Micro-entity and small company size checker

Can I use this calculator in an AI assistant?

Yes. Taxley runs a free Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so you can add these calculators to Claude, ChatGPT or your own code and ask for a figure in plain English. The assistant gets the same answer as this page, with a link back to the result. There's no key and no sign-up.

What are the micro-entity and small company limits?

A UK company is a micro-entity if it meets at least 2 of 3 limits: turnover up to £1,000,000, a balance sheet total up to £500,000 and no more than 10 employees. It is small if it meets 2 of: turnover up to £15 million, balance sheet up to £7.5 million and 50 employees (CA 2006 s.384A; s.382).

Limit (2 of 3 must be met)	Micro-entity, years starting on or after 6 April 2025	Micro-entity, earlier years	Small, years starting on or after 6 April 2025	Small, earlier years
Turnover, not more than	£1,000,000	£632,000	£15,000,000	£10,200,000
Balance sheet total, not more than	£500,000	£316,000	£7,500,000	£5,100,000
Average employees, not more than	10	10	50	50

The balance sheet total is gross assets: fixed assets plus current assets, before any liabilities are taken off. The employee figure is the average for the year: add up each month's headcount and divide by the number of months.

Which limits apply to my company's financial year?

The raised limits apply to financial years that start on or after 6 April 2025 (SI 2024/1303). A year starting on 1 April 2025 still uses the old micro-entity limits of £632,000 turnover and £316,000 balance sheet, even though it ends in 2026. The employee limits of 10 and 50 did not change.

When the two-year rule looks back at earlier years for a year starting on or after 6 April 2025, those earlier years are judged by the raised limits too (regulation 3 of the same regulations). So a company that was just over the old micro-entity limits last year can qualify straight away.

The turnover limit is adjusted proportionately when a financial year isn't 12 months (s.382(4)). For a 183-day first year from 1 April 2026 to 30 September 2026, the micro-entity turnover limit is £501,369.86. The balance sheet and employee limits stay the same.

How does the two-year rule work for company size?

In its first financial year a company's size depends on that year alone. After that, its size changes only when it crosses a limit in two financial years in a row (s.382(2); s.384A(3)). One year over the micro-entity limits doesn't end micro-entity status, and one year back under them doesn't restore it.

Financial year	Within the micro-entity limits?	Micro-entity?
Year 1 (first year)	Yes	Yes: the first year alone decides
Year 2	No	Yes: over the limits for one year only
Year 3	No	No: over the limits two years in a row
Year 4	Yes	No: back within the limits for one year only
Year 5	Yes	Yes: within the limits two years in a row

What can a micro-entity or small company do differently?

A micro-entity can prepare simpler accounts under FRS 105 and send Companies House just its balance sheet. A small company can prepare FRS 102 Section 1A accounts and choose not to file its profit and loss account or directors' report. Small companies, micro-entities included, are usually exempt from audit too (GOV.UK: Annual accounts; s.477).

Audit exemption uses the same small-company test, with no separate limits. It isn't available to the companies listed in s.478, a group company needs its group to qualify too, and shareholders holding 10% or more can still require an audit.

Filing is set to change: Companies House plans to remove abridged accounts and require small companies and micro-entities to file a profit and loss account from April 2028, a year later than first planned (GOV.UK news). Our guide compares FRS 105 and FRS 102 Section 1A accounts, and another explains what goes in micro-entity accounts.

Which companies can't be micro-entities or small?

Some companies are excluded whatever their size. Public companies, banks, insurers, e-money issuers, MiFID investment firms, UCITS management companies and members of an ineligible group can't use the small companies regime (s.384). Charities, investment undertakings, financial holding undertakings, credit institutions and insurers can't be micro-entities (s.384B).

A parent company that prepares group accounts, or a company included in consolidated group accounts, can't use the micro-entity rules either, and a parent company is small only if its group is small. This checker looks at one company on its own.

How does this company size checker work?

Enter the financial year's dates, turnover, balance sheet total and average number of employees. The checker picks the old or raised limits from the start date, adjusts the turnover limit for a year that isn't 12 months, applies the 2-of-3 test and, with last year's figures or size, the two-year rule.

• Without last year's figures it can only decide a first financial year, or a year whose result matches the size you say the company qualified as last year.
• Last year is assumed to be 12 months long.
• It doesn't check the exclusions above, group limits or whether a larger company is medium-sized or large.
• Company size for accounts doesn't change the Corporation Tax rate, which depends on profits: try the Corporation Tax calculator or the deadline calculator.

Which rules does this calculator follow?

Every figure comes from the rules HMRC and Companies House publish on GOV.UK, and from the legislation behind them. The links below go to the pages we checked when we last reviewed this calculator, so you can read each rule in full and check that it applies to your company.

• Companies Act 2006, section 382 (companies qualifying as small)
• Companies Act 2006, section 384A (companies qualifying as micro-entities)
• The Companies (Accounts and Reports) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/1303), regulation 3
• Companies Act 2006, section 384 (companies excluded from the small companies regime)
• Companies Act 2006, section 384B (companies excluded from being micro-entities)
• Companies Act 2006, section 477 (small companies: audit exemption)
• GOV.UK: Annual accounts — micro-entities, small and dormant companies
• GOV.UK: Companies House to bring in changes to accounts filing from April 2028

Frequently asked questions

What are the micro-entity thresholds from April 2025?

For financial years starting on or after 6 April 2025, a company is a micro-entity if it meets at least 2 of 3 limits: turnover of £1 million or less, a balance sheet total of £500,000 or less, and 10 or fewer employees on average. Earlier years used £632,000 and £316,000, with the same 10 employees.

Does a company's size change as soon as it goes over the limits?

No. After its first financial year, a company's size changes only when it is over, or back within, the limits in two financial years in a row. So a micro-entity that grows past the limits for one year stays a micro-entity for that year, and only moves up if it is over the limits again the next year.

Is the balance sheet total the same as net assets?

No. The balance sheet total is gross assets: fixed assets plus current assets, before any liabilities are taken off. A company with £600,000 of assets and £400,000 of debts has a balance sheet total of £600,000, not £200,000, so it is over the £500,000 micro-entity limit on that test.

Do directors count as employees for the size test?

Only if they are employed by the company under a contract of service, which many directors of small companies are. The employee figure is the average for the year: add up the number of people employed in each month and divide by the number of months in the financial year.

Does a small company still need an audit?

Usually not. A company that qualifies as small is exempt from audit, and there are no separate audit limits. The exemption isn't available to public companies, banks, insurers and other excluded companies, a company in a group needs the whole group to qualify, and shareholders with at least 10% of the shares can still ask for an audit.

Related free tools

• Corporation Tax calculator: Estimates the Corporation Tax a UK limited company pays on its taxable profits for one accounting period of up to 12 months. Applies the small profits rate, the main rate and marginal relief, with associated companies, short periods and periods that straddle 1 April. A close investment-holding company pays the main rate on all its profits. Returns the tax, the effective rate and the payment and filing dates.
• Corporation Tax deadline calculator: Works out a UK private limited company's Corporation Tax payment date, CT600 filing deadline and Companies House accounts deadline from its accounting period. Accounts longer than 12 months are split into two Corporation Tax periods, each with its own payment date.
• Corporation Tax late filing penalty and interest calculator: Works out HMRC's penalties for filing a UK company's Company Tax Return (CT600) late — the flat £200/£400 penalties, doubled for filing deadlines from 1 April 2026, and the 10% or 20% tax-geared penalty — plus late payment interest on the Corporation Tax at HMRC's published rates.
• All free Corporation Tax tools

Last reviewed 29 September 2026. This calculator gives general guidance, not tax advice.