It is now possible for anyone to go on the Companies House website and set up their own company. Previously this was typically a task for accountants or solicitors, and it was usually delegated to a company formation agent. Now it is open to anybody.
We have set up a website at
to try to warn directors that running your own company can have a fair number of pitfalls. We expect to get our share of these new companies as clients because the advanced technology we use makes our fees very reasonable, and we would like to contact them early before things go off the rails.
For example, if you don’t pay everything into a company bank account, then fairly soon you will have an overdrawn director’s loan account, which means that there may be s455 tax if you leave things too long, and also a P11D benefit to report.
If you don’t set up a payroll scheme of at least £676 per month per director, then Personal Allowance to the extent of £8,112 may be unused at the year end, which is a benefit to the Revenue of £1,622.40 which is irretrievable. If you don’t set up dividend payments of at least £5,000 per director, then there is another benefit to the Revenue of £1,000 in the long run, and arguably more than this since the new dividend tax at 7.5% is still modest.
We would guide our clients away from enriching the Revenue too much, but it is conditional upon early contact with an accountant, which is what our website is trying to achieve.