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When you set up a limited company in the UK, one of the legal requirements is to have a registered office address. But what exactly is a registered office, and why might you choose to use the address of Hall Livesey Brown rather than your own?

Let’s break it down.

What Is a Registered Office?

A registered office is the official address of your company. It’s where all important legal documents, letters from HMRC and Companies House, and other formal communications are sent. This address appears on the public register, so anyone can look it up.

It’s not the same as your trading address (where you do business). In fact, you don’t even have to work from the registered office — but you do need to have one, and it must be a physical address in the same part of the UK as your company is registered (England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland).

In addition to a physical address the company must also provide an email address and read any emails that your company receives.

Why Not Use Your Own Address?

Many new businesses consider using their home or business premises as their registered office, but there are a few reasons why that might not be ideal:

• Privacy: Since the registered office is public, anyone can see it — including your home address, if that’s what you use.
• Professional Image: An accountant’s address may appear more credible and established, especially if your business is just getting started.
• Security: Keeping your personal or trading address private can help prevent unsolicited mail or visits.
• Compliance: Official post must be received and acted upon promptly. If you’re away or miss something important, it can lead to penalties.

Why Use Hall Livesey Brown’s Address?

At Hall Livesey Brown, we offer our clients the option to use our address as their registered office. This is at a nominal cost of £10+VAT per month.  Here is why that might be a smart move:

• We will Handle Your Statutory Post: We’ll receive all your official mail from HMRC and Companies House — and we’ll make sure you see the important stuff quickly.
• Stay Compliant: You won’t miss a filing deadline or overlook an important notice. We know what to look out for.
• Keep Your Details Private: Using our address keeps your personal or business location off the public register.
• Enhance Your Image: Our professional office address may help build trust with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
• Provision of email address for your company: We will provide and monitor the email address notified to Companies House and make you aware of any actions required.

It’s a Simple Step That Makes a Big Difference

Setting up your registered office at Hall Livesey Brown is straightforward for all of our clients, and it comes with the peace of mind that professionals are helping keep your company on track.

If you’d like to find out more, just get in touch with our team — we’re here to help.

Hall Livesey Brown Chartered Accountants support our clients from offices in Tarporley and Shrewsbury.

Visit our about us page for more information.

Do you pay yourself a salary from your business?

For the majority of directors who are shareholders in their own company, taking a nominal salary and extracting the balance as dividends continues to be the most tax efficient method of extracting their limited company profits.

Following the recent Labour Budget changes to national insurance thresholds and rates for 2025/26, we have reviewed the optimum tax efficient remuneration strategy for directors’ salaries from April 2025.

The most tax efficient salary for sole directors (a company with only one director), is complicated as the Employment Allowance cannot be claimed if you are the only person in the business.

From April 2025, the Secondary Threshold (the point at which you start making national insurance contributions as an employer) reduces from £9,100 to £5,000 for 2025/26. Many sole Director salaries currently are set at £9,100 (£758.33 per month) to ensure no unnecessary Employers National Insurance is incurred. If they remain at this level from April 2025, Employers National Insurance will be incurred.

However, if the salary is reduced to the £5,000 Secondary Threshold for 2025/26, the salary is below the Lower Earnings Limit (set at £6,500 for 2025/26) and therefore it won’t earn national insurance credits towards your state pension.

The optimum strategy is to set salaries at £12,570. At this level, it is above the Lower Earnings Limit so it will earn national insurance credits for state contributions and there will be no income tax incurred on the salary as the tax-free personal allowance is £12,570 for 2025/26.

A sole director taking a salary at this level will incur employer’s National Insurance on the wages, but the salary is offset against the company profits, which will reduce the company corporation tax liability. The reduction in the corporation tax is more than the Employers National Insurance that will be paid, and therefore overall, more tax efficient.

Current salaries for companies with two or more directors can remain at £12,570 and the Employers National Insurance contributions will be offset against the Employment Allowance Claim, which is available for companies with more than one director.

Below is a table of the overall Net Tax Savings to illustrate the above showing that the optimum net tax saving for sole directors is a salary of £12,570 saving overall tax of £1,468.55.

Who should seek additional advice?

There are some circumstances where the strategy above may not be right for you. If any of the following apply, we would recommend getting in touch:

• You are a director but have income from another source outside of your limited company (i.e. rental income).
• How much tax you pay or save across the combination of your company and you personally is more important than what you personally take home in cash, and you can afford to sacrifice personal take-home pay for the benefit of the company tax position.
• You are already drawing more cash than you need to fund your lifestyle.
• You are planning on drawing between £100,000 and £125,000 of income from your company.
• You have income of over £50,000 from other sources.