Northern Ireland Company Formations

Company Type	Time to Incorporate	Cost
Ltd	5 days	£380

The legal jurisdiction of Northern Ireland, enjoys similar company legislation to the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland have legislation and a Companies Registry which is completely separate from the Companies House in England. We can check the availability of a Northern Ireland company name very quickly.

The governing legislation for Northern Ireland companies is based upon the UK's Companies Acts' of 1985 and 1989 and are referred to as Company Ordinances. The memorandum and articles of association is outlined under Companies (Northern Ireland) Orders 1986 to 1990 and Companies Act 2006. The principal features of Northern Irish companies are:

• Directors can be either an individual or a corporate entity. Only one director is required to incorporate a company.

• No residency or nationality requirements for company directors.

• A company secretary can be either an individual or company and does not have to be resident in Northern Ireland.

• All companies must have at least one subscriber/shareholder, corporate or individual, at the time of incorporation although as with the other positions mentioned above initially these will be taken by your company registration agent who upon registration will resign and appoint the permanent officers.

• Northern Ireland companies must have a registered office address located within the six counties.

• Companies can have general objects although they require specific trading details using an identical listing system to the Republic's NACE Code. This needs to be submitted at the end of each financial year.

• The Companies Registry in Belfast normally takes 5 days to register a new Limited company

• Company seals are not compulsory for limited companies.

• Most alterations to a company's structure will normally not incur any extra government duties.

• Shares should ideally be denominated in British Pounds Sterling (£'s). It is possible to issue shares denominated in Euro's (€'s).