How to close a limited company without the stress

Quick answer

If your company is solvent and has stopped trading for three months, the simplest route is a voluntary strike-off: settle debts, file final accounts and a final Company Tax Return, close PAYE and VAT, share out what is left, then apply on form DS01 for £13 online. The company is usually dissolved about two months later.

Closing a company feels like it should be one form. It is one form, at the end of a list. Most of the stress comes from doing the steps in the wrong order: applying to strike off with money still in the account, or forgetting the domain and email until a client’s message bounces. Work through it in the order below and it becomes an administrative job rather than a worry.

First, choose the right route

GOV.UK’s guide to closing a limited company describes several options. Which one fits depends mainly on whether the company can pay its bills.

GOV.UK calls striking off “usually the cheapest way to close” a company. If there is a meaningful sum to take out, or any doubt about solvency, speak to your accountant before choosing, because the tax treatment differs between routes.

Step 1: check you are eligible to strike off

You can apply to strike off only if, in the last three months, the company has not traded or sold off stock and has not changed its name. It must not be threatened with liquidation or have any agreement with creditors, such as a company voluntary arrangement. If you are still finishing jobs, finish them, invoice them, and start the three-month clock from the last trading day.

Step 2: wind down trading and settle debts

Tell suppliers and clients the date you will stop. Finish or hand over live jobs, collect what you are owed and pay what you owe, including final wages for any staff. If you are making people redundant, follow the redundancy rules. Cancel contracts that would otherwise renew: leases, vehicle finance, software subscriptions, card terminals and insurance, keeping in mind that some cover, such as employers’ liability records, needs to be kept afterwards.

Step 3: deal with HMRC

• Payroll: tell HMRC the company has stopped employing people, send final payroll reports and close the PAYE scheme.
• VAT: if registered, cancel the VAT registration through your VAT account.
• Corporation Tax: send final statutory accounts and a Company Tax Return marked as the final trading period, and pay what is due. If the final year made a loss, ask your accountant about terminal loss relief.

HMRC can object to a strike-off if returns are missing or tax is unpaid, which delays everything. Get this step fully done before the application.

Step 4: take out what is left, carefully

Any money or assets still in the company when it is dissolved pass to the Crown, including refunds that arrive later. Share them among the shareholders first. GOV.UK’s guidance on closing down your company before striking off warns that if the amount you distribute is worth more than £25,000, it is treated as income and you pay Income Tax on it. That threshold is a big reason solvent companies with larger balances use a liquidator instead. Then close the bank account, because it will be frozen once the company is struck off.

Step 5: close the digital side

This is the step people forget, and it causes the most awkward problems later.

• Domain name: decide whether you are keeping it. If you might use the name again, or plan to sell the business brand, transfer it out of the company’s account into your own before dissolution. Our domain names guide explains transfers, and if a developer registered it for you, read what to do when someone else holds your domain.
• Email: set an auto-reply explaining the business has closed and where to go instead. Our out-of-office templates include closure wording. Keep the mailbox running for a few months so stray invoices and messages are not lost.
• Website and hosting: replace the site with a simple closure notice, then cancel hosting once you no longer need email. See what hosting includes if email and website sit on the same plan.
• Google Business Profile and social accounts: mark the business as permanently closed rather than deleting the profile, so customers searching get an honest answer.

Step 6: apply to strike off

Apply online or on paper using form DS01, signed by a majority of directors. The Companies House fees list showed voluntary strike-off at £13 online and £18 on paper at the time of writing, November 2026. Within seven days, send a copy of the application to the company’s members, creditors, employees, pension managers or trustees, and any director who did not sign.

Step 7: wait out the notice, and keep the records

Companies House publishes a notice in The Gazette. If nobody objects, the company is struck off once the two-month notice period ends, and a second notice confirms it no longer exists. Do not trade or move money through the company during that time. Afterwards, GOV.UK says to keep business documents such as bank statements, invoices and receipts for seven years after the company is struck off.

Closing, selling or starting again?

Before you close, ask whether the business has value to someone else: a client list, a reputation in your area, a good name and website. Our guide to building a sellable business brand explains what buyers pay for. If you are closing the company to restart as a sole trader, or under a new structure, you may want to keep the name and look your customers recognise. A refreshed brand identity at £299 can carry that across to new paperwork and a new site. Our prices are all on the pricing page.

This guide covers the general process. For anything involving debts you cannot pay, or significant sums to extract, take advice from an accountant or licensed insolvency practitioner first.