Closing a dormant company: DS01 strike-off and the final Corporation Tax return

By Max Szolcek, founder of Dormant Return. Last updated 3 September 2026

A dormant company can sit on the register indefinitely, filing its dormant accounts and confirmation statement each year. But if it will never be used, keeping it costs time and carries a risk of penalties for a forgotten filing. Voluntary strike-off is, in gov.uk's words, usually the cheapest way to close a solvent company. Here is how it works for a company that has done nothing, and the one HMRC question that trips people up.

You do not have to close it

First, the alternative. Gov.uk notes that you do not have to close your company if it is no longer trading; you can let it become dormant for tax as long as it is not carrying on business activity, trading or receiving income. You must still send annual accounts and a confirmation statement to Companies House every year. If there is any chance you will want the company again, dormancy is reversible and strike-off, in practice, is not.

The conditions for voluntary strike-off

A company can apply to be struck off only if, in gov.uk's list, it has not traded or sold off any stock in the last 3 months, has not changed names in the last 3 months, is not threatened with liquidation, and has no agreements with creditors such as a Company Voluntary Arrangement. A genuinely dormant company clears the first condition by definition. If the company did trade at some point, the three-month clock runs from when it stopped.

What to do before you apply

Companies House expects the company to be closed down properly before the form goes in. Gov.uk's checklist for a solvent company includes announcing your plans to interested parties and HMRC, dealing with any staff, and sending final statutory accounts and a Company Tax Return to HMRC and paying any outstanding tax. It also says to deal with the company's assets before applying, because when the company is struck off, all the remaining assets will pass to the Crown. That includes money left in a bank account: distribute it to the shareholders first, then close the account.

Business documents must be kept for 7 years after the company is struck off, so do not shred the file the day the company disappears.

Does a dormant company need a final Corporation Tax return?

This is the question that matters. The checklist above says "a Company Tax Return", but the legal duty to file one comes from HMRC's notice to deliver, not from the act of closing. So there are two cases.

HMRC has issued a notice to deliver a return for any period, including a partly completed one, and you have not filed it. File it before you apply. An outstanding return is exactly the kind of thing that leads to an objection, and the penalties for a late return keep accruing while the company still exists. For a company that did nothing, that return is a CT600 of nil figures with dormant accounts attached; see do dormant companies need to file a CT600?
HMRC has agreed the company is dormant and has not sent a notice. Gov.uk states that once you have told HMRC your company is dormant, you do not need to pay Corporation Tax or file another Company Tax Return unless you receive a further notice. In that case there is no final CT600 to file. Tell HMRC you are applying to strike the company off, so that it does not issue a fresh notice while the application is in progress.

If you have never told HMRC the company is dormant, do it now, before the DS01, and keep HMRC's confirmation. The steps are in how to tell HMRC your company is dormant. A company that holds a little cash or a director's loan is still dormant for these purposes; how that looks on the return is covered in dormant company with money in the bank.

One last CT600 before the DS01? If HMRC has asked for a return your dormant company has not yet filed, Dormant Return prepares the CT600 and iXBRL dormant accounts and files them under your own Government Gateway sign-in. About five minutes, £5, refunded automatically if HMRC rejects the return.

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Applying: form DS01

The application is Companies House form DS01, which can be filed online or on paper; there is a fee, and the online route is the cheaper of the two. Gov.uk's rule on paying it is worth knowing: you cannot pay using a cheque from an account that belongs to the company you are striking off. The form must be signed by a majority of the company's directors. Gov.uk also warns that it is an offence to make a dishonest application, with a fine and possible prosecution, which is why the pre-application checklist is not optional.

Once the form is in, Companies House writes to confirm whether it was filled in correctly, then publishes your request as a notice in The Gazette. If nobody objects, the company will be struck off the register once the 2 months mentioned in the notice has passed, and a second notice is published to record that the company no longer legally exists.

Objections

Those two months exist so that anyone with an interest in the company can object. Unpaid tax or a return HMRC has asked for and not received are the classic reasons a strike-off stalls. The straightforward defence is to leave nothing outstanding: file whatever HMRC has asked for, tell HMRC the company is dormant and being closed, empty the bank account, and only then send the DS01.

After dissolution

Once the second Gazette notice appears, the company is gone. Filings stop, but so does any chance of getting back money left in its name without an application to the Crown. Keep the seven years of records, keep HMRC's dormancy letter and the receipts for any returns filed, and the matter is closed.