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Establishing a Community Interest Company (CIC) limited by guarantee starts with the organisation you are trying to create — its community purpose, activities, people and intended way of operating.
You provide the practical facts about the proposed organisation. Coddan can then translate those circumstances into the appropriate CIC limited-by-guarantee establishment framework, prepare the relevant company and CIC material, consider the membership, governance and company-secretarial position, and implement the appropriate registration route.
The page gives you more than one way to proceed. You can recognise which level of CIC-LBG establishment fits the organisation, compare the four establishment models, see the professional support Coddan can provide where it is genuinely needed, or follow the complete establishment journey in greater depth.
Explain what you are trying to establish, who or what community it is intended to benefit and what you expect the organisation to become.
Tell us what the organisation intends to achieve and what it will actually do. You do not need to translate those facts into CIC terminology yourself.
A straightforward CIC, a membership or governance-sensitive organisation, a fuller corporate establishment and a CIC with particular circumstances require different levels of professional treatment.
Coddan brings the facts together, implements the appropriate CIC limited-by-guarantee establishment route and can provide additional corporate, governance or compliance support where the organisation actually requires it.
£249.00+VATEssential Formation™ Recommended for 1
package
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Essential
CIC-LBG Essential Formation — £249. Including the £115 Companies House CIC registration fee · A straightforward professional starting point Essential CIC-LBG Formation for a Straightforward Organisation |
£329.00+VATGovernance Formation™ Recommended for 2
package
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Recommended Choice
CIC-LBG Governance Formation — £329. Including the £115 Companies House CIC registration fee · Establish your CIC with its membership and governance arrangements professionally considered. Professional CIC-LBG Membership and Governance Formation |
£449.99+VATComplete Establishment™ Recommended for 3
package
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Complete Establishment
CIC-LBG Complete Corporate Establishment — £449. Including the £115 Companies House CIC registration fee · Establish your CIC with its initial corporate and governance framework in place. Complete CIC-LBG Establishment With Its Initial Corporate Record |
£579.00+VATProImplementation™ Recommended for 4
package
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Particular Circumstances
CIC-LBG Particular Circumstances & Professional Implementation — from £579. Including the £115 Companies House CIC registration fee · Professional treatment for a CIC that does not fit an entirely standard establishment route. Proportionate Professional Treatment for Non-Standard CIC-LBG Circumstances |
If you are already pursuing a CIC limited by guarantee, you do not need to begin with a comparison of every other legal structure. This page follows that specialist establishment route.
Start with your organisation and circumstances. The technical CIC limited-by-guarantee machinery follows from there.
Go to the service-fit checkpoint →Explain the organisation in ordinary terms: its community purpose, activities, directors, members or guarantors, and how you expect it to operate. You do not need to design the articles, governance machinery or CIC documentation yourself.
You provide the organisational reality. Coddan performs the professional translation within the CIC limited-by-guarantee route.
Start with the organisation →The service goes beyond entering company details into a filing system. The journey brings together the CIC-specific requirements, directors and members, governance, articles, company-secretarial position, registration and establishment record.
The professional value lies in bringing those elements together coherently before the organisation is put into effect.
See how the route comes together →You do not need to read every technical detail before understanding the journey. Start with the organisation, confirm that the CIC limited-by-guarantee service fits, let the relevant facts converge professionally, and then move into implementation and the service decision area.
These four packages are specifically for the formation of a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee. They are not four grades of the same formation service. Each is designed for a different establishment job and a different set of organisational circumstances.
A straightforward organisation should not be made unnecessarily complicated, while an organisation whose membership, governance, corporate implementation or particular circumstances require greater professional treatment should not be forced through a basic formation route. The appropriate package is therefore the one that fits what is actually being established.
For an organisation whose intended directors, members or guarantors and governance arrangements are already reasonably clear and can properly proceed through the straightforward CIC-LBG establishment route.
For an organisation where the relationship between directors, members or guarantors, wider participation and intended decision-making needs greater professional consideration before incorporation.
For an organisation that wants the work to continue beyond the incorporation event so that its initial corporate, membership and governance framework is put into place as part of establishment.
For a proposed CIC where a material organisational, membership, governance, participant, asset, property or other circumstance changes what needs to be considered before the company is established.
Every package leads to the same fundamental destination: an appropriately established CIC limited by guarantee. The difference is the professional job Coddan is being asked to perform around that establishment.
| Compare by circumstance |
Essential £249 |
Governance £329 |
Complete £449 |
Particular From £579 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designed for | A straightforward CIC-LBG with reasonably clear people and governance arrangements. | A CIC where membership, guarantor and governance relationships need greater consideration. | A CIC that should begin life with its initial corporate and governance record put into place. | A CIC where a material circumstance changes the ordinary establishment treatment. |
| Main professional job | Review, prepare and implement the straightforward CIC-LBG formation route. | Translate the intended directors, members and participation into the appropriate governance and constitutional treatment. | Carry the formation through into the CIC's initial corporate and governance implementation. | Identify the material circumstance and apply focused, proportionate professional treatment to it. |
| Membership & governance treatment | Appropriate for a straightforward and reasonably clear arrangement. | Greater professional consideration of membership, participation and decision-making relationships. | Governance considered and then carried into the initial corporate establishment record. | Particular treatment where the organisation's relationships or circumstances require it. |
| Establishment outcome | Incorporated CIC-LBG with its core digital establishment documentation. | Incorporated CIC-LBG with its membership and governance relationships professionally considered. | Incorporated CIC-LBG with a more complete initial corporate, membership and governance record. | Incorporated CIC-LBG with the identified particular circumstance professionally addressed within the agreed scope. |
| How to recognise the fit | "Our organisation and arrangements are straightforward." | "We know who is involved, but the membership and governance relationships need translating." | "We want the organisation properly established for its corporate life, not merely incorporated." | "There is something material about our circumstances that does not fit an ordinary establishment route." |
| Companies House CIC fee | £115 included | £115 included | £115 included | £115 included |
Establishing a CIC limited by guarantee does not mean that every additional corporate, governance, accounting or document service is automatically required. Different organisations need different support at different stages of their corporate life.
Coddan can provide the relevant support where it arises from the organisation's circumstances. The services below are therefore not a checklist to purchase. They show the professional capability available around the CIC when a particular job needs to be done.
These services support the practical establishment of the CIC where the organisation needs an address arrangement or identity-verification route alongside formation.
Where the CIC needs a fuller establishment record, Coddan can prepare the corporate and governance materials that support the organisation after incorporation.
After establishment, the CIC may have annual corporate, reporting, accounting or tax responsibilities. These are separate professional jobs and should arise from the organisation's actual activities and obligations.
A CIC may later need to prove its corporate status, use documents internationally, make changes, close voluntarily or recover a company that has been removed from the register. Those are later corporate events rather than automatic formation requirements.
Start with the organisation
A Community Interest Company begins with the organisation you are trying to establish.
Before considering the company's articles, registration process or governance arrangements, it is useful to understand what the organisation is actually intended to become.
What will the organisation exist to achieve? Who or what community is it intended to benefit? What will it actually do? Who is expected to govern it? What circumstances will shape the way it operates?
You may already have a proposed name. You may already know who you expect to become directors or members. You may already have decided that a CIC limited by guarantee is the route you want to pursue.
You do not need to begin by translating those practical ideas into company-law or CIC terminology.
The starting point is the organisation itself: its purpose, community, activities, people and intended operation.
Those ordinary facts provide the foundation for understanding how the requested CIC limited-by-guarantee establishment service should be implemented.
Understand the community purpose
A CIC is established around a community purpose.
That purpose should therefore be understood in practical terms before the formal CIC requirements are addressed.
Tell us what the organisation is intended to achieve for a community, group of people or wider public interest.
You might want to provide services to a particular community, create opportunities for people who experience disadvantage, improve access to facilities or activities, support local development, provide education or training, protect something of community value, or pursue another practical objective intended to benefit a community.
You may already understand the people or community you want to help without knowing how that purpose should be expressed for the purposes of establishing a CIC.
That is not a problem.
The important information at this stage is the reality behind the proposed organisation: who it is intended to benefit, what benefit is contemplated and why the organisation is being established.
That information can then be considered as part of the professional preparation of the CIC establishment requirements.
You provide the underlying facts and intended outcome. Coddan's role is to translate those facts into the appropriate implementation within the CIC limited-by-guarantee service.
From purpose to activity
A community purpose becomes meaningful through what the organisation actually does.
Explain the activities you expect the CIC to carry out.
This might involve providing services, delivering projects, organising activities, operating a facility, providing education or training, supporting a particular community, creating employment or opportunities, managing assets, supplying goods or services, or carrying out another form of activity intended to achieve the organisation's purpose.
Practical language is useful at this stage.
You do not need to turn your description into articles or formal CIC terminology.
For example, saying that the organisation will provide training to a particular group, operate a community facility or deliver a service to local residents may provide more useful starting information than attempting to draft constitutional wording before the organisation itself has been understood.
The purpose explains what the organisation is intended to achieve. The activities explain how it intends to pursue that objective.
Both matter when preparing the CIC's corporate and regulatory framework.
Coddan can work from the practical information you provide rather than requiring you to diagnose the formal requirements yourself.
Confirm the requested service fit
If you are considering establishing the organisation as a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee, the next question is whether the requested Coddan service fits the circumstances you have described.
This is a service-fit question rather than a legal-form selection exercise.
Coddan can explain the CIC limited-by-guarantee establishment route, guide you through the information and implementation required for that route, and consider whether the circumstances presented fit the service being provided.
The professional role is different from deciding which underlying legal entity you ought to establish.
Coddan does not use this page to advise you whether you should establish:
If you are already pursuing a CIC limited by guarantee, Coddan can work within that requested route and establish what needs to be done to implement it appropriately.
If your circumstances reveal a matter that falls outside the Page 12 service, that should be identified rather than forcing the circumstances into an unsuitable formation process.
The purpose of this stage is therefore straightforward: to establish whether the requested CIC limited-by-guarantee service fits the organisation you are asking Coddan to establish.
Understand the corporate instrument
Once the organisation and the requested service have been understood, the CIC limited-by-guarantee structure can be considered as the corporate instrument through which the organisation will be established.
A company limited by guarantee does not have share capital. Instead, its members undertake a specified guarantee in accordance with the company's constitutional framework.
For a CIC limited by guarantee, that corporate structure operates within the additional framework applicable to Community Interest Companies.
The distinction matters because the company is not being established merely as an ordinary company with a community-related description attached to it. The CIC's community-interest requirements form part of the establishment process.
The important point is that the corporate structure should support the organisation you have described.
You do not need to begin by designing the company's guarantee provisions, membership machinery or constitutional clauses yourself. Those matters can be addressed as part of the professional establishment process.
CIC limited by shares is a separate corporate form. Coddan can provide formation services for that structure separately, but it is not the subject of this page and does not form part of this customer journey.
The focus here remains the establishment of the CIC limited by guarantee.
Establish the community-interest framework
Establishing a CIC involves more than registering an ordinary company.
The organisation's community purpose and proposed activities need to be reflected appropriately within the CIC establishment framework.
A CIC must satisfy the applicable community interest test. In practical terms, the test asks whether a reasonable person might consider that the company's activities are or will be carried on for the benefit of the community.
The information you provide about the organisation, its community purpose and what it intends to do provides the practical foundation for this work.
You do not need to diagnose for yourself whether the statutory test is satisfied. Your role is to explain the organisation, its activities and the community benefit it is intended to provide.
The formal CIC process then requires the relevant information and documentation to be presented in the appropriate way.
This is where professional preparation becomes important.
You should be able to explain what the organisation is trying to achieve without having to diagnose the statutory requirements or construct the regulator's documentation yourself.
Coddan can use that factual explanation as the starting point for preparing and implementing the relevant CIC establishment requirements within the service being provided.
The objective is not simply to put words into a form.
It is to ensure that the corporate and CIC-specific establishment material reflects the organisation that is actually being created.
Establish the governing people
A CIC needs people who will take responsibility for its corporate governance and operation.
Explain who you expect to be involved in running the organisation.
You may already have a group of people who intend to establish the CIC together. You may have individuals with particular experience, knowledge or connections to the community. You may still be finalising who will take on the relevant roles.
At this stage, the useful information is about the people themselves and the way you expect responsibility to operate.
The formal corporate requirements can then be considered in the context of the CIC limited-by-guarantee structure.
This may include the information required about directors and the way their responsibilities and relationships with the company are reflected in the corporate framework.
You do not need to design the company's governance machinery simply to explain who you want involved.
The Participant provides the factual information. Coddan deals with the corporate implementation that follows from those facts within the agreed service.
Understand membership and participation
The members of a CIC limited by guarantee are not shareholders. Instead, they are members who undertake to contribute a specified amount to the company's assets if the company cannot pay its debts, including in the circumstances of a winding up. The important question is therefore not simply how many guarantors there will be, but how membership is intended to work within the organisation.
The intended relationship between the directors and members can also matter. For example, the CIC Regulator's current model constitutions distinguish between a small-membership CIC in which all directors are also members and all members are also directors, and a large-membership CIC in which the company has more members than directors. Those different relationships are reflected in the available constitutional frameworks.
You therefore need to explain the practical reality in ordinary terms: who is intended to participate, whether the directors are also intended to be members, whether there will be additional members, and how membership is intended to relate to the people running the organisation.
You do not need to diagnose the legal or constitutional model yourself.
Coddan's professional role is to translate the intended participation arrangements into the appropriate membership, guarantee and constitutional framework for the CIC limited by guarantee.
Bring participation into governance
Once the intended membership and guarantee relationships are understood, the next question is how those relationships should operate in practice.
Governance should reflect the organisation that is actually being established. That means considering how the directors will run the CIC, what role the members are intended to have, how important decisions are to be made, and how the relationship between directors and members should work within the organisation.
The aim is not to create governance for its own sake. It is to establish a framework that corresponds with the organisation's intended operation.
The relationship between directors and members identified in Section 8 therefore becomes relevant here. Section 8 establishes the participation reality; this section considers how that reality should be translated into decision-making and governance.
Coddan's role is to bring those facts together and implement the appropriate governance framework rather than requiring you to design the corporate machinery yourself.
Construct the governing framework
The articles of association provide the CIC's governing corporate framework. They establish how the company is to operate internally, including matters concerning its members, directors and decision-making.
For a CIC limited by guarantee, the constitutional framework must also reflect the requirements that apply specifically to CICs. This includes the statutory asset-lock provisions governing the use and transfer of the CIC's assets. Current CIC Regulator guidance confirms that the applicable CIC articles must contain the relevant asset-lock provisions alongside provisions concerning membership, voting rights and directors.
You do not need to draft or interpret the asset-lock provisions yourself.
The professional task is to ensure that the constitutional framework properly reflects the organisation, its membership and governance arrangements and the requirements applicable to the CIC limited-by-guarantee structure.
Standard treatment should remain standard where it genuinely fits. Particular circumstances should receive particular treatment where justified.
Understand the governance-support function
There are three different concepts that are often treated as though they were the same:
A statutory appointment of a company secretary — the appointment of a person or other permitted entity to the office of company secretary.
Professional company-secretarial work — practical work such as maintaining corporate records, preparing or handling filings, resolutions and governance administration.
Broader governance support — professional assistance with the continuing administration and governance of the company.
A CIC limited by guarantee is a private company. A private company is not generally required to have a company secretary unless its articles of association require one. This is the statutory baseline under section 270 of the Companies Act 2006 and current Companies House guidance.
That means the existence of a professional company-secretarial service does not mean that every CIC limited by guarantee must appoint a company secretary.
The appropriate question is instead what the organisation's circumstances require.
Where a company secretary is appropriate, the statutory appointment is one matter. The professional work undertaken by a company secretary or external secretarial provider is another. Broader governance support may extend further again, depending on the organisation's continuing needs. Companies House describes functions that a company secretary might ordinarily perform, including maintaining statutory registers, assisting with filings, handling meeting notices and maintaining records of resolutions and meetings.
Coddan can therefore support the company-secretarial and governance function where that support is appropriate, without presenting appointment of a company secretary as an automatic requirement.
Identify what needs particular attention
Many CICs can be established through a relatively straightforward corporate framework.
Others contain circumstances that deserve closer attention before the establishment process is completed.
This might arise where:
The presence of an unusual circumstance does not automatically mean that an elaborate structure is required.
Nor does it automatically mean that every available Coddan service is needed.
The purpose of this stage is simply to identify whether something genuinely material requires different treatment.
Where the ordinary framework properly fits, it should remain ordinary.
Where something does require particular attention, that should be recognised before implementation rather than discovered only after the company has been established.
Bring the organisation together
By this point, the organisation should be understood as a whole.
The information is no longer simply a collection of separate answers.
It is the combined picture of:
This is where professional interpretation becomes decisive.
The Participant provides the reality of the organisation and its intended outcome.
Coddan considers those facts together and translates them into the appropriate establishment and implementation route within the requested CIC limited-by-guarantee service.
The result should be coherent.
The corporate structure should reflect the organisation.
The governing framework should support its intended operation.
The CIC-specific requirements should correspond with the organisation that is actually being established.
And the implementation process should follow from that professional understanding rather than preceding it.
The objective is therefore not simply to obtain a Companies House number.
It is to bring the proposed organisation together sufficiently for it to be established as the CIC limited by guarantee that the Participant has asked Coddan to implement.
Put the determined structure into effect
By this stage, the organisation, community purpose, activities, people, membership, governance and constitutional requirements have been brought together into a coherent establishment route.
This is where Coddan's formation-agent implementation capability and governance/document capability become practically useful. The professional task is not merely to complete a form, but to prepare the necessary company and CIC establishment material and implement the appropriate registration route.
Coddan can review the information supplied, prepare the necessary company and CIC establishment material and implement the appropriate registration route efficiently.
Coddan's own preparation and submission process is distinct from the external consideration and registration process involving Companies House and the CIC Regulator.
Completed registration timing therefore depends upon the applicable filing route, the application and external processing.
Speed is an implementation capability, not a substitute for correct preparation.
Register a Community Interest Company for just £249.00
Create the corporate record
The establishment of a CIC is more than a registration event recorded on a screen.
Once the company has been established, there is a corporate record supporting its identity, constitutional framework and governance.
The appropriate corporate and governance documentation can form part of that record.
Coddan can prepare corporate documents in digital format, providing practical access to the documentation required for the organisation's continuing corporate life.
Where appropriate to the service and circumstances, corporate documents can also be professionally prepared in printed format.
These materials provide a tangible record of the organisation that has been established and can support its subsequent governance and administration.
The exact documents required or available depend on the circumstances and agreed service.
The important point is that documentation should support the organisation rather than become a catalogue of unnecessary extras.
The registration event establishes the corporate entity. The accompanying corporate record helps the organisation understand and administer what has been established.
Return to the organisation
Once the CIC has been established, the organisation can begin its corporate life.
The outcome is not simply:
"Here is your company number."
The outcome is an incorporated community-purpose organisation with the corporate and governance framework through which it can begin pursuing the purpose for which it was established.
The immediate position will depend on the organisation's circumstances.
There may be governance arrangements to put into operation, corporate records to maintain, responsibilities to administer or other matters arising from the company's particular activities and structure.
Those matters should be considered in proportion to what the organisation actually requires.
Some CICs may need continuing professional assistance with corporate administration or governance.
Others may be capable of managing their continuing responsibilities without additional support.
The important point is that establishment should return to the destination with which the process began:
organisation intended → organisation understood → CIC-LBG framework determined → organisation established → organisation begins its organisational life.
Consider what genuinely comes next
Once the CIC has been established, it begins its continuing corporate and organisational life.
Depending on the organisation, this may involve ongoing company-secretarial or governance support, Companies House responsibilities, CIC-specific reporting and regulatory requirements, accounting matters or tax matters arising from the CIC's actual activities.
These matters should be considered from the organisation's circumstances rather than assumed automatically.
A CIC is a company and is not a charity merely because it has CIC status. CIC status does not itself create the tax treatment available to a recognised charity. HMRC confirms that a CIC is liable to Corporation Tax as a company and that there are no CIC-specific Corporation Tax exemptions or reliefs.
The important boundary is therefore:
Corporation Tax, VAT and other tax questions depend on the CIC's actual activities and circumstances. They are separate professional matters where relevant and should not be treated as automatically resolved by the formation of the CIC.
This page does not attempt to assess the CIC's tax position during formation. Where a separate tax or accounting question arises, it should be considered on its own professional basis.
The same proportionality applies to continuing governance and secretarial support. Some CICs may genuinely require continuing assistance; others may be able to operate their governance arrangements without additional professional support at that stage.
You should be able to explain the organisation in ordinary terms, including its community purpose, intended beneficiaries, activities, the people expected to be involved and any unusual or particularly important circumstances. You do not need to translate those facts into company-law or CIC terminology yourself.
That should be identified before implementation. An unusual circumstance does not automatically mean that an elaborate structure or every available service is required. The appropriate treatment depends on what is materially different about the organisation and its circumstances.
No. Continuing support should follow the organisation's actual requirements. If the CIC is properly established and nothing further is presently required, that is a legitimate professional outcome.
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