How to register a company with SECP in Pakistan
SECP registration is well systemised and rarely the hard part. What catches people is treating incorporation as the finish line. A certificate of incorporation gives you a legal entity; it does not give you a taxpayer, a bank account, an invoicing capability or a compliance calendar. This guide covers the filing and then the part that actually makes the company operational.
Decide these before you touch the portal
- Company type. Single member company for one shareholder, private limited for two or more. Converting later is possible but is a filing, not a formality — see choosing a structure.
- Shareholding split, in writing. The most damaging structural error in Pakistani business is an undocumented understanding between partners. Agree percentages, capital contribution and decision rights before incorporation, not after a disagreement.
- Authorised and paid-up capital. Authorised capital drives the incorporation fee, so there is a real cost to setting it far above what you need. Set it to accommodate realistic near-term growth, not a hypothetical future round.
- Principal business activity. This shapes the object clause in the memorandum and should match what you will actually invoice for and what you later declare to FBR.
- Registered office address that you control and can receive post at.
Stage one: name reservation
Names are reserved through SECP eServices. A name will be refused if it is identical or deceptively similar to an existing company, contains restricted or sensitive words, implies government or regulatory patronage, or suggests an activity requiring a licence you do not hold.
- Search the existing company register before applying — most rejections are avoidable at this step.
- Submit three or four candidate names in order of preference rather than one.
- Avoid words that imply banking, insurance, investment or regulatory status unless you hold the relevant licence.
- Once approved, the reservation is time-limited. Move to incorporation promptly.
Name reservation covers the refusal grounds in more detail.
We handle the computation, the minimum-tax comparison, statutory accounts and the annual filings together.
Avail our corporate tax servicesStage two: incorporation
Prepare and file the incorporation set. What you need in hand:
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Memorandum of association | Object clause aligned to the actual business; standard forms are available but should be reviewed against your activity |
| Articles of association | Governance, share transfer and decision rules — worth tailoring where there are multiple shareholders |
| CNICs of all subscribers and directors | Particulars must match exactly, including name spelling and father or husband name |
| Passport copies | Where any subscriber or director is a foreign national |
| Registered office address | With supporting evidence |
| Digital signature or PIN | For each subscriber signing electronically |
| Fee payment | Amount per the SECP fee calculator for your authorised capital |
The two stages, and what each actually delivers
| Stage | You get | You cannot yet | Typical elapsed time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name reservation | A name held for you | Trade, bank, invoice, or claim the name against a trademark holder | Days |
| Incorporation | Certificate of incorporation, CUIN, legal existence | Bank, invoice or hire — no NTN yet | Days to weeks |
| NTN registration | Tax identity | Recover input tax — no sales tax registration yet | Days |
| Bank account | The ability to receive money | — | Weeks, and the usual bottleneck |
| Sales tax registration | Input tax recovery, ability to invoice with tax | — | Weeks |
Incorporation is the middle of this list, not the end of it. A company that is incorporated but has no NTN, no bank account and no sales tax registration exists legally and can do almost nothing commercially — which is why "we registered the company" and "we are operational" are separated by several weeks that founders routinely fail to plan for.
What makes the company actually operational
The whole sequence runs under the Companies Act 2017, which governs name reservation, incorporation and every recurring filing that follows. One consequence is worth stating before the steps: incorporation is not a one-off transaction but the start of a permanent filing relationship, and the Act penalises the continuing default rather than the single missed date — so a company that stops filing does not incur a fixed fine, it accrues one.
Incorporation day is the start of the work, not the end. Six steps follow, roughly in this order:
- Register with FBR for income tax and obtain the company NTN, using the incorporation certificate, memorandum and articles, director CNICs and registered office evidence — NTN registration.
- Open a bank account in the company name. Not a director's personal account. Mixing the two undermines the accounts, the tax computation and the limited liability you incorporated to obtain.
- Assess sales tax registration — federal for goods, provincial for services, sometimes both. See the federal-provincial fork.
- Set up bookkeeping before the first transaction. A company has statutory record obligations that a proprietorship does not, and reconstructing a first year retrospectively is expensive.
- Register for employer obligations if you will hire: payroll withholding under section 149 and any social security registration applicable in your province.
- Build the compliance calendar. This is the step most often skipped and it is the one that costs money.
The recurring obligations you have just taken on
A company carries a permanent compliance load that does not pause when the business is quiet:
- Annual income tax return by 31 December for a 30 June year end — and a dormant company still files.
- SECP annual filings, including the annual return and returns notifying changes in directors, shareholding, registered office or capital. Change filings run on their own deadlines from the date of the event, not annually — see SECP annual return filing.
- Statutory records and registers maintained at the registered office.
- Audited accounts where the criteria applicable to your company require them.
- Monthly sales tax returns if registered, and withholding statements if you deduct.
Penalties for late SECP filings accumulate quietly and are levied on the company and, in some cases, on officers personally. If you are not going to maintain the entity, a proprietorship is the more honest choice.
Sources
This guide is written against the official and clearly labelled professional references below. Rates, thresholds and portal procedures change between reviews, so open the primary source before relying on a figure.
- Company Registration (SECP)
- Start Your Company (SECP)
- Company Incorporation Fee Calculator (SECP)
- Register for Income Tax (FBR)
Questions people also ask
How long does SECP company registration take?
Where the name is approved first time and the documents are complete and consistent, incorporation is commonly completed within days rather than weeks. The delays are almost never at SECP — they come from name rejections, mismatched CNIC particulars, an unsigned or incorrectly stamped document, or an object clause that needs redrafting. Budget realistically for one name rejection and one document query.
What does registration cost?
The incorporation fee is driven by authorised share capital and the filing route, so a single quoted figure is unreliable. SECP publishes a fee calculator that gives the current amount for your capital structure. Separately budget for professional fees if you are not filing yourself, digital signature costs, and stamp duty payable to the province on the memorandum and articles.
Can one person register a company in Pakistan?
Yes, as a single member company. It gives you separate legal personality and limited liability with one shareholder, and it can later be converted to a private limited company when a second shareholder joins. A single member company still has to nominate persons to act in the event of the member becoming incapacitated or dying, so that decision needs making at formation.
Do I need a physical office to register?
You need a registered office address, which is where statutory correspondence is served and which appears on the public record. It must be a real address you control, not a placeholder. Using an address you cannot access is the most reliable way to miss a notice, and changing it later requires its own filing.
Can foreign nationals be shareholders or directors?
Foreign shareholding and directorship are permitted, subject to additional documentation and, in some cases, security clearance requirements that add materially to the timeline. If any shareholder or director is a foreign national, establish the requirements before starting rather than discovering them mid-process.
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