Dormant Company Accounts

What is a dormant company?

A dormant company is a new one that has not yet begun to trade, or an existing company that has not been trading during the current financial year, i.e. there have been “no significant accounting transactions” within this financial year.

If, however, the company has settled an invoice, paid bank charges, bank interest, paid employees, or paid dividends to shareholders then it will lose its dormant status, since these are all examples of significant accounting transactions. Exclusions to the rule are:

• Payment for shares issued at the time of incorporation;
• Late filing penalties;
• Filing fees paid to Companies House.

Every limited company in the UK is required to file accounts on an annual basis. You must file annual accounts with Companies House even if your limited company is dormant. For those dormant companies that have not traded since incorporation, however, the dormant accounts can be submitted via a simplified procedure using the form AA02.

What is included:

• Completing and filing of Form AA02 - Dormant company accounts (DCA).
• Confirming the acceptance of your accounts by Companies House.

This service is available to both new and existing customers, regardless of whether you incorporated your company using our website.

You cannot use this service if:

• The company has ever traded, even in a previous financial year.
• The company has filed a Return of Allotment of Shares document (using form SH01) with Companies House.
• You do not have a valid Companies House webfiling authentication code (we will normally have the code if the company was formed by or through Uniwide Formations Ltd.).
• This service is not available to Limited Liability Partnerships.

How often must Dormant Company Accounts be filed?

Company accounts must be filed for every financial year. Your first accounts must be filed within 21 months of the date of incorporation. Every subsequent filing of accounts must be done within 9 months from the accounting reference date (ARD). If you are unsure of your ARD you can log into your account to view it.

The Annual Accounts must not be confused with the Confirmation Statement (previously known as the Annual Return). A Confirmation Statement is a snapshot of general information about a company (not financial information). Both must be filed with Companies House on an annual basis.

What details are needed for filing Dormant Company Accounts?

No details are necessary. The only possible issue might be if the shares in the company are paid or unpaid:
Paid - The shareholders have paid the company for their shares.
Unpaid - The shareholders have not paid the company for their shares.

By default we will mark shares as paid unless otherwise advised prior to the purchase of this service. The reason why we mark shares as paid by default is that any unpaid share capital means that the shareholders owe money to the company and this may result in a tax liability.