Going Limited: I’m changing my trading status from Sole Trader to Limited Company

To give you an idea of how long this process takes, I’ve given dates where available. As I said, the company is already in place since 2006 and I sem to remember it took only one week from registration to receiving the Certificate of Incorporation from Companies House.

17/05/10

Speaking to HMRC (aka The VAT Office) I understand I need to fill out the following forms:

• VAT 1 to apply for VAT registration and
• VAT 68 to transfer my current Sole Trader VAT number over to the Limited Company.

Both forms can be found on the HMRC Website and can be printed out and sent off by snail mail. They also need a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation from Companies House.

18/05/10

Just came back from a meeting with Spencer at Nat West in Camden, who is now my new business manager. Hurra! I can’t tell you how much it bothered me that my old business account was at the Peckham branch – it’s really hard to get to now that I live in North London.

He needed literally no information from me because I’m an existing customer and had prepared all the research on the company (current and future)so it was a quick and chilled meeting over coffee. Loving this new “Director of a Company” business.

I’m getting a shiny new business account as well as a tax saver account all for free until we decide my current sole trader account is ready for closure (probably within 3 months). On the new account, my bank charges will be 60% LOWER than on the current one – it’s a special “online” trariff for existing companies. Instead of £10 a month it’ll be more like £3.75. Sweet!

However, it turns out that the name Nat West have on file for me is not the same that I’ve opened the Limited Company under. Ugh… it’s that “Jay” vs. “Jörk” scenario again.

So I’ve emailed Companies House to see if we can amend the name there, othewise I’ll have to amend my official documentation… that’ll be a brain teaser all by itself – let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Meanwhile, I’ve received some forms to fill out about that pesky Letter of Authority from the HMRC Film Unit. Reading questions like “what’s in your office” and “please list EVERY engagement that you had between last May and April this year” (that’s about 200 individual days of work) just to be paid gross, I’m glad I’ve decided on the Limited Company thingy.

18/05/10

Just filed Companies House Form No. CH01 – “Change of Director Details”. Apparently the last return was filed by one “Jay George Versluis” (yeah right!) – maybe George is a phonetic misspelling of Jörk perhaps? My correct name should show on thier system within 2 working days.

This needs to go on my list of popular misspellings for sure 🙂