Dormant company accounts: what to file

A company that isn’t doing anything still has paperwork. Companies House and HMRC each have their own idea of what dormant means, and each expects different things from you. This guide sets out what a dormant limited company files, and when.

Last checked against GOV.UK on 29 September 2026.

A4O Accounts files your accounts and CT600 from the same figures. Get started free, no card required.

Two meanings of dormant

Companies House and HMRC use the word differently, so check your company against both.

For Companies House, your company is dormant if it’s had no ‘significant’ transactions in the financial year. Three things don’t count as significant:

• filing fees paid to Companies House
• penalties for late filing of accounts
• money paid for shares when the company was incorporated

For Corporation Tax, HMRC says your company is usually dormant if it has stopped trading and has no other income, such as investments, or if it’s a new company that hasn’t started trading yet. HMRC counts buying, selling, renting property, advertising, employing someone or getting interest as trading.

The tests are different, so a company that meets one may not meet the other. Check both each year.

What you still file at Companies House

Dormant or not, every company must file:

• Annual accounts, every year. A private company has 9 months from the end of its financial year, or 21 months from registration for its first accounts. See filing company accounts with Companies House.
• A confirmation statement, at least once a year. Companies House says this applies to dormant and non-trading companies too. You have up to 14 days after your review period ends to file it.

When you can file dormant accounts

If your company is dormant according to Companies House and also qualifies as small, you can file ‘dormant accounts’ instead, and you don’t need to include an auditor’s report.

If your company had significant transactions during the year, it isn’t dormant for Companies House, even if it’s dormant for tax. You’ll file normal accounts for its size, such as micro-entity or small company accounts.

You don’t need to tell Companies House when you start trading again. The next set of non-dormant accounts you file shows the company is active.

There’s also a paper form, AA02, but only for a company limited by shares that has never traded and whose only transaction is the issue of subscriber shares. Paper forms take longer to process, and the paper route for accounts closes in April 2028.

Telling HMRC the company is dormant

HMRC doesn’t learn about dormancy from your Companies House filing. If your company has stopped trading and has no other income, you tell HMRC yourself. There’s an online service on GOV.UK for this. You’ll need the company name, its 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and, if it traded before, the date it stopped. If you can’t use the service, you can tell HMRC by phone or by post.

Sometimes HMRC decides for you. You may get a letter saying HMRC is treating your company as dormant and you don’t have to pay Corporation Tax or file Company Tax Returns.

Do dormant companies file a tax return?

Usually not, but check your post:

• After you’ve told HMRC the company is dormant, you don’t need to pay Corporation Tax or file another Company Tax Return, unless HMRC sends a further notice to deliver one.
• If you’ve already had a notice to deliver a Company Tax Return, you still have to file it. The return shows HMRC the company was dormant for that period.
• When the company starts trading again, the tax return requirement comes back.

A CT600 has to go through commercial software now, because HMRC’s free online filing service closed on 31 March 2026. See how to file a CT600 and Corporation Tax deadlines.

Deadlines and penalties

Dormancy doesn’t stop late-filing penalties. Companies House charges the same penalties for late dormant accounts as for any other accounts.

The penalty doubles if your accounts are late two years in a row.

GOV.UK lists ‘your company is dormant’ among the reasons an appeal against a Companies House penalty is unlikely to succeed. If HMRC has sent a notice to deliver a Company Tax Return and you file it late, HMRC charges its own late-filing penalties, starting at £200 the day after the deadline.

Dormant accounts from April 2028

From April 2028, Companies House will only accept accounts filed through commercial software, tagged in iXBRL. This covers every company, dormant ones included. The web and paper routes for dormant accounts will close. If you file dormant accounts on the Companies House website today, you’ll need to switch before your first deadline after the change. The software-only filing guide has the details.

Filing dormant accounts in software

A4O Accounts prepares dormant accounts and files them with Companies House, alongside micro-entity, small and full accounts. You enter the company’s Companies House authentication code once, and it’s stored encrypted. You can send a test submission first, and the dashboard shows what’s due. See Companies House filing software. If HMRC asks for a CT600, it’s prepared from the same figures and filed with HMRC.