Your new limited company checklist

• File your incorporation documents safely — certificate, memorandum and articles, share certificates
• Open the company bank account — the company’s money must be separate from yours, from the first transaction
• Set up bookkeeping — software or a simple system, but from day one, not month eleven
• Watch the registered office post — HMRC’s letter with your UTR arrives within about two weeks

• Register for Corporation Tax — required within 3 months of starting to do business (buying, selling, advertising, employing)
• Set up PAYE if you’ll take any salary — registration must be done before the first payday
• Consider VAT — compulsory over the registration threshold, voluntary below it (sometimes worthwhile for B2B businesses)
• Sort insurance — employers’ liability if you employ anyone; professional indemnity if clients require it
• Decide how you’ll pay yourself — salary level and dividend plan, with the paperwork template ready

How to register for Corporation Tax →

• Confirmation statement — due within 12 months + 14 days of incorporation
• First accounts — due 21 months after incorporation
• First Corporation Tax — payment and return dates follow your first accounting period (often two returns in year one)

Your company’s first year, explained →

• Never pay personal costs from the company account (or vice versa)
• Minute and voucher every dividend on the day it’s paid
• Photograph or forward every receipt into your bookkeeping the day you get it
• Put a quarterly hour in the diary to reconcile the bank and review profit
• Know your two personal dates — year end and confirmation statement date — or use an accountant who tracks them for you. That’s us: call 0114 327 1480.

Get the whole setup done for you →