Companies House

Official Company Registers Starting Points Company registration around the world www.commercial-register.sg.ch/home/worldwide.html A list of official company registers around the world maintained by the Commercial Register Office of the Canton St. Gallen. Overseas registries www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-registries/overseas-registries A list of official company registers by country provided by Companies House. OpenCorporates opencorporates.com If you do not know the country in which a company is registered try OpenCorporates. Company Formation Survey www.offshoreinvestment.com The Survey is an authoritative guide to company formation in over 50 offshore jurisdictions. ICAEW Knowledge guide to company registration www.icaew.com/en/library/subject-gateways/business-management/company-administration/knowledge-guide-international-company-registration This guide is produced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is one of their Subject Gateways. Europe Austria Belgium Bulgaria Asia

Web 2.0 and User-Generated Content: legal challenges in the new Dr Carlisle George Senior Lecturer & Barrister, School of Computing Science Middlesex University c.george@mdx.ac.uk Dr Jackie Scerri Attorney-at-Law WH Law Advocates, MALTA jackiescerri@gmail.com Abstract The advent of Web 2.0 has enabled a host of new services and possibilities on the Internet. Keywords Web 2.0, Internet, User Generated Content, Legal Rules, Protection Endnotes 1 This paper is a revised and extended version of a paper presented at BILETA 2007. 2 Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., publishers of high quality computer books and organisers of technology-related conferences. 3 4 T. 5 Y. 6 7 TiVo is a service that amongst other things can automatically find and digitally records all of someone’s favourite shows, every time they're on. 9 P. 16 P. 18

Home Page Companies House - Wikipedia Companies House is the United Kingdom's registrar of companies and is an executive agency and trading fund of Her Majesty's Government. It falls under the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and is also a member of the Public Data Group. All forms of companies (as permitted by the United Kingdom Companies Act) are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the current Companies Act 2006. The United Kingdom has had a system of company registration since 1844. History[edit] Company registration in Scotland commenced in 1856, with the first company registered being 'The Daily Bulletin Limited'. The remaining staff were transferred to the office of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (Q&LTR), who took on the role of Registrar of Companies for Scotland. England and Wales[edit] The London office at Abbey Orchard Street is purely a facility to file and view documents, which are then processed in Cardiff.

Directors and Director’s Addresses The minimum age for a director is 16 year old. There is no maximum age for directors. The Companies Act 2006 requires a private company to have at least one director. Public companies are required to have at least two directors. A service address is one that can be used by a director to receive communications from third parties about the company. A usual residential address is the usual home address of the person concerned. Yes. The following organisations will be able to apply to gain access to directors’ residential addresses: Specified public bodies for carrying out their public functions, and Credit reference agencies for vetting applications for credit and associated work and to meet the obligations in the Money Laundering Regulations. Vulnerable directors will be able to apply to the Registrar for their addresses not to be provided to credit reference agencies. Letters will be sent to the director’s service/correspondence address.

British and Irish Legal Information Institute Self-employment: How to set up as your own boss | Money Self-employment is on the rise. According to the latest official figures, more than 35,000 people joined the ranks of the self-employed during the last year – lifting the total number in the UK now working for themselves to just short of 4 million. Why this is happening is not hard to answer: redundancies, a lack of good jobs, and the fact that in some industries it can pay to go it alone. For many, self-employment can be a big and frightening step to take, particularly when it comes to the money side of things. "For someone becoming self-employed for the first time it can feel as if they are entering uncharted waters alone," says the Federation of Small Businesses, which recently called on the government to do more to promote self-employment. Your urge to work for yourself might be a response to having been made unemployed, or a lifestyle choice. The first thing you need to decide when making the jump from employee to being your own boss is the structure your business will take.

Companies House What is it? The Free Company Data Product is a downloadable data snapshot containing basic company data of live companies on the register. This snapshot is provided as ZIP files containing data in CSV format and is split into multiple files for ease of downloading. This snapshot is provided free of charge and will not be supported. When will it be updated? The latest snapshot will be updated within 5 working days of the previous month end. Additional Information The contents of the snapshot have been compiled up to the end of the previous month. A list of the data fields contained in the snapshot can be found here PDF. Up-to-date company information can be obtained by following the URI links in the data. If files are viewed with Microsoft Excel, it is recommended that you use version 2007 or later. Company Data Product FAQs

index of names Check Data services download bulk files of company data in CSV format download bulk files of accounts data in iXBRL and HTML formats Find out more about our services Learn more about how Companies House services can help you: Read our disclaimer on the supply of company information through our services. Find company information With over 3 million companies registered and over 7 million documents filed each year, there are lots of way to find the company information you are after. The services we offer to help you find company information are: Free beta service The new Companies House beta service makes all of our public data held on companies available free of charge. Unlike our other services, you can view company information on the new service without having to register to use it. Information available on our free service: WebCHeck WebCHeck is the convenient and inexpensive way to access company information. Free basic information The basic company details below are free: Additional free services

About our services - Companies House Data services download bulk files of company data in CSV format download bulk files of accounts data in iXBRL and HTML formats Find out more about our services Learn more about how Companies House services can help you: Read our disclaimer on the supply of company information through our services. Find company information With over 3 million companies registered and over 7 million documents filed each year, there are lots of ways to find the company information you are after. The services we offer to help you find company information are: Free beta service The new Companies House beta service makes all of our public data held on companies available free of charge. Unlike our other services, you can view company information on the new service without having to register to use it. Information available on our free service: WebCHeck WebCHeck is the convenient and inexpensive way to access company information. Free basic information The basic company details below are free: Additional free services

Directors' responsibilities As a director of a limited company, the law says you must: try to make the company a success, using your skills, experience and judgment follow the company’s rules, shown in its articles of association make decisions for the benefit of the company, not yourself tell other shareholders if you might personally benefit from a transaction the company makes keep company records and report changes to Companies House and HM Revenue & Customs make sure the company’s accounts are a ‘true and fair view’ of the business’ finances register for Self Assessment and send a personal Self Assessment tax return every year You can ask other people to manage some of these things day-to-day. For example, an accountant can manage your accounts for you - but you’re still legally responsible for them.

Register for Self Assessment Once you’ve registered for Self Assessment with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), you’ll get a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number and you can then send your tax return to HMRC. Before you register You’ll need your: National Insurance number personal contact details - eg address business details - eg business address, date you started self-employment or joined a partnership You must be the ‘nominated partner’ (the partner responsible for sending in the partnership tax return) if you’re registering a new business partnership. Deadline You should register by 5 October following the end of the tax year you need to send a tax return for. Example Register by 5 October 2014 to send a 2013 to 2014 tax return. How to register How you register depends on your circumstances. How to get an online account You need an HMRC online account (also known as a ‘Government Gateway’ account) to send a tax return online.