What are authorised shares?

What are authorised shares?

The Companies House has scrapped the concept of authorised capital for companies that have been incorporated after 1st October 2009.

For Companies that have been incorporated before 1st October 2009, authorised share capital refers to the maximum number of shares that can be issued. The number of authorised shares for a company is usually 1000 upon incorporation, and is different from the number of issued shares. Issued shares refer to those authorised shares that have been actually issued. It is the number of issued shares owned by an individual that will determine who owns the company.