Incorporation date

A company’s incorporation date is its legal birthday — the day Companies House registered it and it came into existence as a separate legal person. It is fixed and public, and it anchors much of a company’s subsequent timetable: the deadlines for its first accounts and first confirmation statement are calculated from it.

Incorporation date is one of the most useful filters for finding new businesses. A company incorporated in the last few weeks is, by definition, newly formed and may be actively setting itself up — buying services, opening accounts, seeking suppliers — which makes recent incorporations a prime target for many B2B sellers.

It is worth remembering that incorporation is not the same as trading. Some companies incorporate and begin trading immediately; others sit dormant for months or years after incorporation before doing anything. The date tells you when the legal entity was created, not when (or whether) it started to trade.

Example

An accountant looking for new clients filters the register for companies incorporated in the last 30 days in their county, because freshly formed companies often need accounting and tax help straight away.

On Company Shark

Incorporation date is a core search filter on Company Shark, and our “new companies” pages track recent formations by location and industry so you can find businesses at the moment they are created.

Related

• Company status
• SIC code
• Registered office