Business guidance

Apply UKCA marking to your products

UKCA marking shows a product you make meets the Great Britain rules. Assess it against the product regulation, complete any third-party assessment, draw up a Declaration of Conformity and technical file, then affix the mark. For 21 product regulations, CE marking is an alternative with no end date.

Apply for customs warehousing authorisation

Customs warehousing lets you store non-UK goods without paying import duty or import VAT until they are released or re-exported. Apply to HMRC on form SP1 with a Customs Comprehensive Guarantee in place; HMRC aims to decide within 120 days.

Apply for inward processing authorisation

Inward processing lets you import goods to repair, alter or manufacture without paying import duty or import VAT, as long as you re-export them or pay duty on release. You need HMRC authorisation and a guarantee, and a bill of discharge within 30 days of each throughput period ending.

Apply for simplified customs declarations for imports

If you import regularly, HMRC can authorise you to clear goods at the border with less information and send the full declaration later. You can use the simplified declaration procedure, entry in your own records, or both, but you need a good compliance record, suitable software and a duty deferment account.

Arrange export shipping and documents

Choose how the goods travel, agree an Incoterm with your buyer, decide whether a freight forwarder or parcel courier will handle the move, and prepare the documents that travel with each shipment: a commercial invoice, a packing list, a transport document and any licence or certificate.

Choose UK Export Finance support for your exports

Match your need to a UK Export Finance product: insurance if a buyer might not pay, the Export Working Capital Scheme to fund a contract, the Bond Support Scheme to release cash tied up in bonds, or a Buyer Credit Facility to finance your overseas buyer. Most guarantees go through your bank.

Choose and work with a customs agent

Most businesses use a customs agent or freight forwarder to make customs declarations, but you stay liable for what is declared. Choose an agent that suits your goods and trade, agree direct or indirect representation in writing, and authorise them in the Customs Declaration Service before they use your accounts.

Choosing the right export route to market

Agents, distributors, direct sales, e-commerce, licensing, or joint ventures - how to select the best market entry model.

Claim preferential origin under a UK trade agreement

If you import goods into Great Britain from a country with a UK free trade agreement, you may pay a reduced or zero rate of duty. You must show the goods meet that agreement's rules of origin, hold valid proof of origin and keep the evidence for at least four years.

Correct a customs declaration error or make a voluntary disclosure

If you find a mistake on a customs declaration after your goods are released, tell HMRC and pay any underpaid duty and import VAT. Use form C2001 for a single declaration; telling HMRC before it asks usually reduces the penalty, often to nil.

Employ staff who cross the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland

British and Irish citizens can live and work on either side of the Northern Ireland border without immigration permission, but as an employer in Northern Ireland you still check their right to work. Work out which country's employment law, tax and National Insurance apply before someone starts, especially if they work on both sides.

Find your product safety duties in the supply chain

Under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 your duties depend on whether you are a producer or a distributor, decided by what you actually do rather than what you call yourself. Putting your own name on a product makes you its producer, and importers fall into the producer role.

Get Authorised Economic Operator status

Authorised Economic Operator status shows HMRC and partner customs authorities that your part of the supply chain is secure and well controlled. Any business established in the UK and active in international trade can apply online, and HMRC audits you before deciding within 120 days.

Get a customs comprehensive guarantee

A customs comprehensive guarantee covers the duty and import VAT you owe, or could owe, across your customs activity under one authorisation. You need one for regular transit movements and, when HMRC asks, for special procedures or storage. HMRC can reduce or waive the amount your guarantor must cover.

Get an EORI number for importing or exporting

You need an EORI number to move goods between Great Britain and any country outside the UK, or between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A GB EORI is free and usually issued online within minutes; trade involving Northern Ireland may also need an XI EORI.

How UK customs works after EU exit

Commercial goods entering Great Britain can owe customs duty, import VAT and excise duty at once, under three separate regimes. VAT-registered businesses can account for import VAT on their VAT return, and Northern Ireland follows a separate regime under the Windsor Framework.

Import duties, VAT and payment options

When you import goods into Great Britain you may pay customs duty, import VAT and sometimes excise or anti-dumping duty. If you are VAT-registered, Postponed VAT Accounting lets you declare and recover import VAT on the same return, and a duty deferment account lets you pay duty monthly.

Import licences for controlled goods

Some goods, including endangered species, controlled drugs, firearms, nuclear materials and sanctioned goods, need an import licence from the right authority before they are shipped to the UK. Border Force cannot issue one at the border, and goods arriving without a licence will be seized.

Make a customs declaration on CDS for an import into Great Britain

You must make a customs declaration to HMRC through the Customs Declaration Service for almost every commercial import into Great Britain. Before the goods arrive, get a GB EORI number, appoint a customs intermediary or connect your own software, and arrange how you will pay duty and import VAT.

Make an export customs declaration

Goods leaving Great Britain need an export declaration, made by you or by an agent you instruct in writing. You need a GB EORI number, a Customs Declaration Service subscription and the right commodity code, and you must declare before the goods leave, by a deadline set by the transport mode.

Publish a modern slavery statement

If your organisation carries on business in the UK, supplies goods or services and has a turnover of £36 million or more, including its subsidiaries, you must publish a modern slavery statement for each financial year, approved by its board or equivalent and linked prominently from your homepage.

Register for the UK Internal Market Scheme

If you regularly move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for sale or use there, apply for the UK Internal Market Scheme. It lets you declare goods 'not at risk' of entering the EU and use the green lane, avoiding full customs declarations and EU tariffs.

Rules of origin for preferential trade

To get reduced or zero tariffs under a UK trade agreement, your goods must originate in the UK under that agreement's rules: wholly obtained here, or processed enough to meet the product-specific rule. You prove origin with a statement on origin or certificate, and keep supporting records for 4 years.

Take samples and equipment abroad temporarily

When you take samples, demonstration kit or exhibition goods out of Great Britain and bring them back, you can avoid paying import duty on them again. Decide how to declare the goods before you travel, use an ATA Carnet where the destination accepts one, and claim Returned Goods Relief when you return.

The six customs valuation methods

The customs value of imported goods determines how much import duty you pay. Part 12 of the Customs (Import Duty) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 sets out six valuation methods that must be applied in strict order. This reference covers each method, the evidence you need, and the most common pitfalls.

Understanding UK export licensing and controls

When you need an export licence, how to apply, and the serious penalties for exporting controlled goods without authorisation.

What the Windsor Framework means for businesses

Since October 2023, the Windsor Framework has governed how goods move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Goods staying in the UK can use the green lane with minimal paperwork, while goods at risk of entering the EU go through the red lane with full customs checks.

When customs debt arises and what HMRC can do

Customs debt can arise long after goods clear the border: breaching a customs warehousing or inward processing condition creates a debt at the duty rate on the date of the breach. Each contravention can also bring a civil penalty of £1,000 or £2,500.

Apply for a Start Up Loan

A Start Up Loan is a government-backed, unsecured personal loan of £500 to £25,000 for starting or growing a business, with free help on your business plan and up to 12 months of free mentoring. You must be 18 or over, live in the UK and have a business trading for less than 5 years.

Associated companies and Corporation Tax

How associated companies rules affect your Corporation Tax rate thresholds and quarterly instalment obligations.

Avoid Self Assessment penalties

Late filing, late payment and failure to notify each carry their own Self Assessment penalty, and several can apply at once. Missing the 31 January online deadline brings an automatic fixed penalty even if you owe nothing, with more to follow. A reasonable excuse can cancel a penalty on appeal.

Business Asset Disposal Relief

How Business Asset Disposal Relief can reduce the Capital Gains Tax you pay when you sell or give away all or part of your business, or shares in your own trading company, who it still saves tax for, who qualifies, how it is worked out against the lifetime limit, and how and when to claim it.

Business funding and grants

Find funding options for your business.

Business support and grants in Northern Ireland

Start with Invest NI, Northern Ireland's economic development agency and the first point of contact for most business support. If you are starting a business, the free Go For It programme gives you an adviser and helps you write a business plan.

Buy a franchise

Buying a franchise gives you an established brand and system in return for fees to the franchisor. No specific franchising law protects you, so the agreement matters most: check the franchisor's accounts, talk to current franchisees and have a franchise solicitor review it before you pay or sign.

Cancel your VAT registration

How to deregister for VAT, including when you must notify HMRC, completing your final VAT return, and accounting for VAT on stock and assets you keep.

Check if you need to register for VAT

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes the registration threshold in any rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to pass the threshold within the next 30 days alone. Under the first test, register within 30 days of the end of the month. Late registration brings penalties and backdated VAT.

Check which VAT you cannot reclaim

You cannot reclaim VAT on hospitality for customers and other business contacts, on most cars, on private purchases, on the costs of exempt supplies, or without a valid invoice from a VAT-registered supplier. Staff entertainment and reasonable hospitality for overseas customers are the main exceptions.

Choose a VAT scheme

Three VAT schemes can save small businesses time or help cash flow. Cash Accounting means you pay VAT only when customers pay you, the Flat Rate Scheme lets you pay a fixed percentage of turnover, and Annual Accounting cuts you to one return a year.

Choose the correct VAT rate

Charge 20% VAT unless a supply is specifically reduced-rated at 5%, zero-rated or exempt. Zero-rated sales still count as taxable and let you reclaim VAT on your costs, but exempt sales do not.

Claim R&D tax relief for your company

How to claim R&D tax relief under the merged scheme and ERIS for innovative UK companies.

Claim Rent a Room relief on income from a lodger

Income from letting furnished accommodation in your only or main home is tax-free up to the Rent a Room limit, and you need do nothing if you stay under it. Over the limit, you file a tax return and choose whether to pay tax on your profit or on your receipts above the limit.

Claim business expenses as a sole trader

As a sole trader you can deduct allowable business expenses from your profits to cut your Income Tax and National Insurance. Costs must be wholly and exclusively for the business, mixed-use costs must be split, and flat rates can replace actual costs for vehicles, home working and living at business premises.

Claim capital allowances for your company

How to claim AIA, full expensing, and writing down allowances on your Corporation Tax return.

Claim interest and costs when a customer pays late

When another business pays you late, you can claim statutory interest on the overdue amount and a fixed sum for each debt, set by its size, plus reasonable recovery costs. Interest runs from the day after payment was due. The rights apply without a contract term, and consumer debts are not covered.

Close company tax rules for owner-managed businesses

What close company status means for your tax obligations, including Section 455 tax on director's loans.

Close your PAYE scheme

How to permanently close your PAYE scheme with HMRC, including final FPS submission, issuing P45s to all employees, paying outstanding tax and National Insurance, and understanding scheme reopening rules.

Complete your VAT return

A VAT return reports the VAT you charged, the VAT you can reclaim and the net value of your sales and purchases. You send it through Making Tax Digital software, usually every three months, and pay by one calendar month and 7 days after the period ends.

Comply with Making Tax Digital for VAT

Every VAT-registered business must keep its VAT records in compatible software and file VAT returns through that software, not the HMRC online account. If you use more than one program, data must pass between them by digital links, not copy-and-paste. Only businesses HMRC exempts can file another way.

Corporation tax loss relief

A company with a trading loss can set it against other profits of the same period, carry it back 12 months for a repayment, carry it forward against future profits while the trade continues, or surrender it to group companies. On cessation, terminal loss relief allows a 36-month carry-back.

Correct PAYE errors

How to fix mistakes in your payroll submissions and HMRC records.

Correct VAT return errors

Correct an error on a past VAT return as soon as you find it. A net error of £10,000 or less, or up to £50,000 and below 1% of your Box 6 figure, can go on your next return. Anything larger must be reported to HMRC separately, online or in writing, and prompt voluntary correction keeps penalties lower.

Correct your Self Assessment return

How to amend your Self Assessment return within the 12-month window, claim overpayments after the window closes, and understand when HMRC can reassess your return through discovery assessments.

Deduct student loan and postgraduate loan repayments

Start deducting student loan and postgraduate loan repayments from the next payday after you learn an employee has a loan, report them on every FPS and pay them with your PAYE bill. Stop only when HMRC sends an SL2 or PGL2 notice, never because the employee asks.

Digital Services Tax compliance

Digital Services Tax charges 2% on UK revenues from search engines, social media services and online marketplaces. It applies only to groups whose worldwide digital services revenues exceed £500 million and whose UK revenues exceed £25 million. Register within 90 days of the end of your first in-scope accounting period.

E-invoicing for VAT invoices

If you are VAT-registered and invoice other businesses or government, the government plans to require e-invoices from April 2029. The rules have not been made yet.

Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

The Enterprise Investment Scheme lets your company raise money from investors who get 30% income tax relief on new shares. Check your company and trade qualify, get advance assurance from HMRC, then submit form EIS1 so you can issue EIS3 certificates and keep the conditions for 3 years.

File your Company Tax Return (CT600)

Every company must file a Company Tax Return (CT600) online for each accounting period, even if it is dormant. You must pay Corporation Tax 9 months and 1 day after the period ends, before the return is due at 12 months, and tag your accounts in iXBRL. Large companies pay in quarterly instalments.

File your Self Assessment tax return

Tell HMRC by 5 October that you need to file, send your return online by 31 January and pay the tax by the same date, with a second payment on account due on 31 July. Missing the filing deadline costs at least £100, even if you owe no tax.

File your final Self Assessment return

If you stop trading as a sole trader or leave a partnership, you must tell HMRC and send a Self Assessment return for the tax year you stopped in, online by the following 31 January. It is where you claim terminal loss relief and balancing allowances and settle the tax.

Finding government grants

Government grants do not have to be repaid, but they are competitive and tightly targeted. Search GOV.UK Find a Grant, your nation's portal and your council, check the location, size and match-funding rules before you apply, and declare any other subsidies you have received in the last 3 years.

Get authorised to operate as a bank

To accept deposits in the UK you need authorisation from the Prudential Regulation Authority, with the Financial Conduct Authority's consent, and accepting deposits without it is a criminal offence. Choose full authorisation or authorisation with restrictions, then build your regulatory business plan, board and capital plans.

Get your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)

You cannot apply for a Unique Taxpayer Reference directly: HMRC issues one when you register for Self Assessment, or when a nominated partner registers a partnership. The 10-digit number arrives by post, typically within 10 working days in the UK. HMRC never sends a UTR by email or phone.

Get your money back after a payment scam

If a fraudster tricks your business into sending a bank transfer, and you are a microenterprise or charity, your bank must normally refund you within five business days of your claim, up to £85,000. Report it within 13 months. Larger businesses rely on the bank's complaints process and the Financial Ombudsman.

Go full-time with your business

Before you give notice, save enough to cover your essential costs for several months, check your contract for restrictive covenants and line up paying customers. Once you start working for yourself, register with HMRC by 5 October after the tax year you began, and set money aside for tax and National Insurance.

Handle a new starter without a P45

What to do when a new employee does not provide a P45 from their previous employer.

Handle an HMRC Self Assessment enquiry

An HMRC enquiry into your Self Assessment return is not an accusation, but you must respond by the deadline or face penalties. Give HMRC exactly the records it asks for, disclose any errors yourself to reduce penalties, and appeal within 30 days if you disagree with the closure notice.

Insurance Act 2015 compliance for businesses

Understanding your disclosure duties and rights when purchasing commercial insurance under the Insurance Act 2015.

Join the VAT Flat Rate Scheme

Under the VAT Flat Rate Scheme, you pay HMRC a fixed percentage of your VAT-inclusive turnover, set by business type, instead of working out VAT on each transaction. You can join if you expect VAT-taxable turnover of £150,000 or less in the next 12 months, and must leave once turnover exceeds £230,000.

Keep business records as a sole trader

Sole traders must keep records of all sales, income and business expenses, with the proof behind them, for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline. Keeping inadequate records can cost up to £3,000 a tax year, and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax requires digital records.

Land Transaction Tax in Wales

How Land Transaction Tax (LTT) works in Wales, including current rates for residential, non-residential, and additional property purchases. LTT replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales from April 2018 and is administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority.

Manage a director's loan account

A director's loan is money you take from your company that is not salary, a dividend or an expense repayment. Loans over £10,000 need shareholder approval and create a taxable benefit, and a loan not repaid within nine months and a day of the accounting period end triggers section 455 tax.

Maternity leave and pay

Every pregnant employee can take up to 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave, whatever their length of service, and Statutory Maternity Pay lasts up to 39 weeks. After Ordinary Maternity Leave they have the right to return to the same job on the same terms.

Opening a business bank account

Limited companies must keep company money in a separate business account, and sole traders and partnerships are strongly advised to. Gather ID, proof of address and your business details, compare fees and features, then apply online; most applications get a decision within a few working days.

PAYE year-end tasks

What employers must do at the end of the tax year for PAYE compliance.

Pay National Insurance when self-employed

Self-employed people pay Class 4 National Insurance on profits above a lower limit, worked out in the Self Assessment return and paid with the tax bill. Class 2 is treated as paid once profits reach the Small Profits Threshold, and is voluntary below it, where it protects your State Pension record.

Pay PAYE to HMRC

Pay your PAYE bill (tax, National Insurance and student loan deductions, less statutory pay you can recover) to HMRC by the 22nd of the tax month after you pay your staff, or the 19th for cheques. Employers with small bills can pay quarterly.

Pay employees who work abroad

When you send an employee to work abroad, you usually keep running PAYE on their pay. Whether you also keep paying UK National Insurance depends on the country and how long they stay, so get a certificate of coverage where an agreement allows the employee to stay in the UK scheme.

Pay your Self Assessment tax bill

How to pay your Self Assessment tax bill, including payment methods, payments on account, Budget Payment Plan, and Time to Pay arrangements.

Plan your Corporation Tax payments

How to pay Corporation Tax on time, including quarterly instalments for large companies and Time to Pay arrangements.

Prepare a cash flow forecast

A cash flow forecast shows, month by month, what you expect to hold in the bank after money comes in and goes out. Enter each item in the month the cash actually moves, including tax and VAT. Any negative month is a funding gap to close before you start.

Prepare for an HMRC PAYE compliance check

What to expect and how to prepare when HMRC reviews your PAYE records.

Protect your business deposits if your bank fails

If your bank, building society or credit union fails, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme pays back your business's deposits up to a set limit per firm, automatically and usually within seven working days. Brands that share a banking licence count as one firm, so check where your money is protected.

Put the right details on an invoice

Every invoice needs a unique number, your details and your customer's, a description, the supply and invoice dates and the amounts charged. Sole traders and partnerships using a business name must add their own names and an address for service, and VAT-registered businesses must issue VAT invoices to VAT-registered customers.

Raise equity investment

To raise equity you sell new shares to investors, who become part-owners. Prepare your pitch and records, check the tax-relief schemes and the rules on approaching investors, agree terms with a specialist solicitor, then issue the shares and file the allotment with Companies House within one month.

Reclaim VAT on business purchases

If you are VAT-registered, you can reclaim VAT on goods and services bought for your taxable business, with a valid VAT invoice, within four years of the due date of the return on which you could first claim. VAT on business entertainment and most cars is blocked, and partly exempt businesses reclaim only part.

Recover statutory payments from HMRC

How to claim back statutory payments (SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP) from HMRC.

Reduce Corporation Tax on patented profits with Patent Box

Patent Box lets a company pay an effective 10% Corporation Tax rate on profits from patented inventions. You must own the patent or hold an exclusive licence, and have developed the invention or significantly developed it further. The nexus fraction ties relief to your own R&D spending.

Register as an employer (PAYE)

How to register with HMRC as an employer before your first payday.

Register as self-employed with HMRC

How to register for Self Assessment as a sole trader, get your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), and understand your National Insurance obligations.

Register for Self Assessment

You must tell HMRC by 5 October after the end of the tax year if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return and have not sent one before. Registering, online or by post, gives you the Unique Taxpayer Reference you need to file. Sole traders earning over £1,000 and business partners must register.

Register your company for Corporation Tax

Step-by-step Corporation Tax registration for new companies.

Renting business premises

When you rent business premises, the lease sets most of your rights and costs, including repairs and how you can leave. In England and Wales, a business tenancy longer than six months usually carries a right to renew unless you agreed to give it up before signing.

Report capital gains on your Self Assessment

You report capital gains on the SA108 pages of your Self Assessment return, due by 31 January after the tax year ends. Gains on UK residential property must also be reported, and the tax paid, within 60 days of completion. Disposals with proceeds over £50,000 must be reported even with no gain.

Report expenses and benefits (P11D)

Report taxable benefits such as company cars, private medical insurance and loans on a P11D for each employee, and a P11D(b) for the business, by 6 July after the tax year ends. Pay Class 1A National Insurance by 22 July, or payroll the benefits instead.

Report property income on your Self Assessment

If you receive rent from UK land or property, report it on the SA105 property pages of your Self Assessment return, unless the £1,000 property allowance or rent-a-room relief covers it. Deduct allowable expenses, claim mortgage interest as a tax reduction, and carry any loss forward.

Run payroll and submit RTI

Each time you pay employees, record their pay, work out deductions and send HMRC a Full Payment Submission on or before payday. Pay HMRC by the 22nd of the next tax month, and send an Employer Payment Summary if you claim reductions or paid no one that month.

Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)

SEIS lets a young company raise up to £250,000 from investors who get 50% income tax relief on new shares. Check your company and trade qualify, get advance assurance from HMRC, submit form SEIS1 and issue SEIS3 certificates, then keep the conditions for 3 years.

Self-funding and bootstrapping

Self-funding lets you keep full ownership of your business, but you carry the risk. Decide how much of your own money you can afford to lose, put it in as a director's loan or share capital, and plan when you will need outside funding.

Set up an Employee Ownership Trust

An Employee Ownership Trust lets you sell your company to a trust holding a controlling interest for all employees, who pay nothing directly. The company funds the price from future profits, often over several years. A qualifying sale gets Capital Gains Tax relief, which can be clawed back within four tax years.

Set up as a sole trader

To set up as a sole trader, register with HMRC for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started trading, keep records of your income and expenses, and file a tax return each year. You are personally responsible for your business debts.

Statutory Sick Pay for employers

You must pay Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to employees who are off sick for 4 or more days in a row. From 6 April 2026 it is payable from the first qualifying day, with no lower earnings limit, for up to 28 weeks through your normal payroll.

Take a customer to the small claims court for an unpaid invoice

Usually yes, if you can prove the debt and the customer can pay. A judgment is a court order to pay. It does not pay you, and you must enforce it yourself.

Tax rules for staff parties, gifts and Christmas bonuses

An annual function open to all employees can be exempt if its total cost is no more than £150 per head. This is a threshold, not an allowance. A benefit costing £50 or less can be exempt if it is non-cash, non-contractual and not a reward for work or performance. Cash bonuses go through payroll.

Transfer pricing rules for UK businesses

Transfer pricing rules require transactions between connected businesses, whether cross-border or within the UK, to be priced as if the parties were independent. Most small and medium-sized businesses are exempt, but larger groups should keep contemporaneous documentation to show HMRC their pricing is at arm's length.

Understand PAYE tax codes

A PAYE tax code tells you how much of an employee's pay is tax-free before you deduct Income Tax. Work out a new starter's code from their P45 or starter declaration, then use the code HMRC sends: you cannot change a code yourself.

Understand Self Assessment supplementary pages

The SA100 Self Assessment return is the main form, but most people also need supplementary pages for particular income: SA102 for each employment, SA103 for self-employment, SA104 for partnerships and SA105 for property. Complete only the pages that apply, choosing the short or full version where both exist.

Understand how Corporation Tax works

Limited companies pay Corporation Tax on their profits for each accounting period. Register with HMRC when the company starts doing business, pay 9 months and 1 day after the period ends, and file the Company Tax Return within 12 months, even if the company has no tax to pay.

Understand the taxes your limited company pays

A limited company deals with four taxes. These are Corporation Tax on its profits, VAT once taxable turnover passes £90,000, PAYE on any salary it pays, and Self Assessment for a director's own untaxed income. Companies House and HMRC set separate deadlines and penalties.

Understanding HMRC enquiries

HMRC can usually open an enquiry into a return filed on time within 12 months of receiving it. After that, HMRC can still raise a discovery assessment, normally within 4 years, 6 years if you were careless, 12 years for offshore matters and 20 years if deliberate.

Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, with lower thresholds from 2027 and 2028. You keep digital records, send quarterly updates through compatible software and submit your tax return by 31 January.

Use VAT Cash Accounting

Under the VAT Cash Accounting Scheme, you pay VAT to HMRC when customers pay you and reclaim it when you pay suppliers, rather than when invoices are issued. You can join if taxable turnover will not exceed £1.35 million in the next 12 months, and must leave above £1.6 million.

Use the trading allowance

The trading allowance lets individuals earn up to £1,000 a tax year in 2026/27 from self-employment or casual work without paying tax on it. You must choose either the allowance or your actual expenses, never both. Claim expenses instead if they are higher, or if you made a loss you want relief for.

VAT and tax on exports

Zero-rating exports, evidence requirements, rules of origin, and claiming tariff-free trade under UK agreements.

VAT invoice requirements

If you are VAT-registered, you must issue a VAT invoice for most sales to other VAT-registered businesses, within 30 days of the supply. Sales over £250 need a full invoice, and missing details can stop your customer reclaiming the VAT.

Voluntary VAT registration - pros and cons

A business below the VAT registration threshold can still register voluntarily. It can then reclaim VAT on its purchases, but must charge VAT on most sales, keep VAT records and file returns through Making Tax Digital software. That suits businesses selling to VAT-registered customers better than those selling to consumers.

What a payslip must show

Yes. In Great Britain, employees and workers must generally get an itemised payslip at or before each payment, showing gross pay, deductions, net pay and, for time-based pay, hours worked.

Work out the VAT on online sales to customers abroad

Goods you send out of the UK are zero-rated if you hold proof of export within 3 months. Services to business customers abroad fall outside UK VAT, and digital services to consumers abroad are taxed where the consumer lives, so you may owe VAT or its equivalent in the customer's country.

Work out the tax point for a VAT sale

A sale's tax point decides which VAT return and which rate apply. It is normally the day goods leave or work is finished, but an invoice sent or payment received earlier, or an invoice issued within 14 days afterwards, moves it. You account for the VAT before the customer pays.

Work out which Corporation Tax rate applies to your profits

Corporation Tax is charged at the small profits rate on profits up to £50,000 and at the main rate above £250,000, with marginal relief in between. Both limits are cut for short accounting periods and for each associated company, and close investment-holding companies always pay the main rate.

Auto-enrolment penalties and TPR enforcement

The Pensions Regulator usually starts with a compliance notice. If you ignore it, you face a £400 fixed penalty and then escalating daily penalties of £50 to £10,000, depending on how many workers you have.

Bereavement and pregnancy loss leave for employees

Yes, when a dependant dies or an employee's child dies. Other deaths and pregnancy loss before 24 weeks carry no right yet, but the government plans one from April 2027.

Changes to trade union rights for employers

The Employment Rights Act 2025 gives trade unions a statutory right to access workplaces, allows electronic and workplace balloting and simplifies statutory recognition. The government plans that from 1 January 2027 you must tell workers in writing that they have the right to join a union. The reforms do not apply in Northern Ireland.

Check someone's right to work

Before anyone does any work for you, including a trial shift, check their right to work in the UK, whatever their nationality. A correct check gives you a statutory excuse; without one, you face a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per illegal worker, or £60,000 for a repeat breach.

Check statutory family leave and pay rates

Compare statutory paternity, adoption and shared parental leave and pay side by side: how long each lasts, how pay is worked out, who qualifies, what notice employees must give and how employers reclaim the cost from HMRC.

Check whether someone is an employee, worker or self-employed

Whether someone is an employee, a worker or self-employed depends on how they really work for you, not on what their contract says. Getting it wrong can mean back tax and National Insurance, penalties and tribunal claims for holiday pay, sick pay and unfair dismissal.

Choose a workplace pension scheme

How to select a qualifying pension scheme for auto-enrolment. Compares master trusts (NEST, People's Pension), group personal pensions, and occupational schemes by charges, features, and suitability for different employer sizes.

Complete your declaration of compliance

Within 5 months of your duties start date, declare to The Pensions Regulator online that you have met your auto-enrolment duties. You must declare even if nobody was enrolled, and missing the deadline brings a £400 fixed penalty.

Consult on collective redundancies

Updated guidance on collective redundancy consultation following ERA 2025 changes, including doubled protective award and new organisation-wide threshold.

Dismiss an employee fairly

A dismissal is fair only if you can show a fair reason and acted reasonably, which usually means following a fair procedure. Employees need 2 years' service to claim ordinary unfair dismissal, falling to 6 months for dismissals taking effect from 1 January 2027, when the cap on compensation also goes.

Engage and manage agency workers

From their first day, agency workers must have equal access to your facilities and hear about permanent vacancies. After 12 weeks in the same role they are entitled to the same basic pay and working conditions as direct recruits, and you share liability with the agency if that goes wrong.

Family leave: employer checklist

Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are now day-one rights under the Employment Rights Act 2025, so remove any service requirement from your policies and HR system. Statutory Paternity Pay still depends on the lower earnings limit, and parental leave stays unpaid.

Follow anti-discrimination law in Northern Ireland

The Equality Act 2010 does not apply to employment in Northern Ireland. Employers there follow a separate law for each protected ground, including the Fair Employment and Treatment Order 1998, which covers religious belief, philosophical belief and political opinion. Claims go to the Industrial Tribunal or the Fair Employment Tribunal.

Fund apprenticeship training

You pay for apprenticeship training in England through the apprenticeship service. Levy payers spend the funds in their account, and other employers reserve government funding. The government pays the full cost for apprentices aged 16 to 24, up to the funding band maximum, and shares the cost for older apprentices.

Get a DBS check for a new employee or volunteer

Anyone can ask for a basic DBS check, but you can ask for a standard or enhanced check only for roles the law lists, and for the barred lists only for regulated activity. Apply through the right body, see the original certificate and destroy the information within about six months.

Give new staff a written statement of their employment terms

You must give every new employee and worker a written statement of their main terms on or before their first day, and the rest within 2 months, and tell them in writing about changes within a month. A tribunal can award 2 to 4 weeks' pay if you fail.

Giving and asking for employment references

Usually no. You must give a reference only if you promised one in writing or FCA or PRA rules require it, and any reference you give must be fair and accurate.

Handle SPL curtailment, disputed eligibility and refused-booking disputes

How to manage the dispute surface around Shared Parental Leave - curtailment-notice withdrawals, partner eligibility challenges, refusing discontinuous bookings correctly, and the HMRC and Employment Tribunal routes for ShPP and detriment claims.

Handle industrial action

A union can call lawful industrial action only after a properly run ballot and at least 10 days' written notice to you. You do not have to pay strikers for time not worked, but you cannot bring in agency staff to cover, and dismissing someone for taking part in protected action is automatically unfair.

Handle statutory adoption leave and pay

When an employee is matched with a child for adoption, the main adopter can take up to 52 weeks' adoption leave and up to 39 weeks' Statutory Adoption Pay, if they have 26 weeks' continuous service by the week they are matched. Only one parent in a couple can be the main adopter.

Handle statutory paternity leave and pay (post-2024 rules)

An eligible employee can take up to 2 weeks' paternity leave, as one block or two separate weeks, at any time in the 52 weeks after a birth or placement. They must give you 28 days' notice of each period, and you cannot refuse leave that meets the rules.

Holiday entitlement and pay

Understanding statutory holiday entitlement and holiday pay.

How Shared Parental Leave works

Shared Parental Leave is not extra leave. The birth parent or main adopter ends maternity or adoption leave early, and the unused weeks, up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay, become a pool both parents can share in the first year.

How employment law differs in Northern Ireland

Employment law in Northern Ireland is separate from Great Britain's. It mostly has the same effect but sits in different legislation, and new Westminster employment Acts don't automatically apply. Disputes go to the Labour Relations Agency, not Acas, and to Industrial Tribunals.

Information and consultation requirements (ICE)

Requirements under the ICE Regulations 2004 for informing and consulting employees about business decisions.

Liability for an umbrella company's unpaid tax

Usually yes, if you hold the end-client contract as the agency, or are the end client with no agency. HMRC can recover the unpaid tax from you.

Make employees redundant when closing your business

Closing your whole business does not excuse you from consulting staff before making them redundant. If you propose 20 or more redundancies at one site, you must consult for at least 30 days and notify the government first. Employees with 2 years' service are owed statutory redundancy pay.

Make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees

If you know, or ought to know, that a disabled employee or job applicant is at a substantial disadvantage, you must make reasonable adjustments to remove it. Failing to do so is discrimination in itself, and Access to Work funding can cover much of the cost.

Manage redundancies correctly

To make redundancies fairly, consult the people affected, choose who goes using fair and objective criteria, and pay statutory redundancy pay to employees with 2 years' service. Proposing 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days triggers collective consultation.

Meet Fair Work First requirements

How to meet the mandatory and encouraged Fair Work First criteria when applying for Scottish public sector grants or contracts.

Pay Statutory Sick Pay

Since 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay is due from the first full day of sickness, whatever the employee earns. Pay 80% of their weekly earnings or the flat rate, whichever is lower, and check your payroll system does this.

Pay men and women equally for equal work

You must give a woman and a man equal pay and contract terms when they do like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value, unless a genuine material factor other than sex explains the difference. Arrears can reach back several years, and the Act sets no cap on compensation.

Pay the Apprenticeship Levy

You pay the Apprenticeship Levy if your annual pay bill, added to that of any connected companies or charities, is more than £3 million. You work it out each month, report it on your Employer Payment Summary and pay it with the rest of your PAYE bill.

Pay your partner or children through your business

Yes, if the work is real and the pay matches it. Relatives get at least the minimum wage unless they meet the narrow household exemption.

Paying the National Minimum Wage

Your obligations for minimum wage and record keeping.

Plan for the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being brought in by stages. SSP from the first day, day-one paternity and parental leave and the Fair Work Agency arrived in April 2026, tribunal time limits and harassment duties in October, and the 6-month unfair dismissal qualifying period follows on 1 January 2027.

Prepare for the new rules on zero-hours contracts

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will require employers to offer guaranteed hours to qualifying zero-hours and low-hours workers, give reasonable notice of shifts and pay when they cancel, move or shorten a shift at short notice. These rights are not in force and have no start date.

Prevent discrimination at work

You must not discriminate against job applicants, employees or workers because of a protected characteristic, and you are liable for what your staff do unless you took all reasonable steps to prevent it. From 30 October 2026 that includes harassment by customers and other third parties. Discrimination compensation is unlimited.

Prevent workplace harassment

Every employer must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its employees. From 30 October 2026 you are liable when a customer, client or other third party harasses an employee and you did not take all reasonable steps to stop it. A breach can add up to 25% to a sexual harassment award.

Protect employees when a business transfers under TUPE

When a business changes hands or a service changes provider, TUPE moves the employees to the new employer on their existing terms, with continuous service kept. Both employers must inform and consult staff, and dismissals because of the transfer are automatically unfair unless there is an ETO reason.

Re-enrol staff into a workplace pension every three years

Every three years, re-assess workers who opted out of or left your pension scheme, re-enrol those who are eligible and send The Pensions Regulator a new declaration of compliance. You can move your re-enrolment date up to three months either way.

Recruit international talent with Scale-Up Visa

How to sponsor skilled workers on the Scale-Up Visa route for high-growth businesses.

Register and monitor your workforce for fair employment

If you employ more than 10 people in Northern Ireland, you must register with the Equality Commission within one month, record the community background of your staff and applicants, send a monitoring return every year and review your employment practices at least every three years.

Respond to a trade union recognition request

When a union asks you in writing to recognise it, you have 10 working days to agree, refuse or offer to negotiate. If you refuse and employ at least 21 workers, the union can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee, which can declare it recognised to bargain on pay, hours and holidays.

Respond to an employment tribunal claim

If a tribunal claim is brought against your business, submit your ET3 response within 28 days of the claim being sent to you, or the tribunal may give judgment against you without a hearing. Most claims are resolved before a hearing, many through Acas early conciliation.

Salary sacrifice pension arrangements

Under salary sacrifice, an employee gives up part of their salary and you pay it into their pension instead, so neither of you pays National Insurance on it. It needs a written contract change made in advance, and cash pay must not fall below the National Minimum Wage.

Settlement agreements

A settlement agreement stops an employee bringing the tribunal claims it lists, but only if it is in writing and the employee has advice from a named, insured independent adviser. It cannot waive whistleblowing rights.

Sponsor overseas workers

To employ someone from outside the UK who is not an Irish citizen or settled here, you need a Home Office sponsor licence. Apply online, appoint key personnel, assign a certificate of sponsorship to each worker and pay the fees, then keep records and report changes within set deadlines.

Start a business while you're still employed

You can usually start a business while you are employed. You only have to tell your employer if your contract or job requires it, but your contract and your duty not to compete with your employer or misuse its information set the limits.

Unpaid trial shifts and the minimum wage

A trial can be unpaid only as a short assessment, not work. If the person does work for you, you must pay at least the minimum wage.

Update employment contracts for the Employment Rights Act 2025

Several contract clauses and handbook references need changing as the Employment Rights Act 2025 takes effect: sick pay, paternity and unpaid parental leave, tribunal time limits, the unfair dismissal qualifying period, clauses that let you vary terms, and the trade union rights statement due with written statements.

What employers can and cannot do in fire and rehire

Once section 28 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 commences, dismissing staff to re-engage them on worse terms will be automatically unfair, except in a genuine financial crisis threatening the business. Until then, follow existing dismissal law and the Acas Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement.

What the Fair Work Agency means for employers

The Fair Work Agency launched on 7 April 2026 as a single enforcement body for employment rights, bringing together the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. HMRC's National Minimum Wage enforcement transfers to it in April 2027, and holiday pay and sick pay enforcement are expected to follow.

Worker categories for auto-enrolment

You must automatically enrol workers aged 22 to State Pension age who earn over £10,000 a year. Younger, older or lower-paid workers can ask to join, and you must pay employer contributions for those earning over £6,240.

Working time limits and rest breaks

Workers must not work more than 48 hours a week on average, usually over 17 weeks, unless they freely sign an opt-out. They are also entitled to 11 hours' rest between working days, weekly rest, rest breaks and paid annual leave.

Your auto-enrolment duties for workplace pensions

From your first employee, you must check whether each worker is eligible and automatically enrol those aged 22 to State Pension age who earn enough into a workplace pension, then pay at least the minimum employer contribution. Workers can opt out, but you cannot encourage them to.

AI and copyright for businesses

The current UK legal position on AI and copyright, including training data risks, AI-generated content ownership, and pending government reforms.

AI bias and equality law

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers and service providers are liable for discriminatory outcomes from AI even if nobody intended them. Biased training data and proxies such as postcode can produce indirect discrimination against protected groups. Test systems for bias, and be ready to justify any disparate impact they cause.

AI regulation timeline and key dates

AI rules in the UK and EU run on different timelines. The EU AI Act bans prohibited practices from 2 February 2025 and phases in duties for general-purpose and high-risk AI after that. In the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025's automated decision-making rules commenced on 5 February 2026.

AI transparency and explainability obligations

If your AI makes or supports decisions about people, UK GDPR requires you to tell them it exists and give meaningful information about its logic and consequences. Where a significant decision is solely automated, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 safeguards let them obtain human intervention, give their view and contest it.

Apply to Natural Resources Wales for an environmental permit

If your business in Wales carries out activities that could affect the environment, apply to Natural Resources Wales for your permits and licences, not to the Environment Agency. Operating a regulated activity without the right NRW permit is a criminal offence.

Appoint a competent person for health and safety

From your first employee, you must appoint at least one competent person to help you meet your health and safety duties. In a small, low-risk business that can be you, and the law prefers someone from your own workforce to an outside consultant.

Assess the fire risk of your building's external walls

If your building has two or more flats, your fire risk assessment must cover the structure and external walls, including cladding, balconies, and windows and doors in them. Where it finds concerns, a specialist appraises the walls, and high-rise buildings must send an external wall record to the fire service.

Assess your AI compliance obligations

The UK has no single AI Act: existing regulators apply five principles to AI within their remits, so your duties depend on what your AI does and whose data it uses. Inventory every AI system, map each to its regulators, carry out a DPIA where processing is high risk, and check equality impacts.

Avoid unfair trading practices

You must not mislead consumers, hide information they need or pressure them unfairly, and 32 practices are banned outright. Since 6 April 2025 these rules sit in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and the CMA can fine up to 10% of global turnover.

Avoid wrongful trading as a company director

If your company enters insolvent liquidation or administration, section 214 of the Insolvency Act 1986 can make you personally liable for its debts if you knew, or ought to have concluded, that insolvency was unavoidable. Your defence is proving you then took every step to minimise creditors' losses.

Battery producer responsibility

If you make or import batteries for sale in the UK, including batteries inside products, you are a producer and must register and pay towards collecting and recycling waste batteries. Producers of more than 1 tonne of portable batteries a year must join a Battery Compliance Scheme.

Business insurance types quick reference

Employers' liability insurance is compulsory if you employ anyone, with at least £5m cover, and business vehicles need motor insurance. Some regulated professions must also hold professional indemnity insurance; public liability, cyber and business interruption cover are recommended rather than required.

Business interruption insurance

Business interruption insurance pays the gross profit you lose when an insured event such as a fire or flood stops you trading. It only pays out if you also have a valid claim under your property policy, so set the indemnity period to cover a realistic recovery time.

Business licences by activity type

Selling alcohol needs a premises licence from your council, and every food business must register with environmental health at least 28 days before trading. Carrying waste, street trading and working in a regulated profession each need their own licence or registration.

Carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA)

Before starting any processing likely to pose a high risk to people's privacy, such as large-scale use of sensitive data or systematic monitoring, you must carry out a data protection impact assessment. If you cannot reduce a high risk, consult the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) before you begin.

Carry out a noise risk assessment

If anyone who works for you is likely to be exposed to noise at or above 80 dB(A) on average, or 135 dB(C) at peak, you must assess the risk. You can often estimate exposure from manufacturer data or HSE figures without buying a sound level meter.

Carry out a workplace risk assessment

Every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks its work poses to employees and anyone else affected, act on it, and review it when it may no longer be valid. With 5 or more employees you must record the significant findings in writing.

Check the fire doors in a block of flats

If your block of flats in England has a top storey above 11 metres, you must check communal fire doors every 3 months and use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors every 12 months, including self-closing devices. Every block with common parts must also tell residents how fire doors protect them.

Choose a company rescue or insolvency procedure

If your company cannot pay its debts, an insolvency practitioner can help you rescue it through a company voluntary arrangement or administration, or close it through a creditors' voluntary liquidation. Act early, because an unpaid creditor can ask the court to wind the company up.

Choose a competent fire risk assessor

Whoever carries out your fire risk assessment must be competent for your type of premises, whether that is you, a member of staff or an outside assessor. Small, low-risk premises suit self-assessment; for anything else, prefer an assessor certificated by a recognised third-party scheme.

Choosing the right business insurance

Start with the insurance the law requires: if you employ anyone, you must have employers' liability insurance with at least £5 million cover, and business vehicles need motor insurance. Then add cover your contracts demand, and finally insure against the risks your business actually faces.

Classify and label chemicals for the GB market

If you make, import or supply hazardous chemicals in Great Britain, you must classify them, label and package them under the GB CLP Regulation and provide safety data sheets. Chemicals placed on the Northern Ireland market follow EU CLP instead.

Comparing business insurance policies

When comparing business insurance quotes, look beyond price at the cover limits, excesses, exclusions and policy basis, because the cheapest policy often covers less. When you take out or renew a policy, you must disclose every material fact, or a claim may fail.

Comply with COSHH regulations for hazardous substances

Under the COSHH Regulations 2002 you must prevent or adequately control your employees' exposure to hazardous substances. Assess each substance before work starts, apply the hierarchy of controls, keep exposure below workplace exposure limits, and provide health surveillance where it is needed, keeping its records for 40 years.

Comply with PPE regulations

When other controls cannot adequately control a risk, provide suitable personal protective equipment free of charge, maintain it and train people to use it. Since 6 April 2022 this duty also covers limb (b) workers, such as casual and gig workers, not just employees.

Comply with display screen equipment regulations

If staff use screens daily for an hour or more at a time, including at home, you must assess their workstations and fix problems. You must also pay for an eye test when they ask, and for basic glasses needed for screen work.

Comply with manual handling regulations

Avoid hazardous manual handling wherever you reasonably can. Where you can't, assess the risks using the TILE factors (task, individual, load and environment) and reduce them with lifting aids, better layouts or job rotation. Training alone is not enough.

Comply with noise at work regulations

If daily noise exposure reaches 80 dB(A), you must assess the risks, make hearing protection available and inform workers. At 85 dB(A), you must reduce exposure, provide hearing protection, mark hearing protection zones and offer regular hearing checks.

Comply with the Bribery Act 2010

Under the Bribery Act 2010, your organisation commits a crime if anyone acting for it pays a bribe anywhere in the world, even without your knowledge, unless you can prove you had adequate procedures to prevent it. Individuals face up to 10 years in prison.

Comply with your environmental permit

You must follow every condition of your environmental permit, keep a written management system and send the monitoring data it requires. The Environment Agency inspects, scores each breach and can prosecute, with up to 5 years in prison for breaching a condition.

Construction safety under CDM (NI) 2016

Construction projects in Northern Ireland come under CDM (NI) 2016, which mirrors the GB regulations but is enforced by HSENI. Send an F10 notice to HSENI before construction starts if the work will last more than 30 working days with over 20 workers at once, or exceed 500 person days.

Create a data retention policy

UK GDPR forbids keeping personal data longer than you need it, so set a written retention period for each type of data, delete or securely dispose of it when that period ends, and review the policy regularly. Without one, you cannot show the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) you manage retention lawfully.

Creditor priority in company insolvency

In a liquidation or administration, the Insolvency Act 1986 sets a strict order of payment. Fixed charge holders come first from their assets, then the costs of the process, preferential debts such as wages and some HMRC debts, and floating charge holders. Unsecured creditors come last and often receive little.

Cyber insurance for businesses

Cyber insurance covers your own costs after a cyber attack or data breach, such as investigation, notification and lost income, and claims others bring against you. It does not replace good security or UK GDPR compliance, and insurers may require basic controls before they cover you.

Data protection for businesses

UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to any business that uses information about living people, such as customers or staff. You need a lawful basis for each use, must tell people how you use their data and keep it secure, and most businesses must pay a yearly fee to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO).

Electronic marketing rules (PECR)

You need consent to send marketing emails or texts to individuals, unless the soft opt-in for existing customers applies, and you must not make marketing calls to numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service without consent. Fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide turnover.

Employ young people safely

Before you employ anyone under 18 you must carry out a specific risk assessment, keep them off work that is beyond them or harmful, and respect their limits on hours, rest and night work. For a child under school-leaving age, tell a parent about the risks first.

Employers' liability insurance

You must hold at least £5 million of employers' liability insurance from the day you hire your first employee, even a part-timer. Each day without it can bring a £2,500 fine, and the few exemptions include businesses that employ only close family.

Equality and menopause action plans for large employers

Requirements for mandatory gender pay gap action plans and menopause support action plans for employers with 250 or more employees, introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. Expected to commence in 2027.

Establish emergency procedures for your workplace

Every employer must set procedures for any serious and imminent danger, not just fire, and nominate enough competent people to lead an evacuation. Arrange contacts with outside services for first aid, emergency medical care and rescue before you need them.

Farm safety duties in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has the UK's highest farm fatality rate, and farms are HSENI's top enforcement priority. The main killers are falls from height, livestock, machinery and slurry gas, so guard every PTO shaft, fit roll-over protection to tractors and never enter a slurry tank.

File your company accounts with Companies House

How to prepare and file annual accounts for your limited company, including filing deadlines, size thresholds for simplified accounts, audit exemption rules, and late filing penalties under the Companies Act 2006.

File your confirmation statement

File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.

Fire safety duties for landlords of residential properties

A landlord's fire safety duties depend on the property. Single lets need smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and fire-safe furniture, HMOs need fire risk assessments, and in blocks of flats you are responsible for the common parts and external walls. Breaches can bring unlimited fines and up to 2 years in prison.

Gender pay gap reporting

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large employers and transparency obligations.

Get cookie consent under PECR

If your website uses cookies or similar tracking, tell visitors about them and get their consent before setting any that are not exempt, such as those strictly necessary for the service they asked for. Since the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover.

Give residents their fire safety instructions

In a building with two or more flats and common parts, you must display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous place, give them to new residents, and reissue them to all residents every 12 months. They cover the evacuation strategy and how to report a fire. Fire door information follows the same timetable.

HSE improvement notices, prohibition notices and prosecution

Inspectors can visit without notice. If they find a breach, an improvement notice gives you a deadline to put it right, and a prohibition notice stops dangerous work at once. You can appeal to an employment tribunal within 21 days, but ignoring a notice is a criminal offence.

Handle whistleblowing and protected disclosures

Workers who report wrongdoing in the public interest are protected by law. Dismissing someone for whistleblowing is automatically unfair from day one, with uncapped compensation, and you must not subject them to any other detriment.

Health and safety in shared workplaces

If you share a workplace with other employers, even for a short time while contractors are on site, you must cooperate with them, coordinate your health and safety measures and share information about risks. Host employers must also tell visiting workers about risks and emergency procedures.

Health surveillance at work

If your risk assessment shows workers still face harm from specific hazards after controls, such as noise, vibration, hazardous substances, lead or asbestos, you must run regular health checks to spot early signs of ill health. For noise, hearing checks start at 85 dB(A).

How HSENI regulates workplace safety in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland runs its own workplace health and safety system under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. HSENI and the 11 district councils enforce it, and new GB regulations usually reach NI as separate statutory rules, sometimes with different commencement dates.

How UK AI regulation works

There is no AI regulator to register with in the UK, so the rules that apply depend on what your system does and which sector it works in. Regulators such as the Information Commission, FCA and Ofcom apply their existing powers, and an AI Bill is expected to put the five principles into law.

How business regulation differs between Scotland and England

Key regulatory differences for businesses operating in both Scotland and England, covering licensing, planning, rates, employment, and tax.

How doing business in Wales differs from England

Wales has its own laws on planning, business rates, property tax, the environment, the Welsh language and more, so rules that work in England may not apply. Examples include Land Transaction Tax instead of Stamp Duty Land Tax and Natural Resources Wales instead of the Environment Agency.

How to conduct a fire risk assessment

If you are responsible for business premises in England or Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. It identifies the hazards and who might be harmed, sets the precautions you need, and must be recorded in writing whatever the size of your business.

Identify the responsible person for fire safety in your building

The responsible person for fire safety is the employer who controls a workplace, otherwise the person who controls the premises for a business or other undertaking, otherwise the owner. A building can have several, and each must find out who the others are, cooperate and coordinate.

Keep business records after closing

Closing your business does not end your duty to keep its records. Tax records go back 5 or 6 years, counted from the tax year or financial year they relate to, not the day you close, and failing to keep them can cost up to £3,000.

Keep lone workers safe

You must manage the health and safety risks to anyone who works alone for you, including self-employed contractors and people working from home. Assess the risks before the work starts, put controls in place, keep in touch with them and have emergency procedures ready.

Keep the right employment records

Employers must keep minimum wage, right-to-work, working time, annual leave, PAYE, pension and statutory pay records, each for its own period: two years for working time, six for minimum wage, annual leave and pensions. Failing to keep minimum wage, working time or annual leave records is a criminal offence.

Local authority approvals for new businesses

Before you sign a lease or buy premises, check that your business is allowed under the building's planning use class. If you need change-of-use permission, it can take 8 to 13 weeks and may be refused.

Maintain fire safety equipment

As the responsible person you must keep fire alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting, fire doors and escape routes in efficient working order. Government guidance gives daily, weekly, monthly, six-monthly and annual checks, with a competent person servicing the main systems, and a log book recording the results.

Maintain your import records

Keep your customs declarations, commercial invoices, transport documents, proof of origin and import VAT evidence so HMRC can check the duty and VAT you paid. Customs records need four years and VAT records six, and C79 certificates and postponed VAT statements disappear online after six months.

Making a business insurance claim

After a loss, make the area safe, tell your insurer as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours, and photograph the damage before any clean-up. Keep damaged items for the loss adjuster, and if your claim is rejected, complain to the insurer and then the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Manage asbestos in non-domestic buildings

If you are responsible for maintaining a non-domestic building built before 2000, you must find out whether it contains asbestos, record where it is and plan how to manage it. Higher-risk work, such as removing asbestos insulation board for more than 2 hours a week, needs an HSE-licensed contractor.

Manage legionella risk in water systems

If you run or maintain a building's water systems, as an employer or landlord, you must assess the legionella risk and control it. This applies to any premises with hot and cold water, not just large sites, and you must appoint a competent person to manage the controls.

Manage work-related stress

You must assess the risk of work-related stress as you would any other health risk, act on what you find and, with 5 or more employees, write the assessment down. HSE's six Management Standards give you a structure for finding the causes and fixing them across the organisation before you support individuals.

Manage your business's reputation

How to collect and publish customer reviews lawfully, use testimonials and case studies in your marketing, respond to negative reviews and complaints, handle the press, and use certification and awards to build trust as your business grows.

Meet Welsh language requirements as a public sector contractor

Public bodies in Wales under Welsh Language Standards answer for the services their contractors deliver, so tenders and contracts carry Welsh-language terms. The Welsh Language Commissioner can also give some contractors a compliance notice directly, with civil penalties of up to £5,000 for failures.

Meet fire safety requirements for your business premises

If you control business premises in England or Wales, you are a responsible person under the Fire Safety Order 2005. You must assess and record fire risks, put in place suitable detection, escape and firefighting measures, maintain them, train your staff and never charge them for any of it.

Meet the fire safety duties for a high-rise residential building

If you are responsible for a block of flats in England at least 18 metres high or with seven or more storeys, extra duties apply. You must keep a secure information box, send plans and an external wall record to the fire service, mark floors, check equipment monthly and instruct residents.

Meet your fire safety duties in Northern Ireland

If you employ people or control non-domestic premises in Northern Ireland, you must assess the fire risks, put proportionate fire safety measures in place and train your staff. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service enforces the rules, and failing to comply when it puts people at risk is a criminal offence.

Meet your fire safety duties in Scotland

If you employ people or control any part of non-domestic premises in Scotland, you must assess the fire risks, take reasonable fire safety measures and review the assessment. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service enforces this, and a failure that endangers life can mean a heavy fine or up to 2 years in prison.

Meet your health and safety duties to agency and temporary workers

When an agency supplies workers to your site, you direct their work and control the premises, so day-to-day responsibility for their safety is yours. Tell the agency what skills the job needs and what risks it carries, give workers an induction, and agree who provides personal protective equipment.

Pay the data protection fee to the Information Commission

Almost every business that keeps records about people, such as customers, staff or CCTV footage, must pay the annual data protection fee to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO). Only a few narrow exemptions apply, and you must renew every year.

Penalties for trading without required approvals

Trading without a required licence, registration or insurance can lead to warnings, improvement notices, closure orders or prosecution, with penalties up to unlimited fines and imprisonment. If you find something is missing, put it right at once: regulators usually treat businesses that self-report more favourably.

Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register requirements

Every UK company and LLP must identify anyone with significant control, usually holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights or able to appoint most of the board, and report them to Companies House. Failing to comply is a criminal offence that can bring imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Prepare for EU AI Act high-risk obligations

If you develop or deploy AI in the EU for high-risk uses such as recruitment, creditworthiness or access to essential services, the EU AI Act requires conformity assessment, technical documentation, quality management and post-market monitoring. Start by classifying every system, and allow 6 to 12 months to prepare each high-risk one.

Prevent fraud under the failure to prevent fraud offence

Since 1 September 2025, a large organisation commits a crime if an employee, agent or other associated person commits fraud intending to benefit it. The only defence is proving you had reasonable fraud prevention procedures in place, so build them now.

Principles of prevention and hierarchy of controls

The law requires you to control workplace risks starting with the most effective measures: eliminate the hazard if you can, then reduce, isolate and control it. Personal protective equipment comes last, used only when higher-level controls are not enough.

Product liability and insurance

How strict liability under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 works in practice, what statutory defences are available, and why products liability insurance is essential for manufacturers, importers, and retailers.

Professional indemnity insurance for businesses

Professional indemnity insurance pays claims that your advice, designs or other professional work caused a client financial loss. Some regulators require it. Policies cover claims made while the policy is in force, so you need unbroken cover while you work and run-off cover after you stop.

Professional registrations in regulated sectors

Which business sectors require professional or regulator registration before trading, what the registration process involves, and how long it typically takes to obtain approval.

Protect creditors as a director of an insolvent company

Once your company is insolvent, you must act in its creditors' interests. Do not pay favoured creditors first, sell assets cheaply or keep trading when insolvent liquidation cannot be avoided, or a liquidator can make you personally liable and you can be disqualified as a director for up to 15 years.

Protect new and expectant mothers at work

Once an employee tells you in writing that she is pregnant, has given birth in the last 6 months or is breastfeeding, you must assess the risks to her at once, without waiting for a medical certificate, and remove any you find.

Provide a safe and healthy workplace environment

Every workplace must have a reasonable temperature, ventilation, lighting, enough space, toilets and somewhere to rest. HSE suggests at least 16°C for desk work, or 13°C for physical work; there is no legal maximum, but you must still manage heat risks.

Provide first aid at work

Every employer must assess its first aid needs and provide enough trained people, equipment and procedures to help anyone injured or taken ill at work. A small, low-risk office may need only an appointed person and a stocked first aid box; higher-risk sites need trained first aiders.

Provide health and safety information to employees

Your legal duty under MHSWR 1999 Regulation 10 to provide comprehensible and relevant health and safety information to employees, including risk assessment findings, emergency procedures, and the H&S Law poster requirement.

Recognise and report occupational diseases

Report an occupational disease to HSE under RIDDOR when a doctor diagnoses a worker in writing with a listed disease and their job involves the work activity linked to it. Both conditions must be met; watch for symptoms that improve away from work.

Register chemicals under UK REACH

If you make chemical substances in Great Britain or import them from anywhere else, including the EU, you must register each one with HSE under UK REACH, whatever you registered under EU REACH. Each legal entity registers separately, with deadlines set by tonnage.

Report a cyber incident

Report cyber crime such as ransomware or fraud to Report Fraud, or Police Scotland in Scotland, and serious attacks to the NCSC. If personal data is affected and people are at risk, you must also report to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) within 72 hours.

Report a workplace accident or incident to HSENI (RIDDOR NI)

In Northern Ireland, RIDDOR (NI) 1997 requires you to report a work injury that stops someone doing their normal work for more than 3 consecutive days, not the 7 days used in Great Britain. Report to HSENI: failing to report a reportable incident is a criminal offence.

Report a workplace injury, disease or dangerous occurrence under RIDDOR

In Great Britain, report a work-related death, specified injury or dangerous occurrence to HSE immediately. An injury that keeps a worker off normal duties for more than 7 days must be reported within 15 days of the accident.

Respond to HSENI enforcement action

If HSENI or a district council serves your business with an improvement or prohibition notice, you can appeal to an industrial tribunal within 21 days of service. An improvement notice gives at least 21 days to put things right, and Northern Ireland has no Fee for Intervention.

Respond to a personal data breach

If a personal data breach poses a risk to people, report it to the Information Commission within 72 hours of becoming reasonably certain it happened, even before you know all the details. Tell the people affected without undue delay if the risk to them is high, and record every breach.

Respond to a ransomware attack

If ransomware hits, disconnect affected systems from the network straight away but don't turn them off, and don't pay the ransom. Report the attack to Report Fraud or Police Scotland and to the NCSC, and report to the Information Commission within 72 hours if personal data is at risk.

Respond to data subject access requests (DSARs)

Anyone can ask, in any words and through any channel, to see the personal data you hold about them. You must respond within one calendar month, which you can extend by up to two months for complex requests if you tell them within the first month.

Respond to fire safety enforcement action

You have 21 days to appeal a fire safety notice to a magistrates' court. An enforcement notice is suspended while you appeal, but a prohibition notice is not: stop the prohibited use at once, because breaching it is a serious criminal offence.

Review and renew your business insurance

Start reviewing your business insurance about 12 weeks before it expires. At every renewal you must make a fair presentation of the risk to the insurer, or it can reduce or refuse claims. Start the new policy the day the old one ends, because a day without employers' liability cover is an offence.

Set up a limited company

To set up a private limited company, verify each director's identity, choose a name, registered office and email address, appoint a director, decide who holds the shares and apply to Companies House. You receive a certificate of incorporation, then add Corporation Tax services with HMRC if they were not set up for you.

Set up an AI governance framework

Every AI system in your business needs a named person accountable for what it does, its risks and its safeguards. A practical governance framework also covers transparency, fairness and bias testing, and record-keeping, and applies the UK's five AI principles. Even a sole trader using a chatbot needs basic governance.

Start a subscription business

Choose your billing period, minimum term and any free trial first, because each choice triggers consumer-law duties. Consumers who sign up online or by phone have a 14-day cooling-off right. Subscription rules planned for 1 January 2027 add reminders, easy online exit and renewal cooling-off.

Train your staff in health and safety

You must give employees adequate health and safety training when you recruit them and when their risks change through a new role, new equipment, new technology or a new way of working. Repeat it where appropriate, and hold it in working hours at no cost to them.

Transfer personal data outside the UK

Before you send personal data outside the UK, including to cloud providers or overseas offices, check whether the destination has a UK adequacy decision. If it does not, use a safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement and carry out a transfer risk assessment.

Understand your duties as a company director

Under the Companies Act 2006, every company director owes seven general duties to the company: act within your powers, promote its success, use independent judgment, take reasonable care, avoid conflicts, refuse third-party benefits and declare interests in transactions. Breach exposes you to civil claims, and sometimes a criminal offence.

Using AI in recruitment and HR

Using AI in recruitment or HR brings duties under equality law, data protection and automated decision-making rules, whether you built the tool or bought it. An algorithm that disadvantages a protected group can be unlawful discrimination. Carry out a data protection impact assessment, test for bias and give people a route to human review.

Verify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC

Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.

WEEE producer responsibility compliance

If you make, import or rebrand electrical and electronic equipment for the UK market, you are a WEEE producer and must register before selling it and pay towards collecting and recycling waste equipment. Producers placing 5 tonnes or more a year on the market must join a Producer Compliance Scheme.

What the Data Use and Access Act 2025 changed for businesses

Most data protection changes in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 took effect on 5 February 2026. They add recognised legitimate interests as a lawful basis, relax some rules on automated decisions and cookies, and raise the maximum fine for marketing and cookie breaches from £500,000 to £17.5 million.

What the EU AI Act means for UK businesses

The EU AI Act applies to UK businesses that place AI systems on the EU market or serve EU users. It sorts AI into four risk tiers and phases obligations in over several years. Most commercial AI faces few duties, but high-risk uses such as recruitment and credit scoring face strict requirements.

What the Welsh language rules mean for businesses

What Welsh Language Standards mean for private businesses in Wales, including when they apply, voluntary adoption through the Cynnig Cymraeg scheme, and requirements when contracting with the public sector.

When to apply for licences and registrations before you trade

A month-by-month countdown from three months before your trading day, showing when to apply for each registration, licence, and approval based on typical processing times.

Which regulator covers your AI system

No single body regulates AI in the UK, so most AI systems answer to two or more regulators at once. Using personal data brings in the Information Commission, and use in finance, health, hiring or online platforms adds the FCA, MHRA, EHRC or Ofcom.

Work equipment inspection intervals and requirements

Under LOLER, a competent person must thoroughly examine equipment that lifts people, and lifting accessories, every 6 months, and other lifting equipment every 12 months. Under PUWER, inspect equipment before first use, after reassembly and at suitable intervals where its condition affects safety.

Write a GDPR-compliant privacy notice

UK GDPR requires you to tell people what you do with their personal data, including your lawful basis for each use, in a clear privacy notice. You may need separate notices for customers, employees and job applicants, and failing to provide one falls under the higher penalty tier.

Write a privacy notice that meets UK GDPR requirements

If you handle personal data, you must tell people clearly what you collect, why, your lawful basis, who you share it with, how long you keep it and their rights. Give this when you collect the data, or within one month if you get it from someone else.

Your duties as an employer under health and safety law

Every employer in Great Britain must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, and must not put other people at risk. Once you employ 5 or more people, you must also have a written health and safety policy.

Add or remove a partner

When a partner joins, leaves or dies, follow your partnership agreement. Without one, a general partnership can end on a partner's death, bankruptcy or notice. A leaving partner stays liable for debts from their time in the firm, and for later ones unless creditors are told and a Gazette notice is published.

Business name rules

Limited companies and LLPs must register a unique name with Companies House, with the right ending and approval for any sensitive words. Sole traders and partnerships can trade under a business name but must show the owners' names on business documents. No name may infringe a registered trademark.

Check your business name is available

Before you commit to a business name, check it is free at Companies House, on the UK trademark register, and as a domain name and social media handle. Companies House only blocks identical names, so a similar name can still lead to an objection or a trademark claim.

Choose a partnership structure

A general partnership leaves every partner personally liable for the firm's debts. A limited partnership protects investing partners, who cannot manage. A limited liability partnership protects all its members, who can all manage, but must file accounts at Companies House. Your choice turns on liability, management and public filing.

Conduct business acquisition due diligence

Before you buy a business, investigate its finances, legal position and commercial health to check the seller's claims and find hidden risks. Watch for warning signs such as most revenue coming from one or two customers or falling margins, and use a solicitor and accountant.

Create a partnership agreement

A partnership agreement sets out how you share profits, make decisions and handle a partner joining, leaving or dying. The law does not require one, but without it the Partnership Act 1890 default rules apply, and they rarely match what partners intend.

File your partnership tax return (SA800)

A partnership files an SA800 return for each tax year, even if it made a loss, by 31 October on paper or 31 January online. One nominated partner completes it and gives every partner their profit share. If it is late, each partner who was in the partnership pays the penalty.

Find a business to buy

How to identify and source business acquisition opportunities through brokers, online marketplaces, direct approaches, and succession opportunities.

Franchise your business

How to decide whether your business can be franchised, protect your brand and know-how, write a franchise agreement that stays within competition law, and recruit and support franchisees honestly.

How partners pay tax on profits

Each partner pays Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on their share of partnership profits through their own Self Assessment return. The partnership itself pays no tax. Your share depends on your partnership agreement, and your share of any loss can reduce tax on your other income.

Negotiate and structure your acquisition deal

Negotiate a business purchase in order. Make a written offer, agree a short exclusivity period for due diligence, settle non-binding heads of terms, then negotiate the sale and purchase agreement. Decide shares or assets first, and check whether the deal needs government or competition clearance.

Register a business partnership

Every partnership registers with HMRC for Self Assessment by 5 October in its second tax year. The nominated partner registers the partnership, then each partner registers separately. A limited partnership or limited liability partnership registers with Companies House first.

Register a trademark

Registering a UK trademark with the Intellectual Property Office gives you exclusive rights to your business name, logo or slogan for the goods and services you choose. Search the register first, choose your classes carefully, and allow 3 to 4 months for registration if nobody objects.

Running a business from home

Most home businesses need no planning permission, as long as your home stays mainly a residence. Before you start trading, tell your mortgage lender or landlord and your insurer, choose how to claim tax relief on household costs, and avoid using a room only for business so you keep private residence relief.

Set up or convert to a limited liability partnership

An LLP gives its members limited liability while they are taxed like partners. Check it suits you, register it with Companies House with at least 2 members, agree a members' agreement, and plan the transfer of the business if you are converting an existing partnership.

Sole trader or limited company

Compare the two most common business structures and choose what's right for you.

Start a business while on Universal Credit

Yes, you can be self-employed and claim Universal Credit in Great Britain. You must report your business income and expenses every month, and after a start-up period a minimum income floor can reduce your payment.

What happens on completion day

On completion day, the business legally becomes yours: funds are transferred, the final documents are signed and dated, and the seller hands over keys, records and passwords. Then tell your bank, insurers, HMRC and important customers and suppliers.

What must appear on your website, emails, invoices and premises

A limited company must show its registered name on its website, emails, invoices and premises, and its number, registered office and country of registration on its website, letters and order forms. A sole trader or partnership must show its names and an address only if it trades under a business name.

Your first 90 days after buying a business

What you must set up after buying a business depends on what you bought. If you buy a company's shares, its staff and tax registrations stay with it. If you buy a business's assets, the staff transfer to you under TUPE, but you need your own payroll and insurance.

Cyber security basics for small businesses

Most cyber attacks on small businesses can be prevented cheaply. Put the five Cyber Essentials controls in place: firewalls, secure settings, access control, malware protection and prompt software updates. Then train staff to spot phishing, where most successful attacks begin.

E-commerce and digital exporting

Selling internationally through online marketplaces, understanding distance selling regulations, and VAT obligations.

Get Cyber Essentials certified

Cyber Essentials is mandatory for many government contracts involving personal data or ICT services. For the basic level, you complete an online self-assessment with an IASME-accredited certification body, and you must renew the certificate every 12 months.

IoT product security compliance (PSTI Act)

Since 29 April 2024, consumer connectable products sold in the UK must meet three security requirements under the PSTI Act. Manufacturers, importers and distributors each have duties, and breaches can cost up to £10 million or 4% of qualifying worldwide revenue.

Meet your duties under the NIS Regulations

You are covered if you provide an essential service in energy, transport, health, drinking water or digital infrastructure above set thresholds, or run an online marketplace, search engine or cloud computing service. You must secure your systems and report significant incidents within 72 hours. Penalties reach £17 million.

Online Safety Act duties for online services

If your service lets users share content with each other or lets people search the internet, the Online Safety Act 2023 requires you to assess and reduce the risk of illegal content and, if children are likely to use it, protect them. Ofcom can fine up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue.

Air conditioning and F-gas compliance

Air conditioning and refrigeration systems bring two separate sets of duties. A system rated above 12kW must be inspected by an accredited energy assessor at least once every 5 years, and the F-gas rules, enforced by the Environment Agency, require regular leak checks and careful handling of refrigerants.

Appeal your business rates valuation in Scotland

How to challenge your rateable value with Scottish Assessors and the Valuation Appeal Committee, including deadlines and evidence requirements.

Apply for planning permission in Northern Ireland

Most planning applications in Northern Ireland are decided by one of the 11 district councils, while the Department for Infrastructure handles regionally significant and called-in cases. Check first whether permitted development covers your work; councils aim to decide local applications within 15 weeks.

Apply for planning permission in Scotland

Planning application process in Scotland under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, including NPF4, application types, and fees.

Building envelope compliance

Building work on walls, roofs, floors or windows in England must meet the Building Regulations on insulation, moisture and safety. The envelope also drives your EPC rating, and since April 2023 you cannot lawfully let a commercial property rated below E.

Building regulations for replacing windows

Replacing windows in England, even like for like, is controlled building work. Use a FENSA or CERTASS registered installer, who certifies the work and notifies the council, or apply to building control yourself, and keep the certificate for when you sell.

Business rates relief in Wales

Business rates in Wales are set by the Welsh Government, with their own multipliers and reliefs. Small Business Rates Relief is permanent and needs no annual renewal; it gives full relief on smaller properties and tapers off above that. Other reliefs, including help for food and drink hospitality businesses, are set year by year.

Challenge your business rates valuation

If your rateable value looks wrong, check the property details, challenge the valuation within four months of the check decision, then appeal to the Valuation Tribunal within four months of the challenge decision. Keep paying your bill meanwhile. Scotland and Northern Ireland run different systems.

Check a commercial lease before you sign

A commercial lease decides who pays for repairs, how the rent can change, whether you can leave early and whether you can pass the lease on. Most of your rights and costs come from the lease itself, so check each of these terms and negotiate them before you sign.

Chimney and flue compliance for business premises

If your premises have a boiler, stove, open fire or other combustion appliance, its chimney or flue must meet Part J of the Building Regulations. Fit a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, other than a gas cooker.

Claim Improvement Relief for business premises in Wales

How to claim Improvement Relief in Wales, which delays any business rates increase resulting from property improvements for 12 months. The Welsh scheme operates independently of England's equivalent.

Claim Small Business Bonus Scheme relief

The Small Business Bonus Scheme reduces or removes non-domestic rates for small businesses in Scotland whose properties fall within its rateable value limits. You apply to your local council, declare every property you occupy in Scotland, and must report changes in your circumstances or the council can recover relief.

Claim Small Business Rate Relief in Northern Ireland

If you occupy one occupied non-domestic property in Northern Ireland with a net annual value of £10,000 or less, Small Business Rate Relief can cut your rates bill by up to 50%. Land and Property Services usually applies it automatically, so check your rates bill.

Electrical installations and Part P compliance

Understanding Part P of the Building Regulations, BS 7671 (IET Wiring Regulations), notifiable versus non-notifiable electrical work, competent person schemes, and how Part P relates to the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 for commercial premises.

Electrical safety in your business premises

If you employ anyone or control business premises, you must keep electrical systems safe under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. The law sets no fixed testing interval, but guidance suggests an Electrical Installation Condition Report every 5 years for commercial premises.

Energy Performance Certificates for business premises

If you sell, let or build a commercial property in England or Wales, you need a valid Energy Performance Certificate, which lasts 10 years. Since 1 April 2023 you cannot let or continue to let a property rated below E unless you have registered an exemption, and breaches can cost up to £150,000.

Find business rates relief you can claim

Business rates relief cuts your bill and is applied by your council. Small businesses, charities and empty properties can qualify in every nation, and shops, restaurants and leisure venues get separate help. Thresholds differ by nation, and you usually have to apply and report any change that affects your bill.

Get listed building consent for work on your premises

Any works that would affect the character of a listed building, inside or out, need listed building consent from your local planning authority, which costs nothing to apply for. Working without it is a criminal offence carrying an unlimited fine and up to 2 years in prison.

Get pre-application advice

Pre-application advice lets planning officers assess your proposal before you apply, and is worth getting for anything beyond minor works. Their response covers policy, site constraints, design, the documents you will need and likely obligations, and says whether the officer would support the scheme.

Getting building control approval

Most building work in England needs building control approval, from your council's building control team or a Registered Building Control Approver. Some work can be self-certified by a competent person scheme installer, and higher-risk buildings must use the council.

Handle dilapidations at the end of a lease

When your lease ends, your landlord can claim for repairs, redecoration and reinstatement the lease required you to carry out. The claim cannot exceed the drop in the value of the landlord's interest, and courts expect both of you to follow the Dilapidations Protocol and its timetable before any claim is issued.

Heating system compliance for business premises

Replacing a boiler or installing a heat pump in business premises must meet the Building Regulations 2010. A replacement boiler must be a condensing type rated at least 92% efficient, and if your installer is not in a competent person scheme, you must apply to building control before work starts.

How planning permission differs in Wales

Key differences in the Welsh planning system, including PPW, TANs, LDPs, permitted development rights, fees, and application types under the Planning (Wales) Act 2015.

Insulation requirements for commercial and residential buildings

Part L sets maximum U-values for walls, roofs, floors and windows in England, and the lower the U-value the better the insulation. For new dwellings, walls must reach 0.26 W/m²K; renovating a thermal element can also trigger an upgrade.

Keep gas appliances safe in your business premises

Whoever controls a workplace must keep its gas appliances, pipework and flues in a safe condition, and only a Gas Safe registered engineer may work on them. The law sets no annual check for commercial premises, but landlords of living accommodation must arrange one every 12 months.

Leave your business premises

To leave leased premises, check how your lease ends, serve any break notice exactly as the lease requires, put right the repairs it demands and hand back the premises. You stay liable for rent and business rates until the lease ends, so the date it ends matters more than the date you leave.

Lighting requirements for business premises

Key lighting requirements for business premises, covering workplace lighting standards under the Workplace Regulations 1992, emergency lighting duties, and Part L energy efficiency standards for non-domestic buildings.

Maintain your business premises

Whoever employs people at, or controls, business premises must keep the fire safety equipment, gas appliances, electrical installation and water systems in safe working order. Use a schedule that names who does each check and how often, with competent people for the main tests, and record every result.

Make your premises and services accessible to disabled customers

If you provide goods, services or facilities to the public, you must anticipate the barriers disabled customers face and make reasonable adjustments to your policies, premises and communication before anyone asks. Not making a reasonable adjustment is discrimination, and you cannot charge disabled customers for the cost.

Make your website accessible to disabled users

The duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people covers your website and apps as well as your premises. No law sets a technical standard for private businesses, but WCAG 2.2 level AA is the accepted benchmark. Public sector bodies must meet it and publish an accessibility statement.

Meet building envelope thermal performance requirements

If you build, extend or renovate walls, roofs or floors in England, as owner or tenant, the work must meet the Part L maximum U-values. Renovating a large enough share of a thermal element can trigger an insulation upgrade under Regulation 23.

Meet your business waste duty of care

Every business that produces, stores or disposes of waste has a duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and stays responsible after it hands the waste on. Use only registered waste carriers, complete waste transfer notes correctly, and follow the stricter rules for hazardous waste.

Passenger lift compliance for building owners

If you own or manage a building with passenger lifts, LOLER requires a thorough examination by an independent competent person every 6 months, separate from routine servicing. New or replacement lifts must meet the Lifts Regulations 2016, and higher-risk residential buildings carry extra duties for firefighting lifts.

Permitted development rights in Northern Ireland

Permitted development rights in Northern Ireland come from the Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 and differ from England's. Work within a class's limits needs no planning application, but exceeding them, an Article 4 direction or a listed building means you must apply.

Permitted development rights in Scotland

What you can build or change without planning permission in Scotland under the GPDO (Scotland).

Prepare for Digital Waste Tracking

Digital Waste Tracking will replace paper waste transfer and consignment notes. Permitted and licensed waste sites will use it first, with carriers, brokers and producers due to follow from October 2027; until it applies to you, keep using paper notes.

Register a lease with HM Land Registry

A lease granted for more than 7 years must be registered with HM Land Registry, and unregistered it gives you no legal lease. If the landlord's title is unregistered you have 2 months from the grant, and you send any Stamp Duty Land Tax return first.

Register a waste exemption

If your business stores, treats, uses or disposes of small amounts of waste in low-risk ways, you may be able to register a waste exemption with the Environment Agency instead of getting a full environmental permit. Register before you start: operating without an exemption or permit is a criminal offence.

Renew a business tenancy in Northern Ireland

A protected business tenancy in Northern Ireland carries on after its term ends until the landlord serves a notice to determine or you request a new tenancy, 6 to 12 months ahead. If you cannot agree terms, either side can apply to the Lands Tribunal, and you may be paid compensation if you must leave.

Renew your business lease

Most business tenants in England and Wales can stay on when their lease ends and ask for a new one. Either side starts the process with a formal notice given 6 to 12 months ahead, and the landlord can refuse only on grounds set out in law, sometimes paying you compensation.

Secure your business premises

Security requirements for business premises including CCTV compliance, SIA licensing, and physical security measures.

Sell property listed as an asset of community value

If your property in England is on the council's list of assets of community value, you must tell the council in writing before you sell. A community group then has 6 weeks to ask to bid; if one does, you cannot exchange contracts for 6 months, and after that you can sell to anyone.

Simpler Recycling - what your business must do

Businesses in England must separate dry recyclables and food waste from general waste and arrange separate collections. Firms with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees have had to comply since 31 March 2025, and smaller firms must comply by 31 March 2027.

Take in a lodger

When you let a room in your own home, you are a resident landlord. A lodger who shares your kitchen, bathroom or living room can usually be asked to leave on reasonable notice without a court order. You stay responsible for gas safety, Council Tax and checking your mortgage, lease and insurance allow it.

Understand business rates in Northern Ireland

If you occupy non-domestic premises in Northern Ireland, you pay business rates: the property's Net Annual Value, set by Land and Property Services, multiplied by the regional and district rates. Industrial derating, Small Business Rate Relief and other reliefs lower the bill, and empty premises are charged at a reduced rate.

Understand business rates in Scotland

Non-domestic rates (business rates) are a property tax paid to your council, usually by whoever occupies the property. Your bill is the rateable value times a poundage set by the Scottish Government, less any reliefs. Assessors revalue every three years, and you can challenge a valuation by making a proposal.

Understanding business rates

Business rates are a tax on non-domestic property, paid to your local council by whoever occupies it. Your bill is your property's rateable value, an estimate of its open-market annual rent, multiplied by a multiplier set by government, and the rules differ in each UK nation.

Understanding permitted development rights

Permitted development rights let you change some buildings and uses without applying for full planning permission. Within Class E, premises can switch between shop, office, café, clinic and gym uses freely, and some changes, such as commercial to residential, need prior approval from the council first.

Understanding planning conditions

What planning conditions are, why they are attached to permissions, the different types, and your rights if you consider a condition unreasonable. Essential reading before starting development.

Ventilation and indoor air quality requirements

Most business premises must meet two ventilation regimes: the Workplace Regulations 1992, which require fresh or purified air in every enclosed workplace, and Part F of the Building Regulations when ventilation is installed or significantly changed. HSE guidance suggests 5 to 8 litres of fresh air per second per occupant.

Water systems and legionella compliance

Every employer, landlord or person in control of business premises must have a competent person assess the legionella risk in its water systems and control it, for example by keeping hot water at 60°C at the calorifier and flushing little-used outlets. Keep records.

Welsh infrastructure consent for former DNS projects

Do not apply under the Developments of National Significance (DNS) route in Wales: it ended on 15 December 2025. Major infrastructure projects now fall under the consent framework of the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024.

When your business needs planning permission

In England you can change between uses within Class E, which covers shops, cafes, offices, gyms and clinics, without planning permission. A pub, hot food takeaway or nightclub nearly always needs a planning application, so get permission before you start trading.

Where to run your business

Where you run your business affects your tax, insurance, legal duties and costs. Working from home costs least and rarely needs planning permission, but you must tell your lender and insurer. Serviced offices offer flexible all-in terms, while a commercial lease commits you for years and brings repair duties and business rates.

Apply for an environmental permit

You must have your environmental permit before starting a regulated activity; apply to the Environment Agency for Part A1 activities or your council for Part A2 and Part B. Applications need detailed site, operational and environmental information, and permits come with conditions and inspections.

Apply to NIEA for an environmental permit

Northern Ireland has no single environmental permit. Each activity, from waste management and water discharge to industrial emissions and water abstraction, has its own permit under separate legislation, issued by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. A permit from another UK regulator does not cover Northern Ireland.

Check if you need an environmental permit

You need an environmental permit before you run a regulated facility, such as an industrial installation, a waste operation, a medium combustion plant or a water discharge. Which regulator issues it depends on the activity. Operating without one is a criminal offence carrying up to 5 years in prison.

Dispose of hazardous waste

If your business produces hazardous waste, such as waste oils, solvents, batteries or fluorescent tubes, classify it correctly, store it securely and use a carrier registered for hazardous waste. Every movement needs a consignment note, and mistakes are criminal offences.

Oil storage regulations

If your business stores oil in an above-ground container holding more than 200 litres, the oil storage regulations apply. The container needs a bund or other secondary containment holding at least 110% of its capacity, and fill points, pipework and mobile bowsers must meet set standards and be inspected regularly.

Prevent pollution from your business

Every business has a legal duty to stop pollutants escaping into water, air or land, and causing pollution can mean unlimited fines and up to 5 years in prison. Most business water pollution enters surface water drains, which run straight to rivers, so contain stored materials and plan for spills.

Protect your business premises from flooding

Check your premises' flood risk, then limit the harm. Fit barriers, valves and air brick covers to keep water out, raise electrics and choose water-resistant finishes to limit damage, write a flood plan with named roles and shut-off points, sign up for flood warnings and make sure your insurance covers flooding and lost trading.

Report an environmental incident

If a pollution incident happens at or near your business, report it straight away on 0800 80 70 60, which reaches the right regulator anywhere in the UK, and call 999 first if lives are at risk. Polluting controlled waters can mean up to 5 years in prison.

Water management and drought resilience for businesses

How drought conditions affect businesses, including water company restrictions, temporary use bans, drought orders, abstraction licence restrictions, and practical steps to build water resilience into your operations.

What coastal erosion means for your business

How coastal erosion risk affects business premises, planning restrictions in Coastal Change Management Areas, Shoreline Management Plan policies, and options for coastal businesses including adaptation, rollback, and relocation.

Workplace recycling requirements in Wales

Since 6 April 2024, every workplace in Wales, whatever its size, must separate recyclable waste into set streams, including paper and card, glass, and metals, plastics and cartons, and keep it out of general waste. Breaches can bring fixed penalties.

Apply for a UK patent

A UK patent lets you stop others making, using, selling or importing your invention in the UK for up to 20 years. Check it is new and inventive, keep it confidential until you file, then apply to the Intellectual Property Office and request the search and examination yourself.

Apply for innovation funding

Access Innovate UK grants and competitions for research, development, and game-changing technologies.

Avoid breaking competition law

Agreeing prices, bids or customers with competitors, swapping sensitive information or abusing a dominant position breaks the Competition Act 1998, however informal the arrangement. A business can be fined up to 10% of worldwide turnover, and people in a cartel can go to prison.

Build a minimum viable product (MVP)

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the simplest version of your product or service that tests one question: will customers pay for it? Set a measurable hypothesis and a 4 to 8 week deadline, test with strangers in your target market, then decide whether to proceed, pivot or stop.

Check before appointing company directors

Before appointing a director, check they are legally eligible. Disqualified directors, undischarged bankrupts, people under director disqualification sanctions and anyone under 16 cannot act. Search the disqualified directors register first: letting a disqualified person manage your company can make you personally liable for debts run up while they acted.

Choose a business model

Understand the main business models and choose the right one for your skills, market, and financial situation.

Choose how to protect your intellectual property

Copyright and unregistered design right protect your work automatically, but they only stop copying. To get exclusive rights in a brand name, an invention or a product's appearance, you register a trade mark, patent or design with the Intellectual Property Office, and keep it renewed.

Close a solvent company using Members' Voluntary Liquidation

If your company can pay its debts in full within 12 months, its shareholders can close it by members' voluntary liquidation. The directors make a declaration of solvency, shareholders pass a special resolution and a licensed insolvency practitioner takes over, so what you receive is normally taxed as a capital gain.

Conduct business research

How to research a business opportunity, market, or acquisition target using free and paid sources to make informed decisions before committing capital.

Deal with IP infringement

If someone copies your brand, design, invention or creative work, check which right you hold, collect dated evidence and contact them carefully: an unjustified threat about a patent, design or trade mark can let them sue you. Most disputes settle without going to court.

Define your business proposition

Your business proposition says what your business does, who it serves and why customers should choose you. Start from a specific problem, define a narrow target customer, make your unique selling point specific and hard to copy, then test the proposition on real potential customers before you launch.

Develop your brand identity

Choose the elements of your brand identity: name, logo, colours, typography and tone of voice. If a designer creates any of it, make sure the copyright is assigned to you in a signed written document, because paying the designer does not make you the owner.

Export market research and selection

How to research overseas markets, assess demand, understand competition, and evaluate market entry costs.

Fair Work First in public procurement

How Fair Work First applies when bidding for Scottish public sector contracts, including the sustainable procurement duty and scored criteria.

Follow the rules on advertising and marketing

Adverts must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code for non-broadcast advertising, including your own website and social media, and the BCAP Code for broadcast. Consumer and business marketing law, enforced by the CMA and Trading Standards, sits behind it.

Get help to grow your business

Start with the free business support service for your part of the UK: an adviser can review your plans and point you to funding you qualify for. Mentors, management training and government-backed loans can also help you grow.

How business domain names work

You never own a domain name outright. You hold it from a registrar for as long as you keep paying, and anyone can register a name that is free. Trade mark applications are published as soon as they are filed, so secure your domains first and keep them renewed.

Identify your intellectual property

Discover what intellectual property your business owns, from brand names and creative content to inventions and designs. Understanding your IP assets is the first step to protecting them.

Join framework agreements and approved supplier lists

How to become an approved supplier on government framework agreements.

Joint ventures and strategic partnerships

How to find and check a business partner, choose a structure for a joint venture, agree the terms in writing, and stay within competition law when you work with another business to grow.

License your IP to others

Licensing lets another business use your patent, trade mark, design, copyright or know-how in return for payment while you keep ownership. Before you license, make sure your business owns the IP, protect it, decide which markets to keep and value it.

Make sure you own the IP your staff and contractors create

Your business usually owns what employees create as part of their job, but not what freelancers, agencies or contractors make for you, even when you have paid for it. To own that work, you need a written assignment signed by the person who created it.

Pass your business to family

Giving your business to your children or another relative counts as selling it at market value, so you can owe Capital Gains Tax even if you receive nothing. Gift hold-over relief can pass the gain to them, and Business Relief can cut the Inheritance Tax due if you die within 7 years.

Plan your business's growth

How to decide whether your business is ready to grow, choose how to grow, and understand the legal duties that start when you take on staff, pass the VAT registration threshold, or become a larger company.

Prepare a winning tender response

How to write compelling bid documents that score well in public sector evaluations.

Protect your copyright

How copyright protects your business's written content, images, software, designs, music and video, who owns work made by staff and freelancers, how to evidence and mark your work, how to license or sell it, and what to do if someone copies it.

Register a design

How to protect the look of your product with a registered design, how it differs from the automatic unregistered design rights, when to apply, how to prepare illustrations and apply to the Intellectual Property Office, and how to keep your registration in force.

Retire from your business

The ways to retire from a business you own, selling it, passing it to family, selling it to your employees, stepping back while keeping ownership, or closing it, and the tax, employment and legal duties each one brings.

Social media for business

The same advertising rules apply on social media as anywhere else. Label every post made in return for payment, gifts, loans or discounts clearly as an ad, including posts by influencers you work with, and never commission, buy or selectively publish reviews, because the CMA can fine you directly for fake reviews.

Start a product-based business

A product business needs more money up front than a service business but can earn higher margins as it grows. Before you launch, find and vet reliable suppliers, plan storage and delivery, make sure your products are safe and price them from your true cost per unit.

Start a service-based business

A service business is the cheapest kind to start: you sell your skills or time, often for under £5,000, and can earn from the first week. Price from your income target and realistic billable days, and never start work without a written contract and the right insurance.

Strike off your limited company

If your limited company has stopped trading and can pay its debts, a majority of its directors can apply to Companies House on form DS01 to have it struck off. Send a copy to shareholders, creditors, employees and others within 7 days, or you commit an offence.

Test your business idea

Before you invest, find out whether strangers will pay. Define your customer and what counts as success, research what already exists, talk to likely buyers, then sell a small version for real money. Work out your break-even point to see whether the sums can work.

Understand director disqualification

A disqualification order or undertaking bars you from acting as a company director, or helping to manage any company, for up to 15 years unless a court gives permission. The usual cause is unfit conduct as a director of an insolvent company, and breaking a ban is a criminal offence.

Understand your competition

List the businesses your customers could use instead of you, direct and indirect, then record the same facts about each: what they sell, what they charge, who they serve and what their customers say. Use public sources, and never agree prices with a competitor.

Understanding employee share schemes

HMRC offers four tax-advantaged share schemes. Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) usually suits smaller companies with a qualifying trade, CSOP lets any company reward chosen staff, and SIP and SAYE must be open to all employees. Each must be registered with HMRC before it operates.

Write a business plan

Lenders, investors and grant bodies expect a business plan with all 12 standard sections, from an executive summary written last to detailed financial projections. Base every figure on evidence such as supplier quotes or market data, because unrealistic numbers destroy your credibility.

'Deemed contractor' status under CIS

If your business is not mainly in construction but spends more than £3 million on construction work in any rolling 12 months, you are a deemed contractor. You must register for CIS and verify every subcontractor before you pay them.

Apply for a building warrant in Scotland

Most building work in Scotland needs a building warrant from your council before work starts, and building without one is a criminal offence. Apply with plans showing how the work meets the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, then submit a completion certificate when the work is finished; it must be accepted before you occupy the building.

Apply for a dropped kerb to your premises

To drive vehicles across a pavement or verge to your premises you need a vehicle crossing, often called a dropped kerb. Ask the highway authority to build one. It can approve, change or refuse your request, and if it approves you pay its quoted cost before it builds the crossing.

Check if CE marking is accepted in Great Britain

Great Britain accepts CE marking with no end date under 21 product regulations, so you can use CE marking, UKCA marking or both. Medical devices, construction products, marine equipment and a few other sectors follow their own rules and dates.

Choose the right conformity assessment route

Find the product regulations that cover your product, check which assessment modules each allows for your product's risk level, then either self-declare or use an Approved Body. Once you have followed the route, build the technical file and draw up the declaration of conformity.

Comply with UK financial sanctions

If you are a UK national, a UK-incorporated business or you operate in the UK, you must not deal with anyone on the UK Sanctions List or the entities they own or control. Freeze their assets, tell OFSI and get a licence for anything otherwise prohibited. A breach can mean seven years in prison.

Consumer rights quick reference for traders

A consumer who reports a fault within 30 days can reject the goods for a full refund, paid within 14 days, and you cannot insist on a repair first. After that they can choose repair or replacement, and no term or notice of yours can remove these rights.

General product safety requirements

Every consumer product you place on the market in Great Britain must be safe. Producers must mark products with their name and address and a batch reference, and anyone who learns a product is unsafe must notify the enforcement authority immediately.

Get building regulations approval in Northern Ireland

To build, extend, alter or change the use of a building in Northern Ireland, deposit full plans with your district council before you start, give it notice at set stages of the work, and get a completion certificate at the end. The Technical Booklets show how to meet the standards.

Get paid for your exports

Match the payment method to the buyer and the order: payment in advance for new or risky buyers, a letter of credit for large orders, open account only for trusted buyers. Then cover the remaining risk with buyer checks, credit insurance and a sensible invoicing currency.

How product liability law applies to AI

Products containing AI are already covered by UK product safety law. Under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, producers are strictly liable for damage caused by defective products, so an injured person need not prove negligence. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 lets regulations extend safety duties to software updates during a product's life.

IR35 rules for off-payroll working

If you are a medium or large business and a contractor works for you through their own limited company, you must decide whether IR35 applies and give them a Status Determination Statement. Base it on how they actually work, not on the contract. Small businesses leave the decision to the contractor.

Manage a product recall

If you know a consumer product you supplied is unsafe, tell your local Trading Standards in writing straight away, stop supplying it and decide whether to withdraw it or recall it from consumers. Failing to notify, or breaching a safety notice, is a criminal offence.

Measure, pack and label goods you sell by weight or volume

If you sell goods by weight or volume, you must use metric units and weighing equipment passed as fit for trade use. Pre-packed goods must show their quantity, and if you pack to an average quantity your packages must meet the three packers' rules and you must keep records of your checks.

Meet your UK REACH duties for substances of very high concern

When a substance of very high concern joins the UK REACH Candidate List, suppliers of it, or of articles containing it, must pass on safety information, and producers and importers of articles may have to notify HSE. Consumers can ask for the substance's name and must get an answer within 45 days.

Meet your duties as an importer of products for Great Britain

If you bring a product from outside the UK onto the Great Britain market, you are the importer. Before you sell it, check the manufacturer's conformity assessment, documents and marking, put your name and postal address on the product, keep your records for 10 years, and act if it proves unsafe.

Online marketplace product safety duties

If your online marketplace lets third-party sellers offer products to UK consumers, you may already be a distributor with duties under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 will add specific marketplace duties once secondary legislation is made, so prepare now.

Packaging and labelling for export markets

Country-specific packaging and labelling requirements - UK standards don't automatically apply overseas.

Social enterprise structures

Your choice of social enterprise structure turns on whether you need an asset lock, whether you will raise share capital, whether your purposes are exclusively charitable and how much regulation you will accept. Community interest companies and community benefit societies lock assets; only charities get significant tax advantages.

Submit safety data sheets to the National Poisons Information Service

In Great Britain, sending a safety data sheet for a hazardous mixture to the National Poisons Information Service is voluntary: email a PDF to sds.npis@nhs.net and the service acknowledges it. Mixtures placed on the Northern Ireland market must instead be submitted in the mandatory EU format with a UFI.

Trade sanctions and export restrictions

Understanding UK sanctions on 80+ countries, arms embargoes, and the criminal penalties for breaching restrictions.

UK REACH for downstream users

If you use chemicals in your work in Great Britain but don't make or import them, you are a downstream user under UK REACH. You don't register substances, but you must follow the safety data sheets you receive and pass safety information along the supply chain.

Understand UK product safety law

Three sets of rules can apply to the same product failure: a duty to supply only safe consumer products, strict liability for injury or damage caused by a defective product, and criminal offences enforced by Trading Standards. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 gives ministers powers to change them.

Write consumer-friendly terms and conditions

A term in a consumer contract that is unfair or not written in plain, prominent language does not bind the consumer, even if they signed. Check your terms against the Consumer Rights Act 2015 grey list, and never use pre-ticked boxes to add charges.