£9 dormant accounts services: what one-off filing buys, and what it doesn't

By DormantFile · Updated 24 July 2026

Search for "file dormant company accounts" and you'll find services offering to do it for £8.99 or £9, one-off. They're real, they work, and for some companies they're a perfectly rational choice. But "dormant accounts filed" and "dormant company sorted for the year" are different jobs — and the gap between them is where directors get caught.

Here's an honest breakdown. (For a named, feature-by-feature table of every provider, see our comparison page.)

What a £9 one-off service does

You give the service your company details, confirm the company is dormant and has never traded, and it files the dormant accounts — the online equivalent of form AA02 — with Companies House. Reputable ones typically refund you if Companies House rejects the filing.

That's the whole product: one form, filed once. Done well, it's fast and cheap, and if that's genuinely all you need, it's money well spent.

What it doesn't do

1. The HMRC side doesn't exist.

The £9 services file with Companies House only. If your company is registered for Corporation Tax, you separately owe HMRC a nil CT600 — and since CATO closed in March 2026 there is no free route for it. HMRC's penalties are their own ladder: £100 from day one late, before Companies House adds its own. Whether you need a CT600 depends on your HMRC status — check before assuming you don't.

2. Nobody is watching the calendar.

A one-off service files when you show up. It doesn't know your next deadline, doesn't remind you, and won't notice if your confirmation statement falls due in a different month — the filing everyone forgets because it follows a different cycle from accounts.

3. Next year starts from zero.

Dormant filing isn't a task, it's a ritual: the same obligations return every 12 months for as long as you keep the company. With a one-off service, each year means finding the service again, re-entering everything, and — statistically, the dangerous part — remembering unprompted.

The actual cost comparison

The £10 between a one-off service and a subscription isn't buying a better form — the form is the same. It's buying the CT600 route, the deadline machinery, and the guarantee that next year happens without you initiating it. Our full cost guide breaks down all four routes in more depth.

When the £9 service is the right call

Genuinely: if your company has never traded, isn't registered for Corporation Tax (or you're confident handling HMRC separately), and you trust your own calendar, a one-off service is cheap and effective. We'd rather you use one than file late.

If you want the year handled rather than the form — both filings, watched to acceptance, with reminders that start 90 days out — that's the job DormantFile exists for: file your dormant company accounts online from £19/year, with a free deadline watchdog even if you never pay us.

Key points

• £8.99–£9 one-off services are legitimate: they file the Companies House dormant accounts form, once, and good ones refund on rejection.
• They don't touch the HMRC side — the nil CT600 has had no free route since CATO closed — and they don't track deadlines or come back next year.
• Late filing penalties (£150+ from Companies House, £100+ from HMRC) cost more than a decade of any of these services — the expensive failure is forgetting, not the fee.
• See the named provider comparison for exactly who offers what, or the cost guide for the full DIY-to-accountant spectrum.