How Shelf Companies Lost Their Appeal and What to Do Now
Also known as a ready-made company or an off-the-shelf company, a shelf company is a pre-registered business you can buy and customise.
While there is no denying that the Brexit negotiations are progressing along quite a rocky road at the moment, many British entrepreneurs are wondering if there will be any value to be had from running a UK company post-Brexit.
The reassuring thing about forming a UK company is that your contracts are still drafted under UK law, which means they will remain virtually the same after the UK finally leave the EU. Regardless of the Brexit vote, the UK has always been, and shall always remain, a strong jurisdiction with very long-standing laws and regulatory systems. Leaving the EU will not change that in the slightest.
So if you looking to form your own company, or have plans to register a new company in the future, then you can feel rest-assured that nothing has or will change with the company formations process. Our UK laws and regulations are still as relevant as they were before the Brexit vote, so lets take a look at how forming your own company in the UK will affect you:
Limited liability company
If you are looking to trade through a UK limited liability company or a limited liability partnership, your business will get the full protection that limited liability offers. This means that should your company fail at some point in the future, under UK law your creditors will have no recourse to access your personal assets as a director of the registered company. Your personal assets such as your personal bank account and your home will be protected. The only way you could possibly risk the loss of your personal assets is if you have acted unlawfully on purpose while running the business. This also applies to any shareholders within the company – shareholders own personal assets cannot be touched by creditors.
Separate Entity
Because your registered company is classified as a separate entity from yourself and your shareholders, the business will remain active and trading as a legal entity in its own right regardless of any changes to the line up of directors or shareholders. This means that should a company director and founder of the business want to retire and leave the company, or a director should die, then the company will still be able to function and run as it did before.
This is the same with shareholders. As shareholders come and go, the business status will be unaffected by any changes in shareholder numbers.
Protect your Brand Name
When you go through the company formations process, you are registering your company name as an official brand. This means that you have name protection built in to your registration. Incorporating your company means that no one else can trade under your registered business name or profit off the back of your good name and reputation.
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Beneficial Tax Rates
As a registered company, your business will be able to benefit from low corporation tax rates. Currently the UK corporation tax rate is set at 19%, with this rate expected to fall to a lower rate in the future. The Government have scheduled corporation tax rates to incrementally reduce down to 17% by 2020. The UK already has a low corporation tax rate when compared to many other countries, so the plans to reduce this rate further is a very tempting incentive for more UK businesses to incorporate themselves.
Building Customer Trustworthiness
When customers or clients are looking to buy or trade with a business, being a registered company will look more favourable in their eyes. Incorporation can make your company more reliable and give you a better reputation than your unregistered competitors. Being incorporated in the UK under English law will also instil confidence in new customers about your capabilities. The UK has a very strong reputation for offering fair and legal contracts under our judicial legal system.
Better Trading Opportunities
Many business leaders are confident that once Brexit has completed, UK businesses will be more able to offer competitive deals for trade on an international basis. Being free of EU trading regulations also means that companies will be able to broker much fairer deals and take up more trading opportunities with other European countries as well as forge new deals with commonwealth partners.
Tax Efficient Grants
The UK has always encouraged new businesses to start up here. There are a wealth of entrepreneur grants and tax reliefs that new companies can take great advantage of to help get their business established.
The Government offer sound tax incentives and grants that are not controlled or affected by EU influence, and these look set to continue to be offered in the future post-Brexit. There is also talk of more incentives being created as well as existing ones enhanced or given a boost to attract new business growth.
Conclusion
So you can see that forming your own registered company comes with many attractive benefits that are set to stay in place regardless of the outcomes of Brexit.
If you are unsure about what registered company structure would suit your business the best, do not hesitate to contact us for our help and guidance. We are here to assist you and are happy to help you take the first steps to establishing your successful UK registered company.
