The easiest way to file dormant company accounts

By Ben Davies · Updated 3 October 2026

Filing dormant accounts is never going to be fun, but the difference between the hardest route and the easiest one is bigger than most directors realise — in time, in risk of rejection, and in what happens when you forget next year. Here are the four ways to do it, easiest last.

Option 1: Paper AA02 by post

Print form AA02, fill it in by hand, post it to Companies House, and wait. It's only for a company that has never traded. No authentication code (the 6-character code Companies House posts to the company's registered office) needed, but everything else is against you: postal delays count against your deadline, handwriting errors get forms bounced weeks later, and you get no instant proof of filing. Companies House itself is steering everyone away from paper, and the 2028 software-only reforms will close this route entirely.

Verdict: slowest, riskiest, soon to disappear.

Option 2: Companies House WebFiling

Free, but only a company that has never traded can use its dormant accounts form, and it files the accounts only — not the Company Tax Return. You'll need your authentication code, and you do the whole thing manually each year: no deadline tracking, no pre-filled accounts, no warning if something is drifting. WebFiling is also scheduled to close for accounts filing as part of the 2028 move to software-only filing, so this route has a shelf life.

Verdict: free only for a company that has never traded, entirely on your memory — and the route is closing.

Option 3: An accountant

Hand it to a professional and it gets done properly. For a trading company that's money well spent; for a dormant company it usually means £150+ a year for ten minutes of work, and most dormant companies simply don't need one. You're also still in the loop — a good accountant will ask you to confirm dormancy each year anyway, because that statement is yours to make, not theirs.

Verdict: easy but expensive, and you still answer the same annual question.

Option 4: Filing software

Purpose-built software sits in the middle: cheaper than an accountant, far more supportive than WebFiling. DormantFile files dormant accounts in about two minutes through the official Companies House API — share capital only, or the figures a company that once traded still carries, which you can start from its last filed accounts — tracks your deadlines with email reminders from 90 days out, syncs against the register daily, and covers the nil CT600 side too — from £19 a year. The register supplies the accounts and confirmation statement dates; the Corporation Tax one you type in from HMRC's notice, and we remind you about any Corporation Tax deadline you add on the same schedule. See what's included in filing dormant accounts online.

And after your first filing, you can make next year easier still: autopilot prepares the next set of dormant accounts, emails you before the deadline, and files when you confirm with a single click. It's optional and off by default — but it turns the easiest route into a one-click one.

Verdict: the easiest sustainable route, and the only one that gets easier in year two.

Side by side

Key points

• Paper and WebFiling both work today but are being phased out by the April 2028 software-only reforms.
• An accountant is the expensive way to file a form that barely changes year to year.
• Software files in minutes through the official API, with deadline reminders the free routes never give you.
• With autopilot switched on, year two onwards is one click: confirm the company is still dormant and the filing is done.