Cessation & Dormancy

Yes - you can stop the cessation process if you change your mind - but if you have submitted your striking off form (DS01) to Companies House, then you have advised Companies House of your intention to dissolve your company.

This three month window is set by Companies House. Companies House states that a company cannot make an application for voluntary strike off unless all qualifying criteria have been met in the last three months.

You may not have raised sales invoices recently, but if you have incurred company expenses then this is deemed carrying on in business, hence the requirement to cease incurring further costs in the three month window set by Companies House.

Before cessation of a limited company can begin, there is a three-month window to establish cessation of trade, then it takes around three months to prepare cessation accounts. There may also be other activity that can take extra time to complete.

Cessation accounts are the final set of accounts your company will prepare and are in the same format as your annual financial statements. They cover all the activity from the date your company started trading – or when the last set of financial statements were prepared – up until your date of cessation.

Yes - but this should be one of the last things you do as part of the cessation process.

All tax refunds are generally processed within the three-month timeframe allowed for cessation, after the initial three-month monitoring period has ended.

As part of the cessation process, we will calculate any final Corporation Tax payment and the final dividend and/or capital distribution you can take from the remaining funds.

Dormant companies mean different things to Companies House and HMRC. For Companies House, ‘Dormancy’ is the status of a Limited Company that has not had any significant accounting transactions during its financial year. For HMRC, a dormant company is one that is not active, not liable for Corporation Tax or not within the charge to Corporation Tax.

From a Companies House perspective, if your company is truly dormant, then it only incurs Companies House fees annually. In these circumstances, then you can submit dormant accounts which comprise a simpler Statement of Financial Position (formerly a Balance Sheet) and notes.