Anti-money laundering & customer due diligence

Last updated: 26 September 2026

DormantFile prepares and files statutory accounts and Company Tax Returns for UK limited companies, and statutory accounts and nil partnership tax returns for UK limited liability partnerships (LLPs). We are a software service — we submit each filing on your behalf, authorised with credentials you supply for the company — and we are not an accountancy firm, a tax adviser, or a regulated financial services provider. We nonetheless run our own anti-money laundering and fraud monitoring on every account and every filing, because a filing service can be misused even when it never handles a penny. Ben Davies is responsible for these checks.

This page explains, in plain English, the customer due diligence ("CDD") we carry out, what we check before every filing, when we will ask you for more, and what records we keep. For the ordinary customer filing for their own dormant company, all of it happens quietly in the background.

Why our risk is structurally low — and what we watch for

DormantFile is a narrow, standardised service. We do not handle client money, hold funds, form companies, provide registered-office addresses or nominees, or move value in any way. Every tax return we file is nil. The accounts are those of a company or LLP that isn't trading: dormant accounts — the company has had no significant transactions in the year, though its balance sheet may still carry figures from earlier trading — or the short micro-entity accounts of a non-trading company. Payment is by card through Stripe only, and every filing is authenticated with credentials only someone with genuine control of the company holds.

That still leaves specific ways a service like ours could be misused — keeping a trading shell "dormant" on paper, filing on a company the customer doesn't actually control, or maintaining an unexplained stack of shell companies. Our checks are built around exactly those risks.

The checks we carry out

Who you are. Every account requires a verified email address before anything can be filed or paid for — verified by us, or by Google if you sign in with Google.
The company is real. We identify every company against the live Companies House register — number, registered name, and officers — and only file for companies that exist on the register. Your company's register record is re-synced daily.
You control it. Filing accounts requires the company's Companies House authentication code; filing a CT600 requires your own Government Gateway login with Corporation Tax enrolment. We never file with credentials you have not supplied, and we never obtain credentials on your behalf.
Director confirmation, every filing and every appeal letter. Before each filing you confirm you are a director of the company (or acting with the directors' authority) — or, for an LLP, a designated member acting with the members' authority — and the confirmation is recorded against that filing. An appeal letter asks the same thing before it is written — the letter is signed in your name, so the confirmation is stored with it. If the name you give doesn't match the public register, we ask why and record the answer.
Ongoing monitoring. Our daily register watch flags unexpected changes to your company's record — new officers, address changes, or filings we didn't make — so a hijacked or contested company surfaces quickly.
Enhanced checks when the picture doesn't add up. If something is inconsistent — the register contradicts what you've told us, a portfolio of companies has no plausible explanation, or another risk factor applies — we pause, ask you to explain, and may ask for evidence such as proof of appointment before proceeding.

What we will not do

File dormant accounts for a company we have reason to believe is trading. Dormant means dormant; if your company has started trading, we'll point you to the right route instead.
File with credentials you haven't supplied yourself.
Accept payment routes outside Stripe, or payments from third parties unconnected to you.
Backdate, alter, or misrepresent filings, periods, or company status.
Provide an address for your company, or receive, hold, open or forward your mail. An appeal letter we post for you goes out in your company's name, from its own registered office, with replies going to an address you choose — our own address appears nowhere on it and nothing comes back to us. Offering an address or handling mail would make us a trust or company service provider, which we are not and do not intend to become.

Our reporting duties

Where we know or suspect money laundering or terrorist financing, we report it to the National Crime Agency. Once a report is made the law prohibits us from discussing it — which means that in rare cases we may decline or pause a filing and be unable to tell you why beyond "we're unable to proceed". We may decline or end service where our own due-diligence checks cannot be satisfied.

The records we keep

We keep customer identity, due-diligence, and transaction records for five years after our business relationship with you ends. Filing records are kept while your account exists; if you close your account, we keep the records of filings we submitted until six years after the end of the accounting period each one covers, as HMRC's record-keeping rules require. These retention periods apply even if you delete your account — account deletion removes your marketing and product data, but the compliance records above are retained for the period above, as set out in our privacy policy.

What this means for you

If you're a director filing for your own dormant company — the overwhelming majority of our customers — you'll never notice any of this. The checks run automatically against public data and the credentials you already use. Due diligence only becomes visible if something doesn't add up, and then it's a conversation, not an accusation.

Questions about this policy can be sent via our contact page.