Dormant accounts for a Limited company

Dan_Iggulden

Good afternoon all,

Firstly excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject!

I have a limited company that I set up April 2010. I have recieved an email from the online company that I used to incorporate the company, www.companiesmadesimple.com saying I need to file an annual return.
The company is dormant, has been since day 1, by Companies Made Simple want to charge me £50 to do a DIY Dormant Companies submittal.... I assume I can do this myself?
I have not received any correspondace from HRMC or Companies House so not sure what I have to do?
Is an annual return different to a dormant return? So confused! Any help would be great appreciated.

bengalknights

Annual return is the return to tell companies house the details of your company and shareholders etc this is £15 and take 2 min to do.The dormant accounts are your yearly accounts this is free and again takes max 5 minutes to do if you only have one share issued.

texranger

Dan_Iggulden wrote: »

Good afternoon all,

Firstly excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject!

I have a limited company that I set up April 2010. I have recieved an email from the online company that I used to incorporate the company, www.companiesmadesimple.com saying I need to file an annual return.
The company is dormant, has been since day 1, by Companies Made Simple want to charge me £50 to do a DIY Dormant Companies submittal.... I assume I can do this myself?
I have not received any correspondace from HRMC or Companies House so not sure what I have to do?
Is an annual return different to a dormant return? So confused! Any help would be great appreciated.

i assume when you set up the company you received the forms from HRMC and compalted the form stating the co will be dormant.

i think all www.companiesmadesimple.com are doing is asking you to allow them to file your accounts for a fee of £50 but as bengalknights state you can do them yourself in a matter of minutes.

ESKIMO

It’s relatively simple to do.

Ouch! £50! I’m in the wrong job.

Yes, you can DIY. Although I would suggest to check the T&Cs with your registrar so they don’t automatically charge or debit your account with them. Are they also acting as your agent/company secretary? (neither of which you really need tbh).

If so, their business premises may be disclosed as your companies Registered Office Address? – Therefore, they will get all the correspondence from CH so it’s certainly worth checking.

You should be able to disassociate yourself (your company) from them and change you registered office address (if you wanted to, assuming that is the service you are being charged for)

From memory I think there may be a CH charge for filing but no more than in the region of £8-10 (or I could be thinking of a name change – so don’t quote me on it, but I certainly know it’s a bloody lot less than £50!)

Tbh, I think that £50 is a bit of a rip off for something that is merely a case of simple back-office bookkeeping work.

It requires nothing fancy as you are dormant – so you are not trading.

I just found the update for myself here.
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/proposedChanges.shtml
I thought I remembered receiving an email alert.

Here is the Dormant Company ‘How To Guide’ on CH
Chapter 8 – Dormant company accounts
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gp2.shtml#ch8

You need to complete Form AA02
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/forms/generalForms/AA02_post_october_dormant_company_accounts_dca.pdf

Dan_Iggulden

Thanks for all the info.
So I paid I think £15 to Companies House earlier this year to file current details, ie, directors, address etc...... So is that classed as a return?

Companies Made Simple only formed the reg company for me, they have nothing to do with it other than that, apart from trying to flog their many services on me!

So my tax return is due end of Jan, is that what I need to file a dormant form for?

texranger

Dan_Iggulden wrote: »

Thanks for all the info.
So I paid I think £15 to Companies House earlier this year to file current details, ie, directors, address etc...... So is that classed as a return?

Companies Made Simple only formed the reg company for me, they have nothing to do with it other than that, apart from trying to flog their many services on me!

So my tax return is due end of Jan, is that what I need to file a dormant form for?

you pay the company to regsiter your Ltd company. this is a fee you pay them which will include the filing fee to companies house to add your company to the register.

if your company is dormant ( i have 3 dormant ltd companies) then eacy year you still have to file a dormant account with companies house at a current cost of £15 per year

ESKIMO

Dan_Iggulden wrote: »

Thanks for all the info.
So I paid I think £15 to Companies House earlier this year to file current details, ie, directors, address etc...... So is that classed as a return?

Companies Made Simple only formed the reg company for me, they have nothing to do with it other than that, apart from trying to flog their many services on me!

So my tax return is due end of Jan, is that what I need to file a dormant form for?

Your Annual Return (Form AR01) is nothing more than an 'update' to CH that informs them of the 'current status' of your company. - Purely to cross-reference with all the the changes that can occur within a companys operational year like; change of Directors, Shareholders, Address, Company Name etc.

Quote:

An annual return is a snapshot of general information about a company's directors, secretary (where one has been appointed), registered office address, shareholders and share capital.

http://www.companieshouse.org.uk/about/gbhtml/gp2.shtml#ch1

Your Dormant Company Accounts (Form AA02) just confirms that your company is basically 'inactive' - and not trading.

Quote:

A company is dormant if it has had no 'significant accounting transactions' during the accounting period. A significant accounting transaction is one which the company should enter in its accounting records.

http://www.companieshouse.org.uk/about/gbhtml/gp2.shtml#ch8

Dan_Iggulden

So the Dormant Accounts form is what I file as my Accounts which is due Jan 2012, right? As the company is not trading.

bengalknights

Dan_Iggulden wrote: »

So the Dormant Accounts form is what I file as my Accounts which is due Jan 2012, right? As the company is not trading.

Yes correct you have upto jan 2012 to submit them