Making Partner a Director and Shareholder

[ChairmanMeow]

Hi All,

Looking for advice on the process to make my wife a director and Shareholder in my Limited company.

I opened the limited company 5 years ago and I am the sole director. I have been contracting most that time and have decent level of reserves.

The company has one £1 ordinary share myself being the only shareholder.

My wife was made redundant from her job in January 2017 and due to medical reason has not searched for full time employment (and does not intend to for the foreseeable future). She has however picked up short term contract positions which have invoiced through the company. She also carries out the usual admin tasks within the company.

As she is contributing to the company and also for ease of administration I would like her to be a director and equal shareholder in the company. My question is how can I do this?

I asked my accountant and he wants £500 to do it, I thought this was quite steep as I did not think to much would be involved.

By searching the internet, I found to make her a director was done by completing the AP01 form through companies house which was simple enough.

The next bit making her a shareholder which seems more difficult.

I can see there is the SH01 form Return of Allotment of Shares, but I am not sure what I should do here?

Do I split the existing share? or do I issue a new share?

Are there any other forms I need to complete?

Sorry for all the questions, I am sure I am guilty of over thinking this.

Cheers

[northernladuk]

£500 does seem a bit on the steep side but you are going to get charged something for the work they have to do so it's not extortionate I guess. Small potatoes for getting it right though. One slip up is going to cost you much much more.

Pay your accountant and do it properly.
Might just review your accountant choice and make sure it's the one for you again. If they are expensive with this then maybe it's not the best package overall for you.

She also carries out the usual admin tasks within the company.

Cool story bro

[craigy1874]

£500? That's is really steep!

You need to:

Appoint your wife as a director at companies house
Issue another share in your company at companies house
Allocate that share to her

That is all just admin tasks. Sometimes we charge a small fee for dealing with this (by small I mean around £50), otherwise we do it with no charge.

You are correct in that companies house is where you need to start, if you log in with your authentication code, you will be able to add a director and issue more shares.

PM me if you need any assistance.

[WTFH]

My accountants charge £250, but that included splitting the shares into A & B shares, that way my dividends are at a different level to The Wife (tm). She is not a director, just a shareholder.

[northernladuk]

£500? That's is really steep!

You need to:

Appoint your wife as a director at companies house
Issue another share in your company at companies house
Allocate that share to her

That is all just admin tasks. Sometimes we charge a small fee for dealing with this (by small I mean around £50), otherwise we do it with no charge.

You are correct in that companies house is where you need to start, if you log in with your authentication code, you will be able to add a director and issue more shares.

PM me if you need any assistance.

Which is nice of you to offer but I'd be surprised (pleasantly) if I came across this. It's an extra service for which I'd expect to be charged. It would take more than an hour and would rely on expert knowledge to use the best setup and avoid problems for which you also expect to come with a charge. I'd say you are selling yourself short there but if it's part of a bigger customer retention exercise then good on you.

£250 for doing this seems more than reasonable, £500 too much maybe so negotiate. Still wouldn't be doing it myself even if I had half an idea.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Charges

Hmmmm, perhaps we should be charging for this then......normally cover it as standard help through the year as it's pretty straight forward.

[DolanContractorGroup]

£500.00 seems a bit steep, but dependant on the share structure as mentioned if A & B shares may be justifiable.

I'm sure quite a few contractor accountants, could assist in this service as a part of their monthly fee or for a much smaller fee.

[northernladuk]

Hmmmm, perhaps we should be charging for this then......normally cover it as standard help through the year as it's pretty straight forward.

Oh, so it seems it's part of the service. Useful to know should I ever need this service. Maybe I'm thinking back to SJD times when you got charged for everything above and beyond the basic service.

[washed up contractor]

Be cheaper to close the company and start a new one with both the OP and wife as shareholders (obviously not going the ER route).

Think Id be asking my long term accountant, hint, hint, that I was looking for a lower price. Did this with my long time accountant when the bills were increasing each year. He asked how much of a reduction I was looking for so told him I wasnt a greedy person so how about 10% off the top. Agreed, he said. Worked for me!

[pr1]

Which is nice of you to offer but I'd be surprised (pleasantly) if I came across this. It's an extra service for which I'd expect to be charged. It would take more than an hour and would rely on expert knowledge to use the best setup and avoid problems for which you also expect to come with a charge. I'd say you are selling yourself short there but if it's part of a bigger customer retention exercise then good on you.

£250 for doing this seems more than reasonable, £500 too much maybe so negotiate. Still wouldn't be doing it myself even if I had half an idea.

£250 for an hours work!! How much do you think accountants earn!?