At first glance, it could seem as if the United Kingdom only has one registrant for UK Limited Companies. However, this is not the case. There are different legal systems in place throughout the four different nations that make up the United Kingdom. This is because the United Kingdom is made up of four separate countries.
This suggests that there are three different locations open for the commercial register UK. Business registries in England and Wales are combined since the two countries share laws; in contrast, Scotland and Northern Ireland each maintain their own business registries.
Although the location of a company’s registered office cannot be changed, the legal authority of any corporation that has been incorporated in a single country extends to include all nations. For instance, a company that is established in Scotland is required to maintain its headquarters there. In actuality, this does not provide a particularly large number of challenges; nonetheless, you should be mindful of the requirements and constraints imposed by the system.
Legal Variations
The Companies Act of 2006 governs all registered firms, although such businesses are also subject to the laws and guidelines of the jurisdiction in which they are authorized to conduct their operations. In particular, rules pertaining to taxes, property, employment, and any other restrictions that are unique to the nation. You should be informed of the possible ramifications before going forward with the decision to establish a company in a jurisdiction that is not the same as the one in which you now live.
Businesses House
There are three separate offices that make up the Companies House. Edinburgh is in charge of firms based in Scotland, Belfast is in charge of businesses based in Northern Ireland, and Cardiff is in charge of businesses based in England and Wales. The three registrars work together, but Cardiff is the one who is in charge of most of the workload. If you submit a document to the wrong office, it will be redirected to the right location once it has been processed. However, in order to maximize productivity, it is best to interact with the proper side right from the start of the negotiation process.
Corporate Registries
There are three different “houses,” each of which keeps its own record, however, all of these registers may be seen on the website of the government. In order to differentiate between the many firms located in each area, some company numbers are given a prefix. Although England and Wales solely utilize numeric numbers, Northern Ireland prefixes its codes with NI and Scotland prefixes its codes with SC. These prefixes are not surprising. This helps to ensure that there are no duplicate business numbers in the United Kingdom. It is necessary to take into consideration the fact that there are extra prefixes for the many different types of legal formations (e.g. Limited Partnerships, LLPs).
Name Availability
Because Scotland, England, and Wales use the same registration as Northern Ireland, a name that has been registered in Northern Ireland is ineligible to be registered in any of the other three countries, and vice versa.
Registration office
As was said previously, you have the option of moving your company to a new location inside the same country in which it was first established. Unfortunately, there is no way to move a company from one county in the UK to another country in the UK. If you need to physically move your company from one country to another, you may want the services of a virtual office in order to maintain a legitimate address in the country in which you are registered as doing business.