A dormant company definition is if your business has had no significant transactions in the financial year. These transactions don’t include filing fees paid to Companies House, penalties for late filing of accounts, or money paid for shares when the company was incorporated.
To register your company as dormant you need to tell your Corporation Tax Office, clients, and agents that you’ll no longer be trading. Making a limited company dormant is acceptable as long as you keep your accounts up to date with Companies House each year.
Do you have to file a confirmation statement for a dormant company? Read on…
The confirmation statement explained
The confirmation statement is basically a snapshot of information about your company that must be provided to Companies House annually. This has replaced the annual report system. All UK companies limited by shares, limited liability partners, community interest, and public limited and unlimited companies must submit a confirmation statement each year. Self-assessment will also require a confirmation statement.
One of the advantages of this new confirmation statement is that you’re able to indicate that there aren’t any changes rather than re-confirming each individual piece of information. One of the differences between the annual return and the confirmation statement is that every limited company must maintain details of persons with significant control (PSC).
Information required in a confirmation statement
If there are any of the following changes you must report them. This includes but is not limited to:
- Registered office address
- Directors and their details
- List of shareholders and their ownership
- Share capital and transfers
- Where each statutory register is kept
- Persons with significant control information
How a dormant company can file accounts
There are several online templates that enable easy and quick electronic submission of dormant accounts for companies that aren’t currently trading. Systems will contain inbuilt checks to make sure that no key information is omitted. You can file dormant accounts without any cost as long as they’re filed on time.
To file your confirmation statement (previously your annual return) you’ll require registration with Companies House through a password and authentication code. This will incur a cost of £13 if you submit online. It’s also possible to file a confirmation statement on paper using a CS01 form which will cost £40. You can also take advantage of the confirmation statement service that includes the Companies House filing fee for around £35.
The due date is the anniversary of the date of incorporation and then typically a year after the last one was filed. The confirmation date is the date that Companies House expects the information supplied to be correct and you have 14 days from the confirmation date to submit your filing, whereas with your annual return this was 28 days.
Need a personal tax advisor?
Outsourced bookkeeping to trusted custom taxation and accounting services will ensure that your confirmation statement will be accurate and filed on time. This will prove to be a sound investment as it will prevent Companies House from taking legal action and fining company directors, and the worst scenario striking the company off the register.