Coronavirus (COVID-19): 1stchoice Company Formations remains open for business. Customer orders are being processed without delay. Close
Community Interest Company (CIC)
Charge for services87
Service items discount £ 0
Net cost of services 87
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
- Business Telephone
Additional items available at checkout
You can add these items during the order process
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
Confirmation Statement With Formation
You must file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months. The due date is called the ‘confirmation date’, which falls on the anniversary of company formation or the ‘made up’ date of your last annual return.We will do that for you on time.
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. Fixed annual renewal fee of £9+vat per year”
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.
This service does not include the Registered Office Service, which you should buy separately.
The Annual Renewal fee for this service is £84+vat.
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 £3.50+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 £54 +vat.
Company seal
A seal is a device for placing a raised image (embossing) on paper. It will show the company name and incorporation number. This is for UK customers only. Overseas customers will be charged postage or courier fees.
Apostille Service
This service generally takes 10 working days to come back from the FCO. Faster options are available please ask for details. The price is for a single document. Postage to an address in the UK is Free. You will be charged EXTRA for Delivery outside the UK
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.
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.
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. This tax relief has been available since 2014/2015.
- 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.
What our service involves
Companies House have now changed their system for processing CICs. Accordingly, we are able to reduce our charge for this service to £77+vat. If there are less than 6 participators and none of them are corporate i.e. LTD or LBG, it should take less than 1 week to register a CIC. The time taken will depend on how quickly you respond to our request for additional information regarding your application after you have placed the order. Once we submit your application we will keep you informed of its progress.
The new CIC ordering system at Companies House will only apply to applications that have less than 5 officers of the company i.e. shareholders, guarantors and directors. If there are more than 5 the process will take 3-4 weeks. It is always possible to add officers after the company has been formed, and for this reason we suggest that you keep the number of officers below 5 until the CIC is incorporated.
Once you have placed your order, you will receive an email asking for additional information. The information we request will allow us to complete the documents that need to be submitted to incorporate your company; CIC 36 or, if you are changing the status of an existing company, CIC 37
These documents need to be signed by all the directors and will need to include the following information:
- A description of the community you are helping
- A description of your company’s intended activities
- An explanation of how your activities will help the community.
We will also select the appropriate model aArticles of Association and edit them to suit your circumstances. Broadly speaking, there are 5 to choose from as follows:
Model 1 is for use when:
- A company is limited by guarantee, and
- all the directors are also members of the CIC, and
- all the members are directors of the CIC
Model 2 is for use when:
- A company is limited by guarantee, and
- The number of members exceeds the number of directors directors
Model 3 is for use when:
- The company is limited by shares, and
- Each director is a shareholder in the company.and
- Each shareholder is a director
- Dividends will only be paid to an asset locked body,
Model 4 is for use when:
- The company is limited by shares
- The company has more shareholders than directors
- Dividends will only be paid to an asset locked body.
Model 5 is for use when:
- The company is limited by shares
- The company has more shareholders than directors
- Dividends will be paid to an asset locked body and the shareholders.
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.
Business Telephone
Quarterly charge £10.00+call charges +vat
We will provide you with your own unique 020 London or regional telephone number. You can display this number on all your stationery and marketing media (such as websites and advertising) All calls will be diverted to your mobile or landline for you to answer
The business telephone number service costs £10.00plus VAT per quarter. Call forwarding will be charged at our supplier's standard rates with a 20% markup. Typically, we will charge just under 4 pence per minute to divert calls to a UK or European line. Please ask us for details for any particular location
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 £39+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 4.8 out of 5 by our customers