Old filings

Incorporation documents: the personal details filed when your company was set up

Incorporation documents personal details are some of the oldest and most detailed information on the register. Form 10, the memorandum and IN01 can all show names, addresses, signatures and occupations from the day a company was set up.

Updated 24 Oct 2026 · 6 min read · By Rayhaan Moughal, Sidekick Accounting

A company's founding documents are usually the first place a home address landed on the public register. If you started a company from your spare room, the incorporation filing probably shows that address, and it may show more than one person's.

What's in there depends on the era. A paper pack from before 1 October 2009 looks different from an IN01, and an electronic incorporation looks different again. This guide walks through each so you know which filing to look for.

What's inside a company's founding documents?

Every incorporation, old or new, has to tell the register who the first officers are, where the registered office is and who the founding shareholders are. The layout changed, but those building blocks stayed.

How incorporation paperwork changed

Before 1 Oct 2009The paper packForm 10 (first directors, secretary and registered office), form 12 (a declaration of compliance) and a memorandum and articles signed by the subscribers.
1 Oct 2009Companies Act 2006 and IN01A single application to register, form IN01, brings together the officers, subscribers, registered office and statement of capital.
Online incorporationElectronic filingSubscribers type in their details instead of signing, and the memorandum is generated from what they enter.

GOV.UK's incorporation guidance confirms that companies set up before 1 October 2009 don't have to amend their memorandum, which is why those older documents are still on the register in their original form.

What do form 10, form 12 and the memorandum show?

Form 10 is the one that matters most. In our experience of reading these filings it names the first directors and secretary with their addresses, dates of birth and occupations, and gives the intended registered office. It's signed by those people, plus the subscribers or their agent.

Form 12 is a declaration that the incorporation rules were followed. It's typically signed by a solicitor or one of the people named on form 10, in front of a witness. It tends to carry a name, a signature and sometimes an address for whoever signed.

The memorandum of association was signed by each subscriber in front of a witness, so it can show subscriber names, addresses and signatures. The articles often sit alongside it. Layouts varied between formation agents, so we treat each pack as something to read rather than assume.

What does IN01 show about the people involved?

IN01 is the application to register a company under the Companies Act 2006. It covers the first officers, the registered office, the subscribers and, for a company limited by shares, a statement of capital and initial shareholdings.

For directors, IN01 asks for a service address that goes on the public record and a residential address that's protected. Our guide to the director service address explains the split. Where someone used their home for both, the home address is what appears.

A subscriber's name and address, and a first director's occupation and signature, can still show on the public copy of the form. For companies incorporated online, Companies House's help page says subscribers give three items of personal information in place of a signature, and these aren't shown on the public record.

Here's a fictional example of the kind of summary an IN01 produces.

IN01Registered Northgate Studio Ltd

Application to register a company

Company nameNorthgate Studio Ltd

Registered officeLS6

First directorAlex Morgan

Director's occupation

Director's service addressLS6

Subscriber addressLS6

Subscriber signature

Statement of capital100 ordinary shares of £1

Redacted

A fictional incorporation summary. Names, companies and postcode districts are invented.

Which details can be removed from incorporation documents?

GOV.UK's list of documents Companies House can suppress is a set of examples and says SR01 covers most documents on the register, apart from mortgage documents. It names IN01 directly, and it names the older Northern Ireland first-directors form 21. Form 10, form 12 and the memorandum aren't in its incorporation table.

This matrix shows only what the GOV.UK list states for IN01, and marks the older pack as "Varies" where the list is silent.

What the suppression list says about incorporation forms

What the suppression list says about incorporation forms
	Address	Signature	Occupation	Date of birth
IN01Marked "No" for date of birth	✓Yes	✓Yes	✓Yes	✗No
Form 10 (paper)Not named on the list	Varies	Varies	Varies	Varies
Memorandum (paper)Not named on the list	Varies	Varies	Varies	Varies

For the paper pack, "Varies" means we check with Companies House rather than promise an outcome. Separately, the day of birth can only be removed from documents filed before 10 October 2015, so the date rule and the form rule both apply.

If your signature is the concern, our guide on removing your signature covers what stays behind. Business occupation has its own rules too, and incorporation is one of the places stating it was required.

Why the incorporation document matters for a former home registered office

Often the incorporation is the filing that set your home as the registered office in the first place. Companies House says to list the original filing that gave the home address as the registered office, which could be the incorporation or a later change of address.

If your home is still the live registered office, it has to be changed first. Our guide on using a home address as a registered office covers the order of steps, and we can set up a registered office and service address for you as part of your application via our page on how to remove your home address from Companies House.

Subscribers and shareholders

Founding shareholders show up twice, on the incorporation and again on later returns. If you were a shareholder rather than an officer, our guide on removing a shareholder address shows where to look next.

Each incorporation counts as one document at £34 for the Companies House fee, so a company with an old paper pack and a later annual return is two. Our own pricing is £69 for the first document and £49 for each additional one (VAT included). The filing process is in how to complete SR01.

You can find every filing that holds your details with a free scan of the register.

Questions

What personal details are in a company's incorporation documents?

Usually the first directors' names, addresses and occupations, the first secretary's details, the subscribers' names and addresses, the registered office and signatures. Older paper packs and post-2009 IN01 filings differ in layout, so what's on yours depends on when the company was set up.

Does form IN01 show my date of birth?

GOV.UK's list of documents Companies House can suppress marks IN01 as "No" for date of birth, so there's no removable day of birth to apply for on that form. It does mark IN01 "Yes" for signature, occupation and address.

Can I get my address removed from a memorandum of association?

GOV.UK says SR01 covers most documents on the register, apart from mortgage documents, and its list is a set of examples. The memorandum and form 10 aren't named on that list, so we check each one against Companies House before listing it.

Which document do I list if my home was the first registered office?

List the original filing that set the address, which is often the incorporation. Don't list the form that later moved the registered office away, because Companies House rejects applications that do.

I was only a subscriber, can I still apply?

Yes. GOV.UK lists subscribers among the people who can apply for removal of their own details on an incorporation. The details have to be yours, so you can't apply for the directors' addresses on the same form.