Form AA02: dormant company accounts (DCA) explained

By Ben Davies · Updated 3 October 2026

Form AA02 — officially "dormant company accounts (DCA)" — is the Companies House paper form for filing the annual accounts of a dormant company that has never traded. It is the oldest of the ways to file dormant accounts, and it is on borrowed time: from April 2028 the paper route closes entirely.

This guide covers who can use AA02, how to fill it in, and what a company that doesn't fit it files instead.

What form AA02 is

AA02 is a short paper form that stands in for full statutory accounts. It contains a minimal balance sheet — essentially the company's share capital — and a set of statements confirming the company was dormant throughout the period and that no audit is required. There is no profit and loss account: dormant accounts don't need one.

Filing it satisfies the same legal duty as any other set of dormant company accounts: every UK limited company must file annual accounts, dormant or not, by its deadline — usually 9 months after the accounting reference date (for a first set of accounts, the later of 21 months from incorporation or 3 months after the period end). Miss it and automatic penalties start at £150.

Who can use it — and who can't

Companies House is specific about this. The paper AA02 is only for a company limited by shares that has never traded and is not a subsidiary or a charity, where the only transaction since incorporation is the issue of subscriber shares — the shares the founders took when the company was formed. Companies House's online dormant accounts form has the same never-traded limit.

That rules out more companies than you might expect:

• Companies that traded in the past. If the company traded and later went dormant, AA02 is not available — even though the company is genuinely dormant now — and neither is Companies House's online dormant accounts form. It files full dormant accounts, which carry the figures from its trading years: through filing software, or on paper until paper filing of accounts closes in April 2028.
• Companies with anything else on the balance sheet. Anything beyond the subscriber shares and what was paid for them — a loan (including a Bounce Back Loan), money owed to or by the company, any other asset — means the company doesn't fit the form. That doesn't by itself stop the company being dormant: a balance left from earlier years can stay on a dormant company's balance sheet, as long as nothing about it changes in the year — nothing paid or collected, no interest added, nothing written off. It goes on full dormant accounts instead. But if money moved in the year — loan repayments, bank interest — the company isn't dormant for that year. Use our dormancy checker if you're unsure, and see micro-entity accounts for the usual alternative.
• LLPs. A limited liability partnership has no equivalent of AA02 — a dormant LLP prepares its own accounts, with members' interests instead of share capital and the signature of a designated member (one of the members responsible for the LLP's filings). See filing dormant LLP accounts.
• Subsidiaries. A company that is a subsidiary of another company can't use AA02, even if it has never traded.
• Charities. The form's own notes rule out a company that is a charity.
• Community interest companies. A CIC cannot use AA02 (or WebFiling, or filing software) even when fully dormant — every CIC files its accounts with a CIC34 report and a £15 fee, through its own routes.
• Companies limited by guarantee. AA02's balance sheet asks for called-up share capital, which a company limited by guarantee — the usual shape of a flat management or RTM company — doesn't have. See dormant accounts for a flat management or RTM company.

How to fill in AA02

The problem with paper

The paper route has three failure modes the online routes don't:

1. Postal time counts against you. Your accounts are filed when Companies House receives and accepts them, not when you post them.
2. Errors bounce by post. A missed signature or mismatched date comes back to you weeks later — often after your deadline has passed, with the £150 penalty already triggered.
3. No instant proof. Online routes give you electronic confirmation and an acceptance record; with paper you're watching the letterbox.

The one genuine advantage of AA02 is that it needs no authentication code. But since a code takes up to 10 working days to arrive by post anyway, requesting one and filing online is almost always the better trade.

AA02 is going away

Companies House is moving all accounts filing to commercial software from April 2028 — both the paper forms and WebFiling's accounts screens close. We cover the details in our guide to the April 2028 accounts changes. If you're setting up an annual routine for a dormant company now, it makes sense to pick a route that still exists in two years.

Filing online instead

Two options:

• Companies House WebFiling — free, using your authentication code, but only for a company that has never traded, as with AA02. Fine if you remember it each year; see the step-by-step guide.
• DormantFile — we file dormant company accounts online through the Companies House software API in about two minutes — including for a company that traded once and still carries figures from those years — watch the submission until it's accepted, and cover the nil CT600 side that Companies House routes never touch. From £19/year, with deadline reminders built in.

For a side-by-side of every filing service — including the £9 one-off form-fillers — see how the options compare.

Key points

• Form AA02 ("dormant company accounts (DCA)") is the paper form for dormant accounts — there is no online AA02; online routes replace it rather than digitise it.
• It is only for companies limited by shares that have never traded and aren't subsidiaries or charities, with subscriber shares as the only transaction.
• Filing is free, but accounts must be delivered by your deadline — postal delays and bounced forms are how paper filers end up with £150+ penalties.
• The paper route (and WebFiling accounts) closes in April 2028 under the software-only reforms.
• A dormant company that traded before can't use AA02 or Companies House's online dormant accounts form. It files full dormant accounts — through filing software such as DormantFile, or on paper until April 2028.