Switching between dormant and micro-entity accounts

By Ben Davies · Updated 26 September 2026

A company's filing type isn't fixed for life — it's decided year by year, based on what happened in each accounting period. So a company can file dormant accounts one year, micro-entity accounts the next, and dormant again the year after. Here's how to handle the switch in both directions.

The year you stop being dormant

The moment the company has a significant accounting transaction — typically a loan repayment, interest, or a payment from its own bank account — it is no longer dormant for that period. You can't file dormant accounts for a year in which something happened.

For that year you file FRS 105 micro-entity accounts instead: a short balance sheet showing what's on the books. If the only activity was a loan being repaid, there's no profit, so the CT600 still shows no tax to pay.

You don't need to tell Companies House you're "changing" anything — you simply submit the right type of accounts for that period. There's no re-registration, no form, no penalty for the switch itself.

The year after: returning to dormant

If the company goes quiet again — the loan is cleared, the bank account stops moving — it can return to dormant accounts the following year. To do that cleanly:

• Make sure nothing runs through the company's own bank account in the new period, apart from the few payments the dormancy rules ignore — the confirmation statement fee is the usual one. If you pay a company cost yourself instead, don't have the company pay you back: a repayment, or money the company owes you for it, may count as a transaction.
• Watch for bank interest — even a penny of interest earned in the period breaks dormancy again.
• If the company has a bank account it no longer needs, consider closing it to remove the risk entirely.

When the next period qualifies, you just file dormant accounts again. Companies House does not require you to "re-declare" dormancy. The dormant accounts show the balance sheet the company ended the micro-entity year with — any cash, anything still owed — unchanged, because nothing moved.

Doing it with DormantFile

Because the type is chosen per period, DormantFile lets you pick dormant or micro-entity at the filing step for each year independently. A company that tripped dormancy with a loan repayment in one year and went quiet the next can file micro-entity accounts for the first and dormant accounts for the second, all from the same dashboard. If you're catching up on several overdue periods at once, you can mix the two across the run. When you go back to dormant after micro-entity accounts filed with us, the closing figures carry forward into the dormant balance sheet for you to check.

See dormant vs non-trading for the underlying distinction, or how it works for the filing flow.

When the switch needs an accountant

If the reason the company stopped being dormant is income or gains — interest received, dividends, rent, or actual trading — rather than just a loan moving, there may be Corporation Tax to pay and the CT600 won't be nil. That's the point to bring in an accountant; DormantFile's micro-entity path is for non-trading, nil-tax years only.

Key points

• Filing type is decided per accounting period, not once for the life of the company.
• The year a significant transaction occurs, file micro-entity accounts, not dormant ones — no form or re-registration needed.
• You can return to dormant accounts the next year if nothing runs through the company account (mind bank interest).
• DormantFile lets you choose dormant or micro-entity for each period independently.
• If the company earned income or gains, the CT600 isn't nil — see an accountant.