If you have a company in UK and you want to strike it off, there are some things to be taken care of first. Here is a brief overview of the steps you need to go through in order to close your company in UK.

You can issue a notice to remove a private limited company directly with Companies House. To strike off (close the company) you will need to complete and post the DS01 form directly to Companies House with a £10 fee.  The DS01 form will ask you for the following information:

• Company name
• Company number
• The full name and signature(s) of the director(s)

Before you can legally strike off your company you would need to complete the following:

• Inform all directors, shareholders, creditors, employees, managers, and any other party that may have an interest about the application (within 7 days of submitting the application)
• Pay any staff their final wages and salary
• Prepare final accounts and company tax returns and send those to HMRC, stating that these are the final accounts and that the company will be dissolved shorty.
• Pay HMRC the final balance of Corporation Tax, PAYE and National Insurance and any other tax liabilities
• Ask HMRC to close the company’s payroll scheme
• Deregister for VAT
• Close any company bank accounts

 A private limited company can only be stuck off if, in the previous 3 months they haven’t:

• Traded or otherwise carried out any business
• Changed their name
• Sold any property or rights owned by the business which is previously sold while trading
• Engaged in any activities other than those required to dissolve the company i.e. settling the company’s affairs or meeting the statutory requirements
• Are not submit to any legal proceedings

A private limited company cannot be struck off if the company is insolvent (cannot pay their debts). This means:

• The company must have no outstanding liabilities
• They have no existing agreements in place with any creditors

If the company cannot pay their bills, it should take professional advice from a person experienced with handling insolvency situations.

What happens after your DS01 form has been received by Companies House?

You’ll get a letter from Companies House to let you know if you’ve filled in the form correctly. If you have, your request for the company to be struck off will be published as a notice in your local Gazette (Belfast, Edinburgh or London depending on where the company was incorporated). If nobody objects, the company will be struck off within the following 3 months. A second notice will  then be published in Gazette, which means that the company doesn’t legally exist anymore.

Don’t hesitate to let us know if you need any advise regarding to this topic.