Did you register as a limited company and are you now regretting the burden that comes with it? You’ve come to the right place, here we explain exactly how you close down or dissolve a limited company so you can continue working as self-employed.
As long as you don’t have any outstanding payments or debt, you can close down your limited company in two ways:
Most people prefer to get the company struck off at Companies House as the process is easier. The legal term for this process is dissolution or striking off
For a voluntary dissolution to begin, your limited company must meet certain conditions. These are all things you should manage before closing your limited company:
First, make sure that your company is allowed to close down. This means:
Second, make sure that you inform everyone that you’re planning to close down your company:
These points are very important as you are not allowed to close down your limited company if you haven’t done these things beforehand.
To apply to strike off your limited company, you must complete, sign, and send Companies House form DS01. You can do all of this online.
You should deal with any of the assets of the company before applying. For example, close any bank accounts and transfer any domain names.
It costs £10 to strike off a company with Companies House. You might incur some additional costs if you use an accountant your final financial documents and accounts.
After companies house confirms that you’re allowed to close down your company, it is published in the Gazette. This is the official record announcing that your company is getting closed down. This is a final check to see if anyone has objections to you closing down your company (for example a bank). There are 3 Gazettes:
If there are no objections to strike off, the company will be struck off the register two months after it is published in the Gazette.
You need to do a final company tax return and account statement before you can close down your company. If this is done correctly then the only thing you need to add is any money you’ve made on closing down your company.
You can work as self-employed while you handle the process of closing down your company, but you have to be very careful that these two businesses do not overlap. What does this mean:
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