Dormant vs Micro-Entity Accounts for a UK LTD

Every UK LTD must file Annual Accounts with Companies House every year, separately from the Confirmation Statement (which confirms shareholder/PSC details rather than financial activity). Which type of accounts you file — dormant or micro-entity — depends entirely on whether your company actually transacted during the accounting period, and founders new to UK compliance often aren't sure which one applies to them.

A company qualifies as dormant only if it has had no 'significant accounting transactions' during the financial year — this is a narrow definition. Paying the Companies House registration fee itself and certain filing fees are specifically excluded from counting as a transaction, but routine business activity (invoicing clients, paying a registered office fee, holding a trading bank account with movement) generally disqualifies dormant status. Dormant accounts are a short, simplified balance-sheet-only filing.

If your UK LTD is trading — even at a small scale — you'll typically file micro-entity accounts instead, a simplified accounts format available to companies meeting at least two of three size criteria: turnover of no more than £1 million, balance sheet total of no more than £500,000, and no more than 10 employees (thresholds for accounting periods starting on or after 6 April 2025). Most newly formed non-resident-owned UK LTDs in their first year or two qualify for micro-entity treatment, which requires meaningfully less disclosure than full statutory accounts.

Filing dormant accounts for a company that actually traded during the period is a compliance misstatement, not a harmless shortcut — if Companies House or HMRC cross-references bank activity, tax filings, or VAT registration against a dormant accounts filing, the inconsistency can trigger a compliance review. The reverse mistake — needlessly filing full micro-entity accounts for a genuinely dormant shell — isn't illegal but creates unnecessary disclosure and accounting cost.

Both account types are due 9 months after your company's financial year end (21 months after incorporation for your very first accounts). Late filing penalties apply automatically and escalate the longer the filing is overdue, and — as with missed confirmation statements — a pattern of missed accounts filings is one of the main triggers for Companies House compulsory strike-off action.

HynoGo's UK compliance support helps non-resident directors determine the correct filing type for their company's actual activity level each year, and tracks the 9-month deadline so dormant or micro-entity accounts are filed on time — avoiding both the compliance risk of a wrong filing and the penalty risk of a late one.