Dormant company accounts are the shortest set of accounts a company can file: a balance sheet showing the share capital and nothing else, with a statement that the company was dormant throughout the year, filed with Companies House once a year like any other accounts. Whether HMRC also wants a dormant company tax return depends on whether HMRC has agreed the company is dormant for corporation tax, and a company that has not told HMRC will keep receiving notices to deliver a return. This page is written for the director who has a dormant company and a filing deadline: what accounts for a dormant company mean and contain, how to file them, when a return is still owed to HMRC and what to do about it, and the penalties that apply to a dormant company as much as to a trading one.
Accounts for a dormant company meaning: what they contain
A balance sheet as at the year end, showing the called-up share capital and, where the shares were issued for cash that is still held, the cash; a statement that the company was dormant throughout the financial year within the meaning of the Companies Act; the director's name and signature; and no profit and loss account, because there was no activity to report. A company that has had any significant transaction in the year cannot use them and files full or small company accounts instead. Companies House will reject dormant accounts from a company whose confirmation statement or earlier filings show it trading.
How to file accounts for a dormant company
Through the Companies House online service, using the company's authentication code, choosing the dormant company accounts type, entering the share capital and confirming the dormancy statement. The deadline is nine months after the year end for a private company, the same as for any other, and the fee is paid personally or from a source outside the company so that the payment does not itself count as a transaction. The first accounts of a new company have a longer deadline, and a company can shorten or extend its year end within limits, but the dormant status does not change any of the dates.
When HMRC still wants a dormant company tax return
If HMRC has been told the company is dormant and has agreed, no corporation tax return is due until the company becomes active again. If HMRC has not been told, or a notice to deliver a return arrives anyway, the notice must be answered: either by filing a return showing no trade and no income, or by writing to HMRC to have the company treated as dormant from the date it stopped. Ignoring the notice produces the late filing penalties, £200 on the first day and rising, per gov.uk, exactly as for a trading company, and those penalties are not cancelled by the company having had nothing to report.
Dormant account filing, the penalties, and the restart
Late dormant accounts at Companies House carry the same penalties as late full accounts, and repeated failure can end in the company being struck off. A dormant company tax return filed late carries the corporation tax late filing penalties on the return whether or not any tax was due. When the company starts trading again it tells HMRC within three months, a new accounting period begins on that date, and a full return and accounts follow for it; the company tax return guide on this site covers that return, and the free UK corporation tax calculator the tax it works out.
Questions people ask about dormant company accounts
Can I file dormant accounts if the company has a bank account?
Only if nothing has passed through it in the year. A monthly fee or a single deposit is a significant transaction and the company is not dormant for Companies House for that year, whatever HMRC's view of its trading.
Do dormant accounts need an accountant?
No. They are a balance sheet with the share capital on it and a statement, and the Companies House online service walks through them. A company with any activity in the year needs proper accounts, and that is where an accountant earns their fee.
What if I never told HMRC the company was dormant?
Write to HMRC now with the date the company stopped trading, and answer any outstanding notice to deliver a return rather than leaving it. Penalties already charged for returns not filed can be appealed only with a reasonable excuse, and not having known is rarely accepted as one.