About Dormant Return

Last updated 18 September 2026

Dormant Return files a dormant UK company's Corporation Tax return (the CT600, with iXBRL dormant accounts inside it) straight to HMRC for £5. It exists because HMRC closed its free online filing service on 31 March 2026, and the only remaining way to file a return that is almost entirely zeroes was to pay for software built for trading companies.

What it does

You type your company name, confirm the accounting period, tick the dormant declaration and pay £5. The service builds the CT600 and the tagged accounts, shows you exactly what will be sent, and submits it to HMRC under your own Government Gateway sign-in. HMRC's acceptance receipt, with its signed digest, is emailed to you with a PDF of the accounts. If HMRC rejects the return, nothing is filed and the £5 is refunded automatically.

Since 25 August 2026 it also files a full Company Tax Return, including a tax computation, for a small company that traded, for £15; since 15 September 2026 that covers a small profit too, with the tax worked out and shown. The conditions are set out in what to file when your company traded. Since 31 August 2026 the dormant filing can carry a balance sheet too, for a dormant company that holds cash or share capital, as described in dormant company with money in the bank. Since 3 September 2026 it also files, for £15, the return of a company that did not trade but whose bank account paid interest, computation and tax figure included; see bank interest and dormant companies. And since 18 September 2026 it files, for £5, the return of a charity or registered community amateur sports club whose income is all exempt, using HMRC's supplementary page CT600E with the accounts the trustees already prepared attached as a PDF; see does my small charity need to file a CT600?. Prices are on the pricing page.

Who runs it

Dormant Return is operated by Dormant Return Ltd, a private company limited by shares registered in England and Wales, company number 17393077, incorporated on 11 August 2026. The registered office is on the Companies House record.

I am Max Szolcek, the founder and director. I am a company director and a software builder, not an accountant or a tax adviser. When HMRC's free service closed, the only remaining route for a return that is almost all zeroes was software priced for trading companies, so I read the technical specifications HMRC publishes for developers and built a filing engine that does the one thing a dormant company needs. The guides on this site come from the same position: a director explaining to other directors what the rules are and where they come from, with the gov.uk source linked at the foot of each one.

How the filing actually works

• The same channel as every other Corporation Tax software. Returns go to HMRC's Transaction Engine, the submission service that all commercial Corporation Tax packages use. Dormant Return is registered with HMRC's Software Developer Support Team as a Corporation Tax software vendor (vendor ID 9598), and that identity travels with every submission.
• Tested against HMRC before launch. The dormant return, the active-company return, the balance-sheet variant and the charity return were each accepted by HMRC's External Test Service, the environment HMRC provides for validating software, and a final rehearsal was accepted by the live Transaction Engine in test mode before the service went live on 21 August 2026. The generated iXBRL accounts validate cleanly against the FRC taxonomy HMRC requires.
• Proof you can keep. Every submission carries an IRmark, a digital fingerprint of the return computed to HMRC's published specification. HMRC's acceptance receipt quotes it back, and the receipt you receive shows both, so you can prove what was filed and when.
• Your sign-in, not ours. The return is filed under your company's own Government Gateway credentials. They are passed to HMRC to authenticate the submission and are never stored: the copy of the submission we keep as evidence has them redacted.
• Not yet HMRC-recognised. HMRC keeps a list of recognised Corporation Tax software. Recognition is optional and is not needed to file, but it is a useful signal, and we intend to apply when HMRC's next recognition round opens. Until then the footer of every page says so.

What we deliberately do not do

• No Companies House filings. Dormant accounts and the confirmation statement still go to Companies House separately, through its own free service.
• No storing of card details. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe.

How the guides are written

Each guide is checked against the gov.uk page it relies on, dated, and revisited when the rules or fees change. If you find something wrong or out of date, email support@dormantreturn.co.uk and it will be corrected.

Contact

Support and general questions: support@dormantreturn.co.uk. Privacy questions: privacy@dormantreturn.co.uk. A person reads both.