Forming a UK company from France: a practical guide for founders

Prepare for review: passport and clear identity evidence; full and former names, date of birth, home address, the previous 12 months’ address history and your own email; supporting documents the checker requests; and proposed directors, shareholders, share allocation, people with significant control, plus a clear account of the business, place of work and customers.

An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) must meet Companies House’s verification standard. Manually checked route: two Group A photographic documents, or one Group A plus one Group B; non-UK residents need at least one government-issued document. Confirm the combination before ordering translations.

A non-biometric passport is a reason to discuss the route, not a promise of acceptance. Eteform supports ACSP verification for all nationalities, including chipless passports, subject to valid documents, sufficient evidence and required checks, without guaranteeing success.

Ordinary UK compliance screening applies to owners, controllers, activity and payment routes; support does not guarantee acceptance.

The HCCH status table records the Apostille Convention in force for France and the United Kingdom from 24 January 1965 (both by ratification).

If a French recipient requests your UK company certificate, ask whether it needs an original or certified copy, a paper or accepted electronic apostille, and a French translation.

The UK Legalisation Office apostilles eligible UK documents, including certain Companies House certificates, and cannot legalise French-issued documents.

French public documents for use abroad follow the current competent-authority route on Service-Public—metropolitan practice uses regional notarial apostille centres, not a single city office.

An apostille authenticates a signature or seal, not banking eligibility or tax residence.

Treat account eligibility as separate from formation. Review the provider’s requirements against your owners, residence, activity and expected transactions before building around it.

Within agreed scope we help prepare and submit a WorldFirst application; WorldFirst decides eligibility, currencies and France-related routes—no account guarantee. Cross-border consultancy receipts are not one automatic VAT story.

French invoice rules distinguish sellers, clients and regimes: mandatory mentions.

Under franchise en base de TVA, invoices may use the statutory non-applicability wording rather than collecting French VAT; other cases charge or reverse-charge on the facts.

Intra-EU B2B and B2C services follow different place-of-supply rules: intra-EU services. Do not assume every invoice is cleanly zero-rated—ask a French tax adviser.

French tax residence, social contributions and any permanent-establishment analysis turn on where you live and where the activity is carried on, not on UK incorporation alone. See impots.gouv.fr; we do not prescribe a UK-parent structure.

Independent workers with cross-border situations should check CLEISS and URSSAF / mon-entreprise guidance. UK incorporation is not an automatic French tax holiday or social-contribution waiver.

The UK–France double taxation convention (2008 text, in force 18 December 2009, as modified by the Multilateral Instrument) coordinates taxing rights and is not a blanket exemption. Plan Companies House accounts and confirmation statements.

A Company Tax Return is required when HMRC issues a notice to deliver one, even on a loss or with no Corporation Tax payable.

Camille, a product consultant based in Lyon, considers a UK Ltd for overseas retainers while keeping any French registration in view.

She matches the accented name on her issued passport with her bank statement, asks the ACSP to resolve any MRZ mismatch, and reviews with an expert-comptable where the work is performed, which entity should invoice, and whether French VAT wording or an intra-EU reverse charge applies.

If a French body later requests her UK certificate, she confirms certification and translation needs before an apostille. This is a labelled hypothetical, not a client result.