Ltd Company Formation - Agents/Company reviews..

DRose1

I am currently in the process of setting up a new single member Ltd company. With some more research and a decent amount of time, I think I could manage to go through with the whole process myself - Form A1, memo and articles of association etc. However, I am also considering getting a company formation agent/company to do the whole process for me for two main reasons - Time and the assurance that everything has been completed with 100% accuracy.

As such, I am wondering if anyone has any reviews of formation agents/companies that helped them set up their ltd company? Services should include:

• CRO registration
• Articles and memorandem of association
• Certificate of association
• Company seal
• Registration with the revenue commision for Comporation tax and VAT.
• Miscellaneous

Any advice would be appreciated.

srsly78

You do not want to go through the whole thing yourself. It's a tedious exercise and much faster and easier to throw a formations agent e200 (or less) to do it for you.

The various formations agents have a special registration with the CRO. This gives them access to special online functionality that you do not have. So they can use the expedited online facility, you cannot - thus you have to do it the old-fasioned way with paper documents and physical delivery. Processing these paper documents also takes a lot longer. A formations agent can have you up and running in a few days, whereas with paper it will take 1 month or more probably.

I only dealt with 1 formations agent (found via google). He got me up and running really fast for e150. To do it yourself costs e300 I think and takes longer as noted above. After much effort finding a shop to sell me a company seal I was frustrated to find it never got used - 4 years on.

The formations step covers:
CRO reg
Article + memorandum etc
Cert
Seal (usually agent will sort one, otherwise it costs e20 or so)

These steps are not part of formation and can be easily be done yourself (via www.ros.ie)
Tax registrations (corp tax, employer paye, vat)
Misc

DRose1

Thanks for the advice. The only reason I am still considering doing it myself is that it's fairly likely I will be setting up a few more companies over the next few years and it may be good practice to go through the whole process now.

Other than the above, there seems to be very little reason not to go to a formation agent.

salmagoo

DRose1 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. The only reason I am still considering doing it myself is that it's fairly likely I will be setting up a few more companies over the next few years and it may be good practice to go through the whole process now.

Other than the above, there seems to be very little reason not to go to a formation agent.

Hi Drose1,

Just wondering have you gone ahead doing it yourself or what way did you opt with?

Setting up a company myself and i want to do it the cheapest way possible. I have come across startupwizard.ie which gives you a way to set up your
Articles of Association
Memorandum of Association
CRO Form
Share Register
Consent Forms for Directors and Secretary
Minutes of First Meeting

What you have to do :

Fill out the relevant sections of each form on screen and print when complete
Sign and witness forms
Post completed forms and correct fee (€100) to Companies Registration Office

This costs €30 plus your fee to the CRO €100. As mentioned by your man above though you will have the tedious task of dealing with stuff being sent back if the name is not appropriate. I would like to know also the name of this online company that done it for under €200 as I can only find it for €320 plus VAT.

Thanks very much

capefear

salmagoouote="salmagoo;86850271"]Hi Drose1,

Just wondering have you gone ahead doing it yourself or what way did you opt with?

Setting up a company myself and i want to do it the cheapest way possible. I have come across startupwizard.ie which gives you a way to set up your
Articles of Association
Memorandum of Association
CRO Form
Share Register
Consent Forms for Directors and Secretary
Minutes of First Meeting

What you have to do :

Fill out the relevant sections of each form on screen and print when complete
Sign and witness forms
Post completed forms and correct fee (€100) to Companies Registration Office

This costs €30 plus your fee to the CRO €100. As mentioned by your man above though you will have the tedious task of dealing with stuff being sent back if the name is not appropriate. I would like to know also the name of this online company that done it for under €200 as I can only find it for €320 plus VAT.

Thanks very much [/quote]


Hi salmagoo pm sent.

DRose1

Hi, I am currently going through the process of setting up the company. All forms etc have been completed and just waiting on approval from the CRO.

I found a company online who advertised doing it for free as a way to secure future business from you; no commitment had to be made to work with them in the future though. Made contact and have been working with them over the past few weeks.

My experience with them has been very good and I can only recommend their service to anyone in the same position as me. Not 100% sure they are still offering the free deal, but worth contacting to find out.

http://www.trinityba.ie/company-registration/

miju

Set up Ltd myself found it very little hassle to be honest. Don't know how it cost someone above €300 to setup themselves. I did have some hassle as the registrar refused the name but the appeal process was straightforward and I was granted the name in the end. Took total of about 3 weeks for cert to issue including appeal time.

Id only use a formation agent if formation is really urgent which lets face it in most cases it isnt

srsly78

miju wrote: »

Set up Ltd myself found it very little hassle to be honest. Don't know how it cost someone above €300 to setup themselves. I did have some hassle as the registrar refused the name but the appeal process was straightforward and I was granted the name in the end. Took total of about 3 weeks for cert to issue including appeal time.

Id only use a formation agent if formation is really urgent which lets face it in most cases it isnt

Well how much did it cost you? When I looked into it doing it yourself would end up costing the same or more than an agent, but takes longer - so it's pointless.

The agents can do registrations for cheaper than you can, they have access to a special online system.

miju

Was €100 for form A1 signature and €10 for solicitor to sign it.

ImDave

miju wrote: »

Was €100 for form A1 signature and €10 for solicitor to sign it.

+1 on doing it this way. I had the company number received in seven working days. They tend to refuse a lot of names which will ultimately delay the process, however they have an online name reservation service in CORE which you can use to reserve your company name, but I found it very useful for just checking the validity of my name, and found I had to tweak it a little to meet the systems requirements.

miju

srsly78 wrote: »

The agents can do registrations for cheaper than you can, they have access to a special online system.

was late last night when i was replying. But they pay €50 to CRO for filing online. So given most are off the shelf and not customised Articles and Memos for your company and they just give you form to print is that really worth €70 odd quid.

Plus if your going through the hassle of setting up a ltd co then you should at least understand the process yourself. After all your setting up a seperate legal entity that does have responsibilities.

srsly78

You know all that is just boilerplate stuff right? Also where is your company seal etc, you must have one of these by law. Sure it will be cheaper if just skip loads of the legal requirements.

Freepass

Also- if you use a proper formation agent you can strike a deal with them to help register the new company for taxes and provide you with sample books and records to use.. they are a lot of benefits in using a quality formation agent!

vector

I can understand the need for a "company formation agent " in the pre-internet era, when a lay person mightn't have been able to provide a memo and arts or know which forms to use.

But these days...

Surely the CRO could themselves start selling such things...

Are they afraid to do that? because an entire industry of existing company formation agents would be decimated?

capefear

Was speaking to someone in the cro about the new changes coming in the new year under the new companies act and they told me the new changes will make it easier for people to set up a company and wiping out a lot of the formation agents in the process.

Max001

capefear wrote: »

Was speaking to someone in the cro about the new changes coming in the new year under the new companies act and they told me the new changes will make it easier for people to set up a company and wiping out a lot of the formation agents in the process.

Great news. Thanks! Just about to set up two ltd companies as part of a tech start-up, so I'll hold off until the New Year. Summary of main provisions of the new Companies Act here http://www.cro.ie/ena/draft-companies-bill.aspx

capefear

Max001 wrote: »

Great news. Thanks! Just about to set up two ltd companies as part of a tech start-up, so I'll hold off until the New Year. Summary of main provisions of the new Companies Act here http://www.cro.ie/ena/draft-companies-bill.aspx

I was told by cro afew months back it will be around April next year when it happens, but when I asked again last week I was told it will be the beginning of 2015. So it's hard to say when. Keep an eye on the cro website for updates.