to be (limited) or not to be

[theshah]

hi all,

my subject title may be confusing as i DO want to set up a limited company but the issue is as follows:

i want to set up a limited company offering multiple unrelated services.
do i need to set up each service as a seperate limited company or should i set up my initial limited company as xxxgroup?

and even if i do set up xxxgroup does each service still need to be a seperate limited company?

i would be extremely grateful for any advise along with banking/tax implications.

wow im even more confused than when i started writing this post,but hopefully my predicament will be understandable.

thanks in advance for ur time
regards
theshah

[gary]

You only need one limited company and all accounts can go through that. Have a look at http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2010 for a similar question.

Gary

[theshah]

thanks for ur response gary.much appreciated.

will each of my seperate trading names need to be registered with companies house?

and if so should each of these names be registered as a seperate limited company?

regards
theshah

[gary]

No, you only need your main limited company and you don't need to register trading names with anyone except your bank if you want to accept payments in those trading names.

Gary

[gj]

Hi Theshah

One company is fine as Gary says

However, there may be good reason for setting up a separate company for any service area(s) which may be considered risky.

We often recommend a company for a specific business so that it does not jeopardise the other business areas.

If this does not apply then one company for all service areas will be the simplest, all round.

You may need to think how you will present this to your customers so as not to confuse them.


Graham

[theshah]

thanks for your advice gents.

i am contemplating setting up my initial company as xxxgroup of companies and then registering the various services as seperate limited companies as sister companies.

in your respected opinions is this a wise thing to do?

regards
theshah

[gj]

I wouldn't set each up as a limited company if they are all under your control/ownership, for the following reasons:

All tax bands for Corporation tax have to be divided by the number of associated companies. If you have say 5 associated companies and one does particularly well, you could find that company paying higher a corporation tax rate than it would if the whole lot had been in one business.

You also have multiple sets of records to keep, multiple bank accounts and multiple sets of accounts to be prepared. Plus you would probabaly have to be doing recharges between the companies to charge each for its fair share of any shared costs - and how do you calculate each one's fair share - just divdie the cost by the number of companies? - or base it on turnover? - or some measure of useage? or ad hoc?

It all sounds like unnecessary admin and hassle to me. Keep it one company unless there is a compelling raeson to any area separate because of the risk.

That is my humble opinion

HTH

[theshah]

thanks for that gj i am now enlightened.

[gj]

Pleased to hear it was helpful - despite all my appalling typos!

Graham