A Community Interest Company is one of the quickest ways to give a business a locked-in social mission — faster and more flexible than charity registration, while still signalling that you're in it for more than profit. Here's how to set one up properly.

Before you start: is a CIC right?

A CIC keeps founder control, allows paid directors, and is fast to set up — but it's not a charity, so it can't claim Gift Aid and it pays corporation tax. If your model depends on donations and grants for an exclusively charitable purpose, a charity might suit you better. Our structure guide walks through the choice. Assuming a CIC fits, here's the process.

Step by step

  1. Decide limited by shares or guarantee. Limited by guarantee (no shareholders) is common for community-focused CICs; limited by shares suits those who may want investment (with capped dividends). This shapes everything after.
  2. Write your community interest statement. The heart of a CIC application: what your company does and which community it benefits. It must pass the CIC Regulator's "community interest test" — a reasonable person must agree your activities benefit the community.
  3. Understand the asset lock. A CIC's assets and profits are locked to its social purpose — they can't be extracted for private benefit, and on dissolution pass to another asset-locked body. This is permanent, so commit deliberately.
  4. Choose directors and a registered office. At least one director; a real UK address for official post.
  5. Adopt CIC-specific articles of association. These include the asset lock and dividend caps. Model articles exist — but get them right, because they're hard to unpick later.
  6. Register with Companies House. You file the incorporation and the community interest statement (form CIC36) together; the application is passed to the CIC Regulator for approval. There's a modest fee, and approval takes a little longer than a standard company because of the regulator's check.
  7. Register for corporation tax with HMRC within three months of starting to trade — a CIC pays it like any company.

Then, every year

  • File a CIC34 — the annual community interest report — with your accounts at Companies House, explaining what you did for your community and any director pay.
  • File accounts and a company tax return (CT600), and pay corporation tax.
  • File a confirmation statement like any company.
Set the finances up right on day one A separate bank account, fund-aware bookkeeping, and a clear record of any director pay (which the CIC34 asks about) — get these in place from the first transaction and annual reporting becomes routine rather than a scramble. We set new CICs up properly and handle the CIC34, accounts and tax.

Where we come in

We help social founders decide between a CIC and a charity, get the structure and articles right, register correctly, and handle the ongoing CIC34, accounts and corporation tax — from £39 + VAT a month. Get started.