A dormant company: what is left to do
A company that does not operate is not a company that does not exist. The real question is not which filings you owe, but whether you keep it at all.
It is one of the most searched accounting questions and one of the worst framed. People search for which filings a dormant company owes. The better question is: why are you still keeping it?
An inactive company is not free
Even with nothing coming in, a company remains an entity with obligations, deadlines and, usually, costs. Not large, but recurring. Many people pay for years for a company they no longer use, out of inertia or because “I might restart it”.
The three options
- Keep it active, with current obligations met on time.
- Suspend it temporarily, if your situation allows.
- Close it for good, through voluntary liquidation and removal from the register.
Each carries different costs and consequences, and the right choice depends almost entirely on what you intend over the next two years. There is no universal answer, and anyone who gives you one without asking about you is not helping.
The most expensive option is the one chosen by postponement, because you pay for it every year without deciding anything.
The questions that clarify
- Do you still have a concrete plan for this company, with a timeframe?
- Does it have debts, live contracts or assets in its name?
- Is the name or the history worth something to you?
- What does keeping it another year cost, in money and attention?
What does not work
Simply leaving it. An abandoned company does not disappear; it accumulates. And when you do want to close it, the clean-up costs more than a timely decision would have.
About filings
Yes, dormant companies have obligations too, and yes, they have changed in recent years. We do not list them here precisely because they move; we tell you exactly what applies to your company, given its form and what it has done so far.
How we do it at Lexco
We look first at where the company actually stands, then lay out the three options with their costs, and tell you honestly which one looks right. If the answer is to close it, we handle that end to end. If it is to keep it, we say that too.
If you have a company you have not looked at in a year, write to us. The first step is simply knowing where you stand.
