The limited company is one of the most popular business structures in the UK. This is due to a number of factors, including the financial protection – or limited liability – that it provides its owners, and the ease in which one can be set up. But who can form a company and who can’t? Let’s take a look.
The limited company director
To form a company you need a director (who runs the company), shareholder (the owner of the company) and PSC (the person who controls the company). One person can take up all of these roles or they can be shared out.
When we ask ‘Who can form a company?’, we are also asking, ‘Who can be a limited company director?’ This is because, perhaps surprisingly, there are no restrictions on who can be a company shareholder and PSC.
So…
Who can be a company director?
Anyone can be a director, provided they are at least 16, and not any of the below:
- Disqualified from being a director by a court order
- Disqualified by the company’s memorandum and articles of association (these are the documents that set out how a company is to be run)
- An undischarged bankrupt
- The company’s auditor
It does not matter where the director lives. A company can be set up without anyone ever setting foot in the UK – provided that the registered office is based there.
To put it simply
And so, to answer our initial question, anyone can form a company – just as long as they’re at least 16 and have not been disqualified, are not bankrupt, and they are not the company’s auditor.
We hope you have found this helpful.
For the purposes of this post, we concentrated on the most common company type, a private company limited by shares. If, however, you do have any questions about other company structures, please leave a comment and we’ll be happy to help.
