Do dormant company directors need to file Self Assessment?

By DormantFile · Updated 6 August 2026

Not automatically. Being a company director — including of a dormant company — does not by itself mean you have to file a Self Assessment return. HMRC dropped its old blanket expectation that all directors file some years ago. What matters is your personal income: you need a return if HMRC has sent you a notice to file, or you meet the usual criteria — self-employment income, rental income, untaxed income, the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and so on.

But there is a new wrinkle from the 2025/26 tax year onwards. If you do file a Self Assessment return, you must now declare every close company directorship on the SA102 employment pages — and a typical owner-managed dormant company is a close company. HMRC has confirmed that dormancy is not an exemption.

For each such company you must complete a separate SA102 page giving:

• the company's exact registered name and company number
• the dividends you received from it in the tax year — entered as 0 if none, not left blank
• your highest percentage shareholding during the year (100 for a sole shareholder)

This applies even if the directorship is unpaid and the company has never traded. Missing or incorrect entries carry a fixed £60 penalty, so the rule of thumb is: zeros are answers — enter them.

Two things it does not change:

• It does not drag non-filers into Self Assessment. No return needed before? Still none needed now.
• It does not touch the company's own filings — dormant accounts and a nil CT600 are still due on the company's own deadlines, entirely separate from the 31 January personal tax date.

For the full box-by-box walkthrough, see the new SA102 rules for dormant company directors.