CRO & Privacy, Sole Trader vs Ltd?

john_dooley

Hi
I have some questions in relation to setting up a company

1)
I noticed that on the CRO website you can download "Memorandum and Articles" and "Annual Returns" for a small fee for any registered company
Seems an infringement of privacy..
Will I know who downloaded info about my company ?

2)
If I setup as a Sole Trader, is it easy to convert to a Ltd company sometime in the future?

3)
From an insurance liability point of view, are there any advantages of a Ltd company over a Sole Trader?
For example a company/individual installing electric products would be exposed to more risk than say someone selling books


Thanks

Bandara

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=310570

Might be of some use to you.

mise

Re: Privacy, all documents for a limited company are available to the public. It is the same for any documents associated with a business name/ sole trader, tho the documentation requirement is far less. Viewing of Company/Business Name info is completely anonymous.. it can be viewed by anyone and you'll never know who

ImDave

john_dooley wrote: »

2) If I setup as a Sole Trader, is it easy to convert to a Ltd company sometime in the future?

I have been through this myself, and have to say it is fairly straight foward. It wasn't my own business, but I was looking after it, and I just got our accounting firm to do the work for us. You could do it yourself fairly easily I would imagine.

antoinolachtnai

The rationale for having the documents public was originally that it was a trade off for having the benefit of limited liability. (Unlimited companies don't have as great a disclosure requirement.) Nowadays, I think it is widely believed that there should be a degree of transparency about the operations of private companies.

You don't get to know who downloaded information about your company.

This is information about you that is related to your public endeavours. Business is a public thing. You don't necessarily have the same right or expectation of privacy in relation to your business that you do in relation to your home life.

Anyone can also access details of members/shareholders. This sometimes comes up in relation to management companies in blocks of apartments. Your membership of an apartment block management company is a matter of public record and the records can be consulted at the office of the company.

The requirement to register memoranda and articles and shareholder details is in statute law. It's fairly well accepted.

For limited liability, it's really technical. For a start, there's assessing risks. Professional electricians don't have many accidents, certainly not as many fatal ones as might be imagined. On the other hand, people handling books getting back injuries is not a particularly rare occurrence. Do professional booksellers get many claims? I don't know, but I wouldn't say so, because they have the equipment in place and the procedures to make sure this doesn't happen.

Next, the limited liability of a company won't necessarily guard against liability if you wire in a plug the wrong way round and there's an accident for example. It may do, but I wouldn't bank on it.

If you need insurance, you need insurance either way.

Yes, you can convert later on, in practice. There are 'strictly speakings' to go with this but you'd need to talk to an accountant.

john_dooley

Thanks everyone for the advice/info
It has answered my questions and helped me make up my mind