What happens to a company kept for later?

Yes. ACRA states that an annual return must be filed even if the company is inactive or dormant. IRAS states that a dormant company must file its Corporate Income Tax Return by 30 November every year, unless it has been granted a waiver. Not trading does not end either duty.

The filings may say little when nothing has happened. They still have to be made, and someone has to make them.

A company kept for later is often kept by an owner whose attention is elsewhere. That is the point at which filings slip.

Yes. ACRA's business registry statistics show 7,720 company cessations in March 2026, against 2,482 in February. ACRA attributes this to 'intensified efforts by ACRA to strike off defunct companies', which began in the last quarter of 2025. A company kept for later can look defunct on the register once its filings stop.

The statistics page was updated on 1 October 2026. It records company cessations month by month, and the March figure stands out against February's.

For an owner, the useful question is not whether the company is trading but whether the register shows it as alive.

Under section 344 of the Companies Act 1967, the Registrar writes to the company, which has 30 days to answer. If no answer is received, a notice follows in the Gazette, and the company is then dissolved. A company whose owners are not reading its mail can reach the end of that process without noticing that it began.

The letter goes to the company. If its details are out of date, or nobody is checking, the 30 days can pass unnoticed.

No. Section 344(4) of the Companies Act 1967 provides that the liability of officers and members continues as if the company had not been dissolved. Separately, under section 213 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018, property of a dissolved company vests in the Official Receiver. The property goes, and the liability stays.

That combination is the outcome many owners do not expect. Striking off is not a tidy way to close a company. Property the company held does not remain with it, and the liability of the people behind it continues.

For an owner who let a company be struck off to save the effort of closing it, that is the opposite of the intended result.

Yes, within limits. Under section 344(5) of the Companies Act 1967, the court can restore a company within 6 years. Under section 344D, administrative restoration is available only on an application by a former director or member, and also only within 6 years. Both routes start from a company that has already been dissolved.

Restoration is a repair, not a plan. It needs an application and time, and it deals with a problem that keeping the company current would have avoided.

It is also limited in who can ask. Administrative restoration under section 344D is open only to a former director or member, so a person outside that group cannot use it.

Keep the company current, or close it properly. A company kept for later needs its annual return and its tax return filed, even while it is dormant. A company that is no longer needed is closed by a deliberate process rather than left to be struck off, with the property and liability consequences that follow.

Either choice is a decision. Leaving the company to drift is also a decision, but it is one the Registrar finishes.

Keeping the company current costs attention each year. Closing it properly ends that cost. Leaving it to the Registrar ends it too, but on the terms set out above.