Choose a legal structure for your business

1. Overview

You must choose a structure for your business. This structure will define your legal responsibilities, like:

  • the paperwork you must fill in to get started
  • the taxes you’ll have to manage and pay
  • how you can personally take the profit your business makes
  • your personal responsibilities if your business makes a loss

You can change your business structure after you’ve started up if you find a new structure suits you better.

Types of business

The main types are:

You can form an ‘unincorporated association’ if you’re setting up a small organisation like a sports club or a voluntary group and don’t plan to make a profit.

You can use other structures for businesses that help people or communities, eg ‘social enterprises’.

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Last updated: 11 December 2014