close calendar rather than ours.
Every year
Statutory accounts, the corporation tax return, the confirmation statement, and audit preparation where the group needs one. Every deadline is diarised by us and confirmed to you in writing, so the group is never relying on someone in another country remembering a UK date.
What we need from you
Not much, and mostly at the start: the parent’s registration documents and a structure chart, passports for the directors and the ultimate owners, your financial year end, and a named person in group finance who can approve things. After that, the monthly bookkeeping records and a reply when we ask a question.
Get a fixed quote
Tell us where the parent company is and what the UK operation has to do.
