Free tool

Micro-entity and small company size checker

This year
Financial year start date

The first day your accounts cover — for example, 1 5 2025. The limits depend on this date.

Financial year end date

The last day your accounts cover — for example, 30 4 2026.

Sales for the year, before costs — for example, 850,000.

Fixed assets plus current assets at the year end, before taking off any liabilities.

Add up the number of people employed in each month and divide by the number of months. Directors with contracts of employment count.

Is this the company's first financial year?

In its first year a company's size depends on that year alone.

Last year (optional — needed for the two-year rule)

For the financial year before this one.

Gross assets at last year's year end.

What size did the company qualify as last year?

Answer if you know — for example, from the type of accounts it could file.

For one UK private company. Groups, public companies and regulated financial firms have extra rules.

Example

Worked example

Period start: 1 May 2025; Period end: 30 April 2026; Turnover: £850,000; Balance sheet total: £420,000; Employees: £6; First year: no; Prev turnover: £780,000; Prev balance sheet total: £390,000; Prev employees: £5. Enter your own details to replace this example.

The company is a micro-entity for its financial year 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026. It meets all 3 micro-entity limits (£1m turnover, £500k balance sheet, 10 employees). Last year's figures agree, so the two-year rule confirms it. It can file micro-entity accounts under FRS 105, usually without an audit.

Financial year
1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026 (365 days)
Limits used
The raised limits for years starting on or after 6 April 2025
Turnover
£850,000 micro-entity limit £1,000,000: within; small-company limit £15,000,000: within
Balance sheet total (gross assets)
£420,000 micro-entity limit £500,000: within; small-company limit £7,500,000: within
Average number of employees
6 micro-entity limit 10: within; small-company limit 50: within
Micro-entity limits met this year
3 of 3
Small-company limits met this year
3 of 3
Micro-entity limits met last year
3 of 3
Small-company limits met last year
3 of 3
Result
Micro-entity
  • A company meets the conditions for a size when it is within at least 2 of the 3 limits, each "not more than": turnover, balance sheet total and average number of employees (Companies Act 2006 s.382 for small, s.384A for micro-entities).
  • The raised limits apply to financial years starting on or after 6 April 2025 (SI 2024/1303). A year that started earlier, even on 1 April 2025, uses the old limits: micro-entity £632,000 turnover and £316,000 balance sheet; small £10.2 million and £5.1 million. The employee limits (10 and 50) did not change.
  • The balance sheet total is gross assets: fixed assets plus current assets, before deducting any liabilities. Employees is the average for the year: add up each month's headcount and divide by the number of months.
  • After the 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 (s.382(2), s.384A(3)).
  • Last year's figures are tested against the raised limits too: the transitional rule in SI 2024/1303 regulation 3 applies them to earlier years when deciding a year that starts on or after 6 April 2025. We assumed last year was 12 months long.
  • Some companies can never be small, whatever their size: public companies, banks, insurers, e-money issuers, MiFID investment firms, UCITS management companies and members of an ineligible group (s.384).
  • Some can't use the micro-entity rules: investment undertakings, financial holding undertakings, credit institutions, insurers, charities, a parent company preparing group accounts, and a company included in consolidated group accounts (s.384B).
  • A parent company is small only if its group is small too (s.383), and a micro-entity only if its group qualifies as a small group (s.384A(8)). This checker looks at one company on its own.
  • Audit exemption (s.477) uses this same small-company test, with no separate limits. It doesn't apply to the companies listed in s.478 or to a group company unless the group qualifies (s.479), and members holding 10% or more can still require an audit (s.476).
  • Today a small company can choose not to file its profit and loss account and directors' report with Companies House, and can file abridged accounts; a micro-entity can file just its balance sheet. Companies House plans to remove abridged accounts and require small companies and micro-entities to file a profit and loss account from April 2028 (moved from April 2027).
  • Company size for accounts doesn't set the Corporation Tax rate, which depends on taxable profits.

Sources: 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

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