Private Limited Company, the most popular legal structure for businesses, should be chosen by anyone looking to build a scalable business. Start-ups and growing businesses choose to register a company in India because it allows outside funding to be raised easily, limits the liabilities of its shareholders and enables them to offer employee stock options to attract top talent. As these entities must hold board meetings and file annual returns with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), they tend also to be viewed with more credibility than a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), One Person Company (OPC), or General Partnership. At Vakilsearch, we are continuously available to help you understand how to register a private limited company. All such businesses must have at least two directors and shareholders on inception.
Private Limited Companies are those types of companies where minimum number of members is two and maximum number is two hundred. A private limited company has the limited liability of members but at the same time it has many characteristics as those of a partnership firm. A private limited company has all the advantages of partnership namely flexibility, greater capital combination of different and diversified abilities, etc., and at the same time it has advantages of limited liability, greater stability and legal entity. In this sense, a private limited company stands between partnership and widely owned public company. Identifying marks of a private limited company are name, number of members, shares, formation, management, directors and meetings, etc., The maximum number of directors shall have to be mentioned in the Articles of Association. In the grand of privileges and exemptions, the Companies Act has drawn a distinction between an independent private company and other private company which is a subsidiary to the other public company.
Separate Legal Entity
A company is a legal entity and a juristic person established under the Act. Therefore a company form of organization has wide legal capacity and can own property and also incur debts. The members (Shareholders/Directors) of a company have no liability to the creditors of a company for such debts.
Uninterrupted Existance
A company has ‘perpetual succession’, that is continued or uninterrupted existence until it is legally dissolved. A company, being a separate legal person, is unaffected by the death or other departure of any member but continues to be in existence irrespective of the changes in membership.
Borrowing Capacity
A company enjoys better avenues for borrowing of funds. It can issue debentures, secured as well as unsecured and can also accept deposits from the public, etc. Even banking and financial institutions prefer to render large financial assistance to a company rather than partnership firms or proprietary concerns.
Easy Transferability
Shares of a company limited by shares are transferable by a shareholder to any other person. Filing and signing a share transfer form and handing over the buyer of the shares along with share certificate can easily transfer shares.
Owning Property
A company being a juristic person, can acquire, own, enjoy and alienate, property in its own name. No shareholder can make any claim upon the property of the company so long as the company is a going concern.
Limited Liability
Limited Liability means the status of being legally responsible only to a limited amount for debts of a company. Unlike proprietorships and partnerships, in a limited liability company the liability of the members in respect of the company’s debts is limited.
Note :- Any one of the directors must self-attest the first three documents. In case of foreign nationals and NRIs, all the documents must be notarised (if currently in India or a non-Commonwealth country) or apostilled (if in a Commonwealth country).
Note: Your registered office need not be a commercial space; it can be your residence, too.