Setting up a company in Guernsey
If you want to set up a company in Guernsey, the application itself must come from a Corporate Service Provider (CSP) holding a full fiduciary licence from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. You cannot file it yourself, whether you live on the island or not. Once the CSP submits a complete file, the Registry can incorporate within 24 hours, or faster for a higher fee.
In short: appoint a licensed CSP, give it everything it needs for its checks, and agree who will be director, resident agent and registered office. Afterwards the company files an annual validation each January or February and a tax return each year.
Why a licensed CSP files every application
Guernsey channels all new companies through regulated firms. The Guernsey Registry accepts an incorporation only from a CSP with a full fiduciary licence from the GFSC, and it publishes a directory of those providers.
For a founder abroad this settles the first question: there is no direct route. Your choice is which CSP to use, and that firm will usually stay involved as resident agent and registered office long after the company exists.
What every Guernsey company must have
The Registry sets four minimum requirements:
- A founder member, the first shareholder named in the application.
- A registered office with an address in Guernsey.
- At least one director, at all times.
- A resident agent, unless an exemption applies.
If you live abroad, understand the resident agent rule early. Under the Registry’s guidance on directors and resident agents, only a Guernsey-resident individual director of the company or a CSP may act as resident agent, and the resident agent must keep details of the company’s beneficial owners. If none of your directors lives on the island, your CSP takes the role.
Every director, resident agent and beneficial owner also has to be registered as a person with the Registry before the company can appoint them.
Choosing the structure
For a single trading or holding company, a company limited by shares is the simplest form to consider. Guernsey law also allows other forms, including cell companies, but a company can only be incorporated as a cell company with the GFSC’s written permission, so treat that as a separate project with its own timetable.
You do not have to draft bespoke articles. If none are filed, the standard articles of incorporation apply, and the Registry publishes templates of both the memorandum and the articles. You can file your own articles instead, for example to set rules on share transfers between family members or investors.
How to set up a company in Guernsey in six stages
- Engage a licensed CSP. It runs its client checks on you, every shareholder and every beneficial owner. Expect to provide certified identity and address documents.
- Register the people. Directors, the resident agent and beneficial owners are entered on the Registry’s person register first.
- Settle the name. You can reserve a name for three months before applying.
- Prepare the application. The CSP assembles the memorandum of incorporation, statements of the first directors, registered office, resident agent and initial share capital, the founder member’s details and a declaration of compliance.
- Submit and pay. The CSP files online and chooses the speed of service.
- Receive the certificate. The Registrar allocates a registration number and issues a certificate of incorporation showing the name, number and date of registration.
After that come the practical steps: a bank account, accounting arrangements and, if you will employ people on the island, payroll.
Registry fees and speed
The Registry’s fee schedule, in force from 1 December 2025, sets three speeds:
| Service | Fee | Incorporated within |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | £100 | 24 hours |
| Rapid | £500 | 2 hours |
| Special | £1000 | 15 minutes (restrictions apply) |
Reserving a name costs £25 per name. These are Registry fees only. The CSP charges separately for its onboarding, drafting, resident agent and registered office services, and those fees differ between firms.
Tax on a Guernsey company
The Revenue Service taxes company income at one of three rates. The standard rate is 0%. A 10% intermediate rate covers income from listed financial activities, including banking, fiduciary business, custody, investment management for individual clients and certain insurance business. A 20% higher rate covers income from Guernsey land and buildings, large retail business with taxable profit above £500,000, activities regulated by CICRA and the import or supply of gas or hydrocarbon oil, among others.
You do not register separately for tax: the Revenue Service creates a tax reference from the information filed with the Registry, and the company’s tax identification number is its Guernsey registration number. Returns are filed online, and a CSP with the right authority can submit them. For the 2025 year the deadline is 30 November 2026.
Distributions to shareholders who are not Guernsey residents do not create a Guernsey tax charge, but the company must hold evidence of non-residence before paying without deduction. Your own country may still tax what you receive, so check that at home.
Substance and the goods and services tax question
Tax-resident companies that carry on specific activities must show substance in Guernsey. According to the Revenue Service, that means being directed and managed on the island, having adequate people, premises and expenditure there, and carrying out core income-generating activities locally. If your company could fall into one of these activities, plan board meetings and decision-making in Guernsey from the start.
Indirect tax is under review. The States’ 2026 Tax Reform Package proposes a goods and services tax at 3% from 2028, subject to the States agreeing it. Check the current position with your CSP or accountant before you price goods or services sold on the island.
Ownership records and the yearly cycle
Beneficial ownership information is filed at incorporation under the Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons (Guernsey) Law, 2017, and any change has to reach the Registry within 14 days, per the Registry’s beneficial ownership guidance. The same 14-day window applies to changes of director or resident agent.
Each year the company files an annual validation between 1 January and the last day of February, showing its details as at 31 December. The fee depends on the company’s category: £525 for a company administered by a CSP and £260 for a company that is not. Filing late is an offence and leads to a civil penalty. At the same time you can consider resolutions waiving the audit or the annual general meeting, where the company qualifies.
A CSP acting as resident agent can handle these filings for you. Firms listed for corporate secretarial services in Guernsey cover the Registry side, while accounting, tax compliance, payroll and audit firms cover the rest.
Finding a CSP in Guernsey
Accountanty lists 19 firms in Guernsey, all of them in St Peter Port, and every one offers company formation in Guernsey. That page explains how to compare providers and what a quote should cover. Seven of the 19 say they focus on clients from outside the island, and they are gathered on accountants for foreign clients in Guernsey.
You can also send one free quote request through Accountanty. Accountanty checks the request and passes it to firms suited to your company.
Before you set up a company in Guernsey
Line up three things first: a licensed CSP that has accepted you as a client, a director and resident agent arrangement that works, and advice on how your home country will tax the company and its profits. With those in place, the decision to set up a company in Guernsey turns into a filing the Registry can process within a day.