Registering a commercial website in the UK

[lionheart8x]

Hi

I am about to initially launch a community website and regional search engine & web directory, which will hopefully generate income through ads and other means discussed here. I intend later to make more sites.

I do not expect to generate much money for a while to come, but of course hope things will change. I am based in Germany, but my colleague is over there in the UK. Since there seems to be a lot of bureaucracy here, we are considering registering our sites in the UK. My question to those running some is: what paperwork is needed before going into business?
Specifically which authorities eg. but not exclusively in the area of tax, must be contacted?

In Germany, any money generating site must have a page called "Impressum" which must have the contact address/tel. of the runner of the site, tax ID Nr., including where it was issued, etc.
Is there any such obligation for UK based sites?

I had written the Liverpool chamber of commerce office (where my unfortunately very busy partner is located) requesting some of this information, but it seems they will not reply.

I would be very grateful to get the required information.

Thanks in advance

 

[temi]

Lionheart,
I am very aware of the red tapes associated with running a business in Germany. Its the opposite in UK. There are two ways you can run your business here (well, two ways that I know of).

1. Register the business as a limited liability company
2. Run the business in your UK partners name

Running it as a limited Liability company
If you choose to run it as a limited liability company, you will need to register the company with companies house
its usually better to register it though and agent rather than you going to companies house directly by yourself. It cost about £40-£100 depending on the agent you use. You can have your name and your business partners name on the company as director or one of you can be the director and the second one company secretary (You need at least one directory and one company secretary).
Once this is done, you need to open a bank account and you are ready to start trading. You can have your websites register under your name or your company name.

Note that if you run the business under your name, every 12 months, you need to send financial statement to Companies House. You can prepare this yourself of have an accountant prepare it for you.

Run the business in your UK partners name
This one does not require much paper work, you do not need to register a UK Limited liability company, you can just decide on a name for your business for example Christoph and Smith or something like that, draw up an agreement about the share each of the partners own in the company, you can also register it at Companies House as a company and then you can start trading. (you also need to open a bank account of course).

If you need further help let me know, I will be very pleased to help.
Thanks

Hi

I am about to initially launch a community website and regional search engine & web directory, which will hopefully generate income through ads and other means discussed here. I intend later to make more sites.

I do not expect to generate much money for a while to come, but of course hope things will change. I am based in Germany, but my colleague over there in the UK. Since there seems to be a lot of bureaucracy here, we are considering our sites registered in the UK. My question is to those who have running, what paperwork is needed before going into business?
Specifically which authorities eg. but not exclusively in the area of tax, etc must be contacted?

In Germany, any money generating site must have a page called "Impressum" which must have the contact address/tel. of the runner of the site, tax ID Nr., including where it was issued, etc.
Is there any such obligation for UK based sites?

I had written the Liverpool chamber of commerce office (where my unfortunately very partner is located) requesting some of this information, but it seems they will not reply.

I would be very grateful to get the required information.

Thanks in advance

 

[lionheart8x]

Hi guys,

Many thanks for taking the time respond to my questions and for the answers.
I am sure I will have more questions, but initially, ...

Originally, the only thing I will "sale" directly from the sites is ad-space, but will soon or later may be a run an onlineshop of sorts.

My colleague in the UK & are I (in Germany) have fulltime employment and hope to run those sites to generate some additional income part time or through the help of a friend.
Does that have any effect in any way on the registration or taxes paid? Sorry, I have no experience in these things

If I were to google to find an "agent" for helping to register one's firm at "Companies House", what search terms do I use?
What are the disadvantages in case one has time, of going directly to Companies' House? One could save those bucks ...

If I may ask, temi are you based in the UK or you are in Germany but have a business registered in the UK?

Regards

 

[temi]

Linoheart,
The keyword to to use (search in google.co.uk) is "UK company formation" you should get a lot of results.
I am based in UK and have my business in UK, I do not have business in Germany but have family who have business in Germany and complain about how difficult it is to run a small business in Germany.

Good luck.