Guidance

Standard industrial classification of economic activities (SIC)

A condensed list of SIC codes for providing Companies House with a description of your company's nature of business.

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Details

Companies House uses a condensed version of the full list of codes available from the .

Only use SIC codes on the condensed list when filing to Companies House or your filing may be rejected.

This publication shows a condensed list of the ONS codes used to classify business establishments and other standard units by the type of economic activity in which they鈥檙e engaged.

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2008
Last updated 9 January 2018
  1. Attachment removed

  2. CSV format and link to online SIC code lookup added

  3. Added translation

  4. First published.

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  1. Step 1

    1. Check what a private limited company is

    How you set up your business depends on what sort of work you do. It can also affect the way you pay tax and get funding.

    Most businesses register as a limited company or a sole trader.

    1. Find out about the different ways to set up a business
  2. Step 2

  3. Step 3

    You must appoint a director but you do not have to appoint a company secretary.

    1. Find out what directors are responsible for
    2. Check who can be a director or company secretary
  4. Step 4

  5. or

    You need at least one guarantor who can be a director.

    1. Check how to choose guarantors for a company limited by guarantee
  6. and

    You need to identify people with significant control (PSC) - for example, anyone with more than 25% of the shares or voting rights.

    1. Find out what counts as a PSC

    You'll confirm these when you register your company with Companies House.

  7. Step 5

  8. Step 6

    You need to prepare documents agreeing how to run your company. These documents include the :

    • 'memorandum of association'
    • 'articles of association'
    • 'statement of capital'
    • 'statement of guarantee'
    1. Find out how to create these documents
  9. Step 7

  10. Step 8

  11. Step 9

    There are some things you may need to do once you've registered a limited company.

    1. Add Corporation Tax services to your business tax account
    2. Check the next steps for your limited company