Registering for tax and forming companies online

1. The Joint Companies House/HMRC registration service
   
   This service for prospective companies is available at http://tinyurl.com/CoHoIncorp. You can save a part completed application and return to it within three months, although the company name will not be reserved. Upon completion of the application to incorporate you can also register for Corporation Tax (CT) with HMRC. This may be useful if the company is likely to come into charge to CT in the near future.

   The registration service is fairly straightforward to use, but it provides very limited Memorandum and Articles for a new company. Members may wish to check whether these are suitable for clients before setting up companies in this way.

2. HMRC’s general online tax registration service

   HMRC have also launched an online tax registration service (OTRS), which can be used by:

• unincorporated businesses;
• companies that have registered for CT using the above Joint Registration CT service; or
• businesses that subsequently need to register for a further tax.

  NB The form CT41G is not being withdrawn for the time being:

• Companies that have not registered with HMRC through the joint registration service will continue to receive a form CT41G; and
• Companies that have registered with HMRC through the joint registration service will receive a notification of their UTR and an invitation to provide other information such as a request to register for PAYE, which can be done via OTRS or in the usual way.
  

HMRC have provided the following message on the new services, which includes links:

START

New ways to register for taxes online

HMRC have launched an online tax registration service to allow registration for all the main business taxes (Self Assessment, Corporation Tax, PAYE for Employers and VAT) in a single website visit. The service can be used by new businesses as well as existing ones who need to register for an additional business tax. The service is accessed through ‘My New Business' on Businesslink.gov and the HMRC website.

One of the benefits is that a business using the service is automatically enrolled for the associated online service and an Activation Code is issued by the Government Gateway for each online service registered for.

To assist them with their tax registration a business can set up a ‘delegate’ who can review, add or amend the data prior to the business submitting the registration. An agent or adviser can also use the service to register a client for the appropriate taxes and information can be entered, saved and returned to later for completion. The agent cannot enrol the client for the associated online services. If an agent registers a client for any business tax the client will have to enrol for the associated online service themselves.

The new service reduces the time taken to register a new business and also the need to provide the same information more than once. The online form automatically validates the information and highlights errors or omissions.

In addition, Companies House and HMRC have also introduced a joint registration facility within the Companies House Web Incorporation service. This means incorporation and the registration of the company for Corporation Tax can be completed as a single process.

Register for HMRC taxes at: Online tax registration service
Register a client’s business for HMRC taxes at: How to register your client's business with HMRC
Learn more about the joint registration for companies at: Companies House
Learn more about using the Government Gateway service at: Government Gateway

END

My New Business can be accessed on the Business Link website at http://tinyurl.com/MyBness

Technical Team

30 April 2012