How do I set up a charitable company at Companies House?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same incorporation process applies, because company law is reserved to Westminster. But the registered office must sit in Scotland, the charity registration that follows goes to OSCR rather than the Commission, and a SCIO does not use this route at all. Northern Ireland: the same reserved process applies, with the registered office in Northern Ireland and the charity registration that follows going to CCNI, whose applications are currently paused — see below. Northern Ireland has no CIO, so for an incorporated Northern Irish charity this page is effectively the only route in.

When a charitable company comes into existence

Founders who set up a charitable company deal with Companies House first. They deal with the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI second. That order is the same in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Of the structures compared when you choose your legal structure, a charitable company is the only one that exists in law before the charity is registered. That is why this page applies to only one of the four routes. It is also why the page sits apart from the step to hold your founding meeting.

An unincorporated charity, such as a trust or an association, exists as soon as its founding trustees adopt the governing document. Nothing more is needed for the body itself. Registration with the regulator still has to follow, though. A charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) works the opposite way round.

Under the Charities Act 2011, s.210(1), it does not exist at all until the Commission registers it. Registration does not recognise a CIO that already exists. It creates one. A charitable company sits between the two.

It exists from the moment Companies House incorporates it. It only gains charitable status later, once the regulator registers it. The three structures give three answers to “when does the charity exist”. This page is where the company’s answer plays out.

If you chose a CIO, a trust or an unincorporated association instead, none of what follows applies to you. Your structure already exists, or will exist on registration. Companies House has no part in it. This page picks up only for a charitable company.

Why Companies House comes before the charity regulator

Incorporating and registering the charity are two separate applications, to two separate bodies. They have to happen in that order: Companies House first, then the regulator. The reason is mechanical, not legal.

The charity registration form asks for the company number. So the company, with its number, has to exist before you can complete that form. Filing the articles adopted at the founding meeting is what incorporates the company. You apply to register the charity once you have the certificate of incorporation.

Most online applications to incorporate complete within 24 hours. But a paper application, or one Companies House queries, takes longer.

Either way, incorporation gives you a company. It does not give you a registered charity.

The certificate of incorporation, the company number and the company-law filings that follow each year all belong to company law. The charity registration step still has to follow. Claiming charitable status before the second registration is done is a costly mistake. See Operate lawfully while your application is pending.

What incorporating a charitable company costs

Companies House charges different fees for different ways of filing. They should not be blurred into a single “it costs about X” figure. Filing online costs £100.

Filing with third-party software costs the same. A paper filing costs £124. Paper costs more than online for each filing type Companies House offers, not only this one. A same-day incorporation, filed through software, costs £156.

None of this is a one-off. The confirmation statement keeps the company’s details up to date. It has to be filed each year after that. It costs £50 online or by software, or £110 on paper.

The charity registration that follows now carries no fee in any of the three jurisdictions. It costs £0 with the Commission, £0 with OSCR, and £0 with CCNI.

So the whole cost of this route sits on the company-law side of the process, not the charity-law side. The page on what it costs and how long it takes compares the routes. A CIO, by contrast, pays no incorporation fee and no yearly confirmation statement fee. That is because it is not a registered company at all.

It files less afterwards, too. A charitable company has 3 separate statutory annual filings, against one for a CIO. They are Companies House accounts, the confirmation statement above, and the Commission’s own annual return. That is a lasting difference between the two legal structures, not a one-off.

The accounting reference date incorporation fixes

A charitable company’s trustees do not choose its first accounting reference date. The date of incorporation fixes it, under the Companies Act 2006, s.391. Every other structure lets its trustees choose the charity’s financial year, in the governing document or by resolution.

The date falls on the last day of the month of the incorporation anniversary. That holds whether or not it suits your funders, your school year or the trustees’ own planning cycle. Incorporate near the start of a month and the year end still lands on that month’s last day. The founders do not pick it. They inherit it.

The first accounting period is not a clean calendar year either. It must run more than 6 and not more than 18 months, and it ends on the accounting reference date the company inherits from its incorporation date. So the first set of accounts often covers an odd-length period.

The date can be changed later, by notice to the registrar under Companies Act 2006 s.392. But that is an extra filing no one planned for, not the fixing of a mistake.

The practical point is about order, not law. You have to decide the financial year end you want before you incorporate, not after. Incorporation is what fixes it.

Set your financial year end, later in this hub, covers how to choose and record it. Changing a financial year end once the charity is running is a different question. The Money and accounting hub covers it. This page covers only the date incorporation gives you, and the way to move it under s.392.

Minimum trustee age for a charitable company

Under the Companies Act 2006, s.157, a director of a charitable company, and so a trustee of one, must be at least 16 years old. In a charitable company limited by guarantee, the directors are the charity trustees in charity law. So company law’s age rule applies. An appointment made below that age is void, not merely voidable.

That is not the rule for every structure. A trustee of an unincorporated charity, such as a trust or an association, must be at least 18 years old. That rule comes from the Law of Property Act 1925, s.20, as the age of majority now stands.

A youth charity that wants younger trustees than that has to incorporate, as a company or a CIO, to do it lawfully. Choosing an unincorporated association closes off that option before anyone thinks to check.

Identity verification for every founding director

Companies House now requires every director and person with significant control to verify their identity. The guidance can read as if it describes a problem for existing companies at their next confirmation statement. For a charity incorporating now, that reading is wrong.

Companies House guidance is clear on this. When you register a new company, you give the Companies House personal code for each director in the registration filing itself. Each founding trustee has to hold a personal code before incorporation can be completed at all. There is no grace period, and the code cannot follow afterwards.

The rule has applied to new director appointments since 18 November 2025. It is not a future change to plan around. It already applies.

If one founding trustee has not yet verified, the whole incorporation waits on them. Know this before the founding meeting, not after the application has been sent and rejected.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: one process, and the SCIO exception

None of this changes north or west of the border, because company law is reserved to Westminster. Companies House works UK-wide. A Scottish or Northern Irish charitable company incorporates through the same process, at the same fees, as one in England and Wales. What differs is where the registered office has to sit, and which regulator the charity registration goes to next.

In Scotland, the registered office must be in Scotland. The follow-on registration is with OSCR rather than the Commission. In Northern Ireland, the registered office must be in Northern Ireland. The follow-on registration is with CCNI.

One point about structure matters for a Scottish founder. A Scottish charitable incorporated organisation does not incorporate at Companies House at all. So none of these steps applies to it.

A SCIO is registered directly with OSCR. This page only applies if the structure chosen at Step 6 was a charitable company.

For a Northern Irish founder, CCNI’s own registration is now paused rather than closed. The regulator invites groups to register in stages, and it has paused those invitations while it upgrades its systems. It is not accepting unprompted applications at the time of writing. Incorporating at Companies House still goes ahead as normal.

That part of the process is unaffected. But the charity registration that has to follow it may have to wait for an invitation. Northern Ireland also has no CIO equivalent at all. So for an incorporated Northern Irish charity, the company route is in effect the only way in.

With the certificate in hand, the next step is to evidence your income.

Common mistake: thinking incorporation makes you a charity

The certificate of incorporation comes quickly, looks official, and confirms the company exists. Yet nothing on it says the body is not yet a registered charity.

A charitable company exists as a company from the day it is incorporated. But it is not a registered charity until the regulator registers it. Holding the body out as a registered charity in the gap between the two is a mistake. Operate lawfully while your application is pending sets out what you may and may not say in that gap.

Common mistake: assuming you choose your financial year end

Every other structure lets its founders choose the financial year. The incorporation form does not ask for one, so founders tend to assume it comes later. It does not.

The date of incorporation fixes the accounting reference date. The founders never picked it. It can be changed later under s.392, but that is an extra filing no one planned for. Deciding the year end you want before you incorporate costs nothing. So does timing the incorporation to land on it. Yet almost no one suggests it.

Common mistake: trying to incorporate before every director has a Companies House personal code

Many sources say existing directors verify their identity at their next confirmation statement. That makes it sound like a problem for later. For a new company it is not later.

The personal code for each director is part of the registration filing itself. So incorporation cannot complete until each founding trustee has verified. If one trustee is slow to do it, the whole formation waits on them.

Common mistake: appointing a young trustee and assuming the same minimum age applies whatever the structure

The age rule differs by structure. No single source sets the thresholds side by side.

A trustee lawful for a charitable company may be too young for an unincorporated charity. Or the reverse assumption may be made in error. Check this when you choose the structure at Step 6, not after someone has agreed to serve.

Worked example

A youth charity incorporates as a company limited by guarantee. It has a trustee who is old enough to serve under the company-law age rule. But that trustee would not have been eligible to serve on the board of an unincorporated charity.

The incorporation fee and the yearly confirmation statement fee are the Companies House fees listed under costs. The charity registration that follows is free in all three jurisdictions. The outcome:

• a certificate of incorporation
• a company number
• an accounting reference date no one chose
• a validly appointed trustee who could not have taken up the same role under a different structure