How to never miss a dormant company accounts deadline again

By DormantFile · Updated 10 June 2026

The cruel thing about dormant company deadlines is that the company gives you no reason to think about it. There are no invoices, no bank statements, no VAT quarters — nothing all year that prompts the thought "I should check when the accounts are due". Then a penalty notice arrives.

Companies House does not care that the company did nothing. Late filing penalties are automatic: £150 up to a month late, £375 up to three months, £750 up to six, and £1,500 beyond that — and they double if you file late two years running. For a company with zero activity, that is a painful bill for forgetting a date.

Here is a layered system that makes missing the deadline nearly impossible.

Layer 0: know your actual deadline

Dormant accounts are due 9 months after your accounting reference date. For your first set of accounts, the deadline is 21 months from incorporation — we cover the first-year quirks in first year filing for a new company.

If you don't know your dates, our free dormant deadline calculator works them out from your incorporation date or ARD. Or run your company number through the Companies House audit tool to see exactly what's outstanding and when it's due.

Layer 1: put it in your calendar

Low-tech but effective: a recurring calendar event a month before the deadline, plus one a week before. We have a step-by-step guide on adding your filing deadlines to your calendar.

The weakness of calendars is that they only fire on the device you set them on, and a single dismissed notification is gone forever. Treat this as a backstop, not the whole system.

Layer 2: email reminders

DormantFile tracks your accounts deadline and sends email reminders at 90, 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before it's due. Six chances to act, in your inbox, regardless of which device you're on. Email reminders survive phone upgrades and forgotten calendar apps — the failure mode is simply that you still have to log in and file.

Layer 3: autopilot — the deadline comes to you

The strongest layer flips the problem around. Instead of you remembering to file, the filing comes to you with everything already prepared.

With DormantFile's autopilot, after your first successful dormant accounts filing you can opt in to have us store your Companies House authentication code (encrypted with AES-256-GCM — details on our security page). Then, 30 days before each accounts deadline:

1. We email you when the prepared accounts are ready, with a one-click confirm link.
2. You click once to confirm the company is still dormant — that click is your annual director's confirmation.
3. We file with Companies House and email you the result.

It's one click a year, not zero — the dormancy confirmation is a legal statement only you can make. If a filing is ever rejected, you get the reason by email and the period drops back into the normal reminder schedule, so there's no silent failure.

Two honest limits: autopilot covers dormant accounts only — micro-entity accounts need fresh figures every year, so we'll always ask you for those. And it never touches your CT600: the Corporation Tax return is always filed by you with your own HMRC login, and you stay responsible for knowing when it's due.

What if you've already missed one?

File immediately — the penalty bands are time-based, so every week matters. The penalty calculator shows where you currently stand, and our guide on catching up overdue filings walks through getting back to clean.

Key points

• Dormant accounts are due 9 months after your period end (21 months from incorporation for the first set) — and penalties of £150 to £1,500 are automatic, doubling for consecutive late years.
• Use layers: know the date (free deadline calculator), calendar events, six email reminders, and autopilot.
• Autopilot inverts the problem: a prepared filing lands in your inbox 30 days early and one click files it. One click a year — your click is the dormancy confirmation.
• Autopilot is dormant-accounts only; the CT600 is always filed by you.
• Already late? File now — the penalty calculator shows what waiting costs.