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PSC setup in 12 steps

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Company formation takes a day; doing it in the right order saves months of corrections. The full sequence:

  1. Name check: Companies House availability + no trademark clash + sensible domain
  2. Register directly at Companies House (~£50, same-day option) — formation agents add nothing you need
  3. SIC code: usually 62020/70229 for IT/management contracting
  4. Shares: ordinary £1 shares; fancy structures need a reason
  5. Appoint yourself director; a secretary is optional
  6. Registered office: your accountant's address or home (it's public)
  7. Business bank: keep it separate from day one — Revolut/Tide are fast, high street is fine
  8. Payroll: register as an employer (your accountant does this) — £12,570 salary needs it
  9. VAT: voluntary registration decision now, mandatory at £90k rolling
  10. Insurance: PI + public liability before the first engagement
  11. Contract template + review lined up — see the first-contract guide
  12. Accountant engaged — before the first invoice, not after (see the selection guide)

Filing deadlines: confirmation statement annually, accounts 9 months after year-end, Corporation Tax 12 months (payment 9 months + 1 day). Your accountant owns these — but late penalties land on the company.

Verify at gov.uk.

The first 90 days: what actually matters

The formation is the easy 10%; the operating rhythm is the rest. Month one: bank account live, accountant engaged, first contract reviewed, insurance bound. Month two: payroll running the £12,570 salary, invoicing process proven, expense capture working (photograph receipts as they happen). Month three: first VAT return if registered, dividend paperwork done properly (board minutes + vouchers, not just transfers), confirmation-statement date diarised. Every step has a document, and documents compound into the evidence file that makes status, mortgage and enquiry conversations trivial. Contractors who skip the rhythm spend years paying accountants to reconstruct what a monthly hour would have preserved.

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