A Registered Office Service Provider Brings Many Advantages
- By James Quinn
- Published 12/27/2011
- Legal
- Unrated
There are a number of advantages to using a Registered Office Service provider.
Businesses without a presence in the UK must establish a UK office or use a UK Registered Office Service provider in order to form a UK company. All UK companies are obliged to maintain a registered office in the country in which they are incorporated.
Start-up companies typically operate from the residential address of a director or shareholder. If that residential address is used as the registered office of the company, it will feature on the public record at Companies House and must also be available to customers, suppliers, etc on all correspondence and other communications. Using a UK Registered Office Service provider offers such a company an official business address, possibly enhancing its reputation.
Since October 2009 it has been permissible for directors, shareholders and other officers of the company to provide a ‘service address’ in lieu of their residential address, so that residential addresses no longer have to appear on the Companies House register available for public scrutiny. Using a UK Registered Office Service as your directors’ service address allows you to keep your residential addresses confidential.
UK Registered Office Services tend to be inexpensive and will commonly also provide:
- All the resolutions and filings needed in order to inform Companies House of the change in your registered office location. If the UK Registered Office Service provider is also a company formation agent, your company can, as an alternative, be formed with the UK Registered Office Service address from the outset to ensure that your private address never appears on the public register.
- Forwarding of a fair volume of post (this will generally include all post from Companies House, HM Revenue & Customs and a limited number of other items per year).
- Acceptance of post for which a signature is needed (for example registered post)
.
- Displaying your company title at the registered office.
The following could also be a part of a UK Registered Office Service by separate arrangement:
- Forwarding greater volumes of mail to an address of your choice.
- Acceptance and forwarding of packages.
- Secretarial services for your company.
Making use of a UK Registered Office Service provider has many benefits, particularly for companies without a physical presence in the UK and for those businesses that do not have a true business address of their own and/or require their residential address to remain confidential.
It is regularly the case that for a small or a start-up company one of the more onerous requirements is complying with the provisions of those sections of the Companies Act 2006 that deal with the provision of a registered office, because most directors, with justification, want to spend the majority of their time and effort in promoting and developing that new business, and not wading through legal complexities.
A UK Registered Office Service provider is able to preserve some degree of confidentiality for the directors and shareholders of a UK registered company by the use of a service address. This also reduces the burden on companies from outside the UK who want to form a UK-based company because any received correspondence can be arranged to be forwarded on to foreign countries by a separate arrangement, enabling the company to stay on top of its UK filing requirements at relatively low cost and with the minimum of hassle.
The Companies Act 2006 may at first appear to cause many hurdles for the new director or shareholder of a private limited company to get over, but with the assistance of a UK Registered Office Service provider, these can be significantly reduced and leave the directors with more time to continue with their business in the most efficient manner.
Jamie Hunt, Legal Clarity Limited
The information provided in this article has been published as a general guide only. It is not comprehensive or tailored to your individual circumstances.
Businesses without a presence in the UK must establish a UK office or use a UK Registered Office Service provider in order to form a UK company. All UK companies are obliged to maintain a registered office in the country in which they are incorporated.
Start-up companies typically operate from the residential address of a director or shareholder. If that residential address is used as the registered office of the company, it will feature on the public record at Companies House and must also be available to customers, suppliers, etc on all correspondence and other communications. Using a UK Registered Office Service provider offers such a company an official business address, possibly enhancing its reputation.
Since October 2009 it has been permissible for directors, shareholders and other officers of the company to provide a ‘service address’ in lieu of their residential address, so that residential addresses no longer have to appear on the Companies House register available for public scrutiny. Using a UK Registered Office Service as your directors’ service address allows you to keep your residential addresses confidential.
UK Registered Office Services tend to be inexpensive and will commonly also provide:
- All the resolutions and filings needed in order to inform Companies House of the change in your registered office location. If the UK Registered Office Service provider is also a company formation agent, your company can, as an alternative, be formed with the UK Registered Office Service address from the outset to ensure that your private address never appears on the public register.
- Forwarding of a fair volume of post (this will generally include all post from Companies House, HM Revenue & Customs and a limited number of other items per year).
- Acceptance of post for which a signature is needed (for example registered post)
- Displaying your company title at the registered office.
The following could also be a part of a UK Registered Office Service by separate arrangement:
- Forwarding greater volumes of mail to an address of your choice.
- Acceptance and forwarding of packages.
- Secretarial services for your company.
Making use of a UK Registered Office Service provider has many benefits, particularly for companies without a physical presence in the UK and for those businesses that do not have a true business address of their own and/or require their residential address to remain confidential.
It is regularly the case that for a small or a start-up company one of the more onerous requirements is complying with the provisions of those sections of the Companies Act 2006 that deal with the provision of a registered office, because most directors, with justification, want to spend the majority of their time and effort in promoting and developing that new business, and not wading through legal complexities.
A UK Registered Office Service provider is able to preserve some degree of confidentiality for the directors and shareholders of a UK registered company by the use of a service address. This also reduces the burden on companies from outside the UK who want to form a UK-based company because any received correspondence can be arranged to be forwarded on to foreign countries by a separate arrangement, enabling the company to stay on top of its UK filing requirements at relatively low cost and with the minimum of hassle.
The Companies Act 2006 may at first appear to cause many hurdles for the new director or shareholder of a private limited company to get over, but with the assistance of a UK Registered Office Service provider, these can be significantly reduced and leave the directors with more time to continue with their business in the most efficient manner.
Jamie Hunt, Legal Clarity Limited
The information provided in this article has been published as a general guide only. It is not comprehensive or tailored to your individual circumstances.
James Quinn
James Quinn wrote the article 'A Registered Office Service provider brings many advantages' and recommends you Google 'Legal Clarity' for more information.
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