Community Interest Company (CIC)
Charge for services98
Service items discount £ 0
Net cost of services 98
Warning
This service includes
- Ready to Trade Company limited by guarantee
- Companies House filing fee paid by us
- Emailed PDF of Certificate of Incorporation
- Emailed PDF of Memorandum & Articles of Association
- Emailed PDF of Share Certificate(s)
- Emailed PDF of Minutes of the first meeting of Directors
- Emailed PDF of Statutory Books
- Free Online Company Manager to Maintain your Companies
- Free Online & Telephone Support for the Life of your Company
- Web authentication code to update Companies House records
Optional Free Services
- 1 hour consultation with Accountants. Either face-to-face or by skype.
- Optional referral to a payroll bureau
- Optional referral to bookkeeping and accounting bureau
- Introduction to online accounting software with introductory benefits.
Optional extra
- Printed certificates
- Vat Registration
- Registered Office
- CIC Conversion
Additional items available at checkout
You can add these items during the order process
Community Interest Companies
Community Interest Companies (CICs) are usually described as business enterprises with social objectives. A CIC’s profits and assets are used for the public good. CICs differ from Charities in many ways. In particular, CIC legislation allows social entrepreneurs to both control the company and to receive a salary.
Information about Community Interest Companies
Registering a limited by guarantee CIC
A CIC cannot be created online. So we have developed a 2 step system to process your order.
Step 1: You place an order for a limited company. At this stage, you cannot include the word CIC in the name, and you do have to include the “LTD”/ “Limited“ suffix at the end of the name. When you place the order, you make sure the CIC conversion service is included. Unless you have ordered extras, the invoice should come to £75 plus VAT of £7.40. Subject to you having completed your application correctly and subject to the workload of Companies House, your LBG / LTD should be ready within 1 working day after you place your order.
Step 2: We email you a short questionnaire about your CIC. Once you have supplied the answers we prepare a conversion pack. After you have checked it, we send the completed documentation to the CIC Regulator. The entire process will take approximately 3 weeks, providing the CIC Regulator does not query an application. Once it is approved, you can change the name of your company to” YOUR COMPANY NAME CIC”.
Registering a limited by shares CIC.
It is also possible to register a CIC which is limited by shares. It is estimated that about 75% of all the CICs that have been registered are limited by guarantee. The remainder are trusts or limited by shares.
About Community Interest Companies (CICs)
CIC features which distinguish them from charities.
- Unlike charities, CICs can undertake any trading activities they choose, subject to the normal regulatory restrictions.
- CICs can pay their directors the market rate for their skills whereas charities face restrictions. This feature allows CICs to attract the best talent
- SITR (Social Investment Tax Relief) is a special tax relief that is now available to donor’s who provide debt and equity funding to CICs. The last tax year (2014/2015) was the first time the relief became available.
- Profit and interest can be paid to investors, subject to a maximum of 35% of distributable reserves.
- CICs can issue performance related loans that pay interest based on their trading results. The interest is capped at 20%.
About Community Interest Companies (CICs)
CIC features which distinguish them from charities.
- Unlike charities, CICs can undertake any trading activities they choose, subject to the normal regulatory restrictions.
- CICs can pay their directors the market rate for their skills whereas charities face restrictions. This feature allows CICs to attract the best talent
- SITR (Social Investment Tax Relief) is a special tax relief that is now available to donor’s who provide debt and equity funding to CICs. The last tax year (2014/2015) was the first time the relief became available.
- Profit and interest can be paid to investors, subject to a maximum of 35% of distributable reserves.
- CICs can issue performance related loans that pay interest based on their trading results. The interest is capped at 20%.
Features of a CIC being limited by guarantee:
- 1 member 1 vote. Control is not concentrated.
- No owners (shareholders), just members.
- Because LBGs do not have a share structure, they can’t pay dividends.
- LBGs are preferred by grant and funding providers because of the above features.
Features of a CIC being limited by shares:
- Voting depends on each member’s shareholding
- Easy to distribute a dividend, subject to the dividend cap.
- Easier to issue shares in return for capital.
- A Share structure is essential if the CIC has a holding company or is owned by a charity.
Approval by the CIC Regulator
To be a CIC, each company must be approved by the CIC Regulator. The Regulator will ensure that the asset lock provision is included in the Articles of Association. He will also require the following information about the CIC’s objectives and activities.
- A clear definition of the intended beneficiaries of the CIC’s activities.
- A description of the trading activities and any programmes intended to help the target communities.
- Full details of the way the target community will benefit from the activities of the CIC.
Corporate Hijack Protection
Receive an email alert whenever a change is made to your company's details at Companies House.
Certificate of Good Standing with FREE delivery to UK Address
Certificates of Good Standing are issued by Companies House and take approximately 5 days. Postage to an address in the UK is Free. You will be charged EXTRA for Delivery outside the UK
PAYE Registration
If you intend to remunerate your employees and directors, you will need to operate a PAYE scheme. Save time by using our PAYE registration service. We are HMRC authorised.
Pre-submission Review
Use this service to check your application. We will ensure that you don’t make any costly mistakes that will need to be rectified after your company has been created.
Official Post Forwarding Option
“Opt for our confidential service and have your official post forwarded to you free of any additional charges, instead of having it scanned. This service is only available for delivery to UK destinations.”
Guaranteed Same Day Service
This service guarantees that your company will be formed on the day you place the order; providing the order is placed on a normal working day before 2.15 pm.
Commercial Mail Forwarded by Post
This service gives you the use of our Central London office as your main address for business correspondence. All the mail we receive will be sent to you using Royal Mail’s 1st Class service. In addition to the annual subscription, we will also charge you a handling fee of 17p per item of post and Royal Mail’s charges. The subscription includes £20 deposit to cover postage and our handling fees. When your deposit reduces to £5, you will be asked to top it up again.
This service does not include the Registered Office Service, which you should buy separately.
The Annual Renewal fee for this service is £72+vat.+deposit
Commercial Mail Scanning Service
This service gives you the use of our Central London office as your main address for business correspondence. We will scan your mail and upload it to ShareFile (a file depository hosted by Citrix) so that you can access it wherever you are. After 1 month, your post will be securely destroyed unless you require a hard copy .Our scanning service is FREE but limited to 100 items per week. Hard copies of your mail can be forwarded to you for a charge of £2.50+vat+cost of the “signed for” post service.
This service does not include the Registered Office Service, which you should buy separately.
The Annual Renewal fee for this service is £48 +vat.
Telephone Answering Services
Option 1 - Receive calls and take messages with Free 0207 number.The charge for each message will be £1.25+vat. A non-refundable deposit of £25+vat is required for this service. The annual fee is £145+vat.
Option 2 – Free 0207 number with call divert to UK telephone number and message taking. The annual fee is £145+vat. The charge for each message will be £1.25+vat and diverted calls will be charged at cost+15%. Requires a further deposit of £100 of which £25+vat is not refundable.
Option 3 - Free 0207 number with call divert to overseas telephone number and message taking. The annual fee is £145+vat. The charge for each message will be £1.25+vat and diverted calls will be charged at cost+15%. Requires a further deposit of £200 of which £25+vat is not refundable.
UK Post Box Service
Add our post box service to your order and we will accept all your post and hold it for you to collect. That includes letters, parcels and signed for items such as registered or recorded mail. Unlike the Royal Mail we are able to accept signed for items from ANY courier source. You may collect or have your mail collected on your behalf. A handling fee of 17p per item of post will also be charged.
Printed Certificates
Order a printed Certificate of Incorporation, Share Certificates and Memorandum and Articles of Association on formal stationery. The Certificate of Incorporation displays the Name of the Company, the Date it was formed and the Registration number; it also bears the official seal. The share certificates display the name of the shareholder, the number of shares held and the date they were acquired. Our service includes free delivery to any UK address.
VAT Registration
As HMRC agents, we can apply for your VAT registration on your behalf. VAT registration is ideal for Business to Business (B2B) trading models and for contractors wishing to take advantage of the FRS scheme. There is no minimum turnover requirement for voluntary registration
Warning: To be a director of a company or a partner in an LLP, you have to give Companies House your name, date of birth and residential address. Companies House will publish this information on their website, which is available for anyone to access. As a consequence your personal information will be available to complete strangers.
The risks are obvious:
- Identity theft: The amount of information that is available on social media and other websites about individuals makes it increasingly easy to steal their identity. Making a name, address and date of birth available on an open website makes it so much easier for fraudsters.
- Physical Risk: If your company operates a Business to Consumer (B2C) model, you can become the focus of a customer’s attention without being aware of the fact. Making your home address publicly available makes you vulnerable.
Director’s service address: Companies House will allow you to provide a service address, and that will be published instead of your personal address. If you do not have an office address that you can use as both Registered Office and Director’s Service address, you should consider using our Registered Office Service. The Director’s service address is provided free of charge.
Order Processing Time.
We cannot guarantee completion of your order in 3 hrs.
Unless you have asked for a pre-submission review, Your completed order will be submitted to Companies House as soon as you place it and they will take from 3- 24 working hours to process your it. The time taken by Companies House to process an order is completely outside our control.Companies House is open between 8.30am to 6 pm (Monday to Friday).
Same Day Service.
If you need your company formed on the day you place your order, we offer a same day service. We charge £23+vat to cover additional fees charged by Companies House. The guarantee is only effective if you place your order before 2.30 p.m. on a working day.
CIC Conversion
We will prepare and submit the resolutions and documents that will change your newly created limited by Guarantee Company into a registered CIC. Once your company is formed, we will ask you for the additional information required by the CIC Regulator. We will then complete the documentation and send this to you for checking, signing and dating. Our price includes the £25 fee payable to the regulator.
CIC - LBG
Use this option to form your CIC with a company limited by guarantee. Please note 85% of all CICs are limited by guarantee.
CIC - LTD
Use this option to form your CIC with a company limited by shares. The main benefit being the ability to be part of a group structure and to be able to issue dividends.
Registered Office Service
Your Registered Office and director's service address will be 27 Old Gloucester Street,
London WC1N 3AX. Your personal address will not be on display at Companies House.
Package includes:
- Registered Office for 1 year.
- Free Directors service address for all directors for 1 year.
- Free delivery of official post (letters from HMRC, Companies House and the Courts) via our unique scanning service.
- Free maintenance of Statutory Records.
- Fixed annual renewal fee of £36+vat per year.
Please Note:
Please note that we provide a correspondence address and not a freight forwarding address. We will not accept parcels weighing more than 10 kilos or exceeding the following dimensions: 46cm x 33 cm x 27 cm.
We are rated Excellent by our clients
Rated 9.6 out of 10 by our customers