How to Set up a Company
In Guernsey only a Corporate Service Provider (CSP), licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, such as Go-Corporate, can incorporate companies. The company is registered with the Guernsey Registry and to be registered the following information will be required.
A proof of identification. (Your passport or photo ID and a current utility bill showing your name and residential address). In addition, details will be needed about your proposed company.
Typically you will need to consider:
- Company name
- What business activities will the company carry out?
- How many shares do you want to issue?
- Does the company need any special provisions or will the standard memorandum and articles be sufficient (for most businesses standard M&A are fine)
- Who will be the shareholders? (minimum in Guernsey is 1 shareholder)
- Who will be the directors? (minimum in Guernsey is 1 director)
- Where will the registered office be?
- Who will be the resident agent? (a resident agent is the person responsible for holding identification documentation on the owners of the company and is usually a Guernsey Resident director but can be a Corporate Services Provider)
- When will be the Company’s financial year end? (usually 31st December in Guernsey to match the end of the Guernsey tax year)
- Who will be the Company’s accountant?
- Who will be the Company’s bankers?
- Who will be the Company Secretary? (there is no requirement to appoint a company secretary but you can if you wish, a register of secretaries must be kept),
Once the information has been collected, the actual process to get the company incorporated takes only 24 hours.
When registered you will be provided with a copy of your memorandum and articles of association and the Guernsey Registry will post a Certificate of Incorporation to your registered office address. Be aware that there are other statutory records that need to be kept for a Limited Company as referred to in The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008, as amended.
At Go-Corporate we understand that trading business people cannot be expected to know this or be experts on the Companies Law and therefore we walk you through the process and can provide you with ongoing support to ensure your company does not fall foul of the regulations and remains in good standing.
