Corporate Services
UK Company Formation
Services
structural foundation aligns with your long-term financial, operational, and investment goals.
Company Formation, Backed by Real Advice
The UK company formation market is crowded with fast, cheap, self-service providers — form a company online in minutes for under £150. For a straightforward trading company, that speed and price genuinely work well. But formation is a five-minute transaction for a decision that shapes your business for years: the wrong structure, the wrong share arrangement, or missing an available funding route can cost far more later than a formation agent ever saved you upfront.
Silver Stone Partners forms UK companies too — but we start with the same question we ask every client across our practice: what is this company actually for, and what structure genuinely serves that purpose? Whether that’s a standard trading company, a non-profit or membership body, a buy-to-let property vehicle, or a business positioning itself to access R&D funding, we get the structure right from day one and stay with you for the compliance that follows.
Company Limited by Shares
The standard structure for most profit-making UK businesses. A company limited by shares has shareholders who own the business in proportion to their shareholding, with liability limited to the value of their shares.
Right for you if:
- You're starting a trading business and want limited liability protection
- You plan to bring in investors, co-founders, or employees via share allocation
- You want the flexibility to pay dividends and structure director/shareholder tax efficiently
- You may seek investment in future — including SEIS/EIS-eligible funding rounds, where your Articles of Association need to be structured correctly from the outset to preserve eligibility
What our service includes:
- Company name, structure, and share allocation set up correctly for your actual plans — not default Model Articles that may need expensive fixing later if you raise investment
- Registered office and director service address, where privacy matters
- Registration with Companies House and HMRC, including Corporation Tax registration
- Guidance on share classes, founder agreements, and cap table structure from the outset
- Seamless handover into our bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, and corporation tax services
Company Limited by Guarantee
Used for organisations that don't distribute profit to owners — instead of shareholders, the company has guarantors, each committing to a nominal amount (typically £1) if the company is wound up.
Right for you if:
- You're setting up a non-profit, membership body, trade association, sports club, or social enterprise
- You want a formal legal structure without a share capital or profit distribution to owners
- You're planning to apply for grant funding, where funders often specifically require a limited-by-guarantee (non-distributing) structure
- You're considering Community Interest Company (CIC) status, which is typically structured as limited by guarantee for organisations without a share-based ownership model
What our service includes:
- Correctly drafted objects and Articles of Association matching your organisation's actual purpose
- Guidance on whether limited by guarantee, CIC, or charitable status best fits your goals — these have different funder eligibility, governance, and tax implications
- Registration with Companies House, and where applicable, support with CIC Regulator or Charity Commission applications
- Ongoing filing support — guarantee companies still have the same annual compliance obligations as any other UK company
SPV for Buy-to-Let Property
A Special Purpose Vehicle is a company set up specifically to hold one or more rental properties, rather than owning property in a personal name — now the dominant structure for portfolio and higher-rate-taxpayer landlords.
Why investors choose an SPV:
- Mortgage interest is treated as a deductible business expense, avoiding the personal tax restrictions individual landlords face under Section 24
- Rental profits are taxed at corporation tax rates rather than personal income tax rates — often more efficient for higher and additional-rate taxpayers
- SPVs are now the mainstream route for buy-to-let lending, with the majority of new mortgaged purchases going through limited companies rather than personal names
- Cleaner structure for scaling a multi-property portfolio, and for succession and estate planning
What our SPV formation service includes:
- Company formation using the correct SIC code and structure that buy-to-let lenders expect to see
- Advice on shareholding structure, including joint ownership or family investment arrangements
- Coordination with your mortgage broker or lender on the documentation SPV lenders require
- Ongoing SPV accounting — annual accounts, corporation tax computations, and Companies House filings
- Advice on scaling to a multi-property portfolio, including PRA portfolio landlord requirements once you hold four or more mortgaged properties
R&D Tax Relief Funding — Including for AI and Innovation Projects
Often referred to informally as "R&D grant funding," this is HMRC's R&D Tax Relief scheme — one of the most significant sources of non-dilutive funding available to UK companies, and increasingly relevant to businesses building or applying artificial intelligence. It isn't a discretionary grant; it's a statutory tax relief, delivered either as a reduction in Corporation Tax or as a cash payment for loss-making companies — but for many innovative businesses, it functions as their primary source of development funding.
What qualifies: projects that seek to resolve genuine scientific or technological uncertainty — not routine software development or simply implementing off-the-shelf tools. For AI specifically, this typically means developing or substantially improving models, algorithms, or data pipelines to solve a problem that a competent professional in the field couldn’t resolve by looking it up — not fine-tuning an existing model on your own data or standard tool integration.
Why this matters more than ever in 2026:
- HMRC has significantly increased scrutiny of R&D claims, including AI-assisted review of claims against sector norms — a generic or poorly evidenced technical narrative is now far more likely to be challenged
- The scheme has been reformed into a merged RDEC-style regime for accounting periods from 1 April 2024, with a separate enhanced route for R&D-intensive loss-making SMEs
- Government investment in UK AI is increasing, which brings both opportunity and closer HMRC attention to what genuinely counts as qualifying advancement versus standard AI adoption
What our R&D tax relief service includes:
- An honest eligibility assessment — telling you clearly if a project doesn't qualify, rather than over-claiming and exposing you to an HMRC enquiry later
- Preparation of a technically specific, evidence-backed claim narrative, built to withstand HMRC scrutiny
- Correct cost categorisation across staff time, subcontractors, externally provided workers, and consumables
- Submission alongside your Corporation Tax return, including the mandatory Additional Information Form
- Advance Assurance applications for first-time claimants, where useful
Choosing the Right Structure
| Structure | Best For | Key Consideration |
| Limited by Shares | Trading businesses, startups seeking investment | Get Articles right early if SEIS/EIS investment is planned |
| Limited by Guarantee | Non-profits, clubs, associations, CICs | No share capital; different governance and funder expectations |
| SPV (Ltd by Shares) | Buy-to-let property investment | Correct SIC code and lender-ready documentation matter for mortgage approval |
| Existing company + R&D claim | Innovative businesses, including AI development | Requires genuine technical uncertainty — not standard implementation |
What's Changed in UK Company Formation Recently
The formation landscape itself has shifted in ways that make advisory support more valuable, not less:
- Companies House filing fees increased to £100 for standard incorporation from February 2026, alongside broader fee increases across company filings
- Identity verification is now mandatory for directors and People with Significant Control, rolling out from November 2025 with a transition window — an extra compliance step that catches directors who assume formation is a one-time task
- Formation agents are commoditised — dozens of providers now compete purely on price and speed, which is fine for a simple trading company but offers no advisory input on structure, tax position, or funding eligibility
Why Form Your Company with Silver Stone Partners
Advisory-led, not transaction-led
We ask what the company is actually for before recommending a structure, rather than selling a generic package
Full lifecycle support
The same team that forms your company manages your bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, corporation tax, and — when the time comes — its eventual closure
Genuine R&D tax relief expertise
Including the specific, increasingly scrutinised territory of AI-related claims, where a generic narrative is no longer good enough
SPV and property investment experience
Coordinated with mortgage brokers and structured for how buy-to-let lenders actually assess applications
Cross-border capability
For clients also operating in the UAE, coordinated directly with our Dubai practice, Silverstone
Frequently Asked Questions
For standard formations — limited by shares, limited by guarantee, or an SPV — we handle the full process. Only genuinely complex arrangements (multi-jurisdiction holding structures, bespoke investment terms) typically need additional legal input, which we can coordinate if required.
A DIY formation agent will register the company correctly for a simple trading business. What they generally won’t do is tell you whether your Articles are appropriate if you plan to raise investment, whether an SPV or personal ownership makes more tax sense for your property purchase, or whether your business could access R&D funding. That advisory layer is where formation decisions actually get made — or get missed.
Converting between these structures is possible but is a formal, fairly involved process — it’s far simpler to choose correctly at formation. This is exactly why we start with your actual objective rather than defaulting to whichever structure is most common.
Generally, no — HMRC has been explicit that simply applying existing AI tools or fine-tuning a model on your own data does not, on its own, meet the bar for qualifying R&D. If your work involves genuine technical uncertainty beyond that, it’s worth an honest assessment; if it doesn’t, we’ll tell you clearly rather than encourage a claim that won’t hold up.
It varies by lender, but SPV lending is now mainstream enough that most buy-to-let lenders have dedicated SPV products with comparable timelines to personal applications — the key is having the company structured correctly (right SIC code, clean accounts, clear ownership) before you apply.
Immediate next steps typically include business bank account setup, VAT registration if applicable, and putting proper bookkeeping in place from your first transaction — all of which we manage directly, so there’s no gap between formation and ongoing compliance.
Ready to Build Your Corporate Foundation?
Move beyond simple incorporation. Partner with Silver Stone for an advisory-led approach that aligns your company structure with your long-term goals.