Company incorporation across five countries.

Company incorporation is the act of registering a legal entity with the relevant national registry and putting its founding records in place. Accountaire forms companies in five countries: a UK limited company at Companies House, a US LLC or C-Corp, a UAE freezone or mainland entity, a Canadian corporation and an Australian Pty Ltd.

Company structure decisions made early are expensive to unwind later. The wrong entity type can trigger unnecessary tax, complicate fundraising, expose personal assets, or block bank-account opening. We help founders choose and form the right vehicle, across all five of our primary markets, and document the share structure, founder agreements and statutory records correctly from the outset.

Our incorporation service includes the registry filing itself, the post-incorporation housekeeping (registers, statutory records, first-year compliance calendar) and the operational setup that makes the entity actually usable, bank account guidance, tax registrations and software setup.

Where you operate matters. A UK Ltd needs a registered office, a director, articles of association and Confirmation Statement filings. A Delaware C-Corp needs a registered agent, bylaws and stockholder records. A UAE freezone entity needs licence selection, share-capital documentation and visa eligibility planning. We handle the specifics in each jurisdiction.

Incorporation is typically a one-off engagement (£250–£2,500 depending on jurisdiction and structure complexity) but most clients continue onto a monthly retainer for ongoing bookkeeping and compliance work. There is no handover, because the incorporation team and the retainer team are the same people.

What each registry actually asks for differs more than founders expect:

• United Kingdom. Companies House needs a company name, a registered office in the relevant part of the UK, at least one director aged 16 or over, at least one shareholder, a SIC code, articles of association and the people with significant control. Online incorporation is usually approved within 24 hours. See UK accounting services.
• United States. The choice between an LLC and a C-Corp is a tax choice before it is a legal one, and the IRS sets out how each is treated. Every entity needs an Employer Identification Number before it can bank or hire, and a Delaware corporation owes an annual report and franchise tax by 1 March each year. See US accounting services.
• United Arab Emirates. Freezone or mainland decides your ownership, visa allocation and where you may invoice. The trade licence activity list is not cosmetic: it limits what the entity may legally do. Corporate Tax registration with the Federal Tax Authority follows the licence. See UAE accounting services.
• Canada. Federal incorporation gives name protection across the country but still needs an extra-provincial registration wherever you carry on business, and the entity registers for a business number with the Canada Revenue Agency, so a single-province operation is often better off incorporating provincially. See Canadian accounting services.
• Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission issues the ACN, after which the entity registers for an ABN, a TFN and, past AUD 75,000 of turnover, GST with the Australian Taxation Office. See Australian accounting services.

The expensive mistakes are made in the first week and discovered in year three. Issuing 100 ordinary shares at £1 and later trying to bring in a co-founder without a fresh valuation. Forgetting that a UK share issue after incorporation needs a board resolution and an SH01 within a month. Naming a holding company in the wrong country for where the intellectual property will actually sit. Missing the US 83(b) window, which is 30 days from the purchase and cannot be extended by anyone.

Banking is usually the real bottleneck rather than the filing. Registry approval takes hours to days; opening an account that will accept payments takes two to six weeks, and it turns on proof of address, source of funds and a description of the trade that matches the SIC code or licence activity you chose. We prepare that pack at incorporation rather than after the first rejection.

After formation the entity needs a compliance calendar and someone to run it: company secretarial support for the registers and Confirmation Statement, tax and VAT registration in the right regime, and a ledger from the first transaction under cloud bookkeeping. Ongoing fees are on the fixed-fee pricing page, and the engagement runs under our standard engagement terms. US founders choosing between default LLC treatment and an S corporation election should read our S corp vs LLC tax guide, which covers the self-employment tax saving, the reasonable compensation test and the Form 2553 deadline. Once the entity exists, the ongoing work comes from our accounting services index.