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FRS 105 micro-entity accounts: what they are and what they include

Updated 27 June 2026
The short answer

FRS 105 is the simplest rulebook for company accounts, made for the smallest companies. If you're one of them, your accounts are short: a single page showing what your company owns and owes, a simple summary of money in and money out, and a few short notes. No long report, no extra detail. You send even less than that to Companies House, just the short page. And the way the figures are worked out is kept simple too. You don't prepare any of this yourself, we do it from your year's numbers.

What is FRS 105?

FRS 105 is the name of a rulebook for how a company writes up its accounts. There are a few of these rulebooks in the UK, one for big companies, one for medium ones, and FRS 105 for the smallest companies, the ones called micro-entities. It's the lightest of the lot.

If your company is small enough to count as a micro-entity, you're allowed to use it, and you'd want to: it means the least detail, the shortest accounts, and the least to hand over. Whether your company qualifies comes down to a simple size test, which we cover in our Am I a micro-entity? guide.

You don't have to learn this rulebook or fill anything in. When you use SimpleReturns we prepare your FRS 105 accounts for you. This page is just so the name makes sense when you see it.

What actually goes in FRS 105 accounts?

Three things, and they're all short:

  • A balance sheet. One page showing what your company owns (cash, equipment, money customers owe you) and what it owes. It's a snapshot of your company on the last day of its year.
  • A profit and loss account. A simple summary of the money that came in over the year and the money that went out, ending with the profit (or loss) left over.
  • A few notes. A small set of short notes at the bottom of the balance sheet. That's it, no long write-up.

That's the whole set. A bigger company has to file pages of extra breakdowns, cash-flow statements and a written report. A micro-entity skips almost all of it.

What makes FRS 105 accounts simpler than normal accounts?

Two things keep them light.

Less to show. The detail you'd see in a bigger company's accounts is stripped right back. You get a short balance sheet, a short profit and loss, and a handful of notes, nothing more. And you don't have to write a directors' report at all, which bigger companies do.

Simpler sums behind the figures. FRS 105 also keeps the way the numbers are worked out plain. Two examples most owners notice:

  • You don't re-price what your company owns each year. Things like equipment or a property stay at what you paid for them (less wear and tear over time), instead of being bumped up or down to today's market value. That's one less judgment call to make.
  • There's no "deferred tax" to work out, a fiddly future-tax figure that bigger companies have to estimate and put in their accounts. FRS 105 simply leaves it out.

You won't have to do either of these. They're the reasons your accounts come out short and clean, and we handle the lot.

Do I send all of this to Companies House?

No, you send even less. A micro-entity only has to file the short balance sheet at Companies House, and it can leave out the profit and loss account and any report. So the part that shows your money in and your profit stays private, it goes to HMRC with your tax return, but it doesn't go on the public record at Companies House for anyone to look up.

(Your Company Tax Return to HMRC is a separate filing to a separate place. If that two-places thing is new to you, our Companies House vs HMRC guide explains it.)

A quick example

Say your company, a one-person design business, had a year like this:

  • Money in: £80,000 of work invoiced.
  • Money out: £30,000 of allowable business costs.
  • Profit: £50,000.
  • What it owns at year-end: £12,000 in the bank and a £1,500 laptop, so £13,500.
For example

Your FRS 105 accounts would be: a balance sheet showing roughly £13,500 of things owned (less anything owed), a profit and loss showing £80,000 in, £30,000 out and £50,000 profit, and a few short notes. The balance sheet is the only bit that goes to Companies House. The profit figure goes to HMRC. No long report, no re-pricing of the laptop, no deferred-tax line. That's a complete set of micro-entity accounts.

How SimpleReturns handles it

You don't prepare FRS 105 accounts yourself. Connect your bank or upload a statement, and we read your year's money in and out, work out your profit, build your balance sheet, and produce a full set of FRS 105 micro-entity accounts plus your Company Tax Return together. You see every figure before anything is sent, and we file the short version to Companies House and the tax return to HMRC.

Common questions

Is FRS 105 a tax or a type of accounts?

It's a type of accounts. FRS 105 is the rulebook the smallest companies use to write up their year's figures. Your tax is then worked out from those figures separately.

What's the difference between FRS 105 and "small company" accounts?

FRS 105 is for the very smallest companies, micro-entities, and is the simplest of all. The next rulebook up is for slightly bigger "small" companies and asks for more detail. We use whichever one fits your company.

Does a micro-entity need a directors' report?

No. A micro-entity is excused from writing a directors' report, which is one of the things that makes these accounts so short.

Will my profit be visible to the public?

No. You only file the short balance sheet at Companies House, so your profit and loss stays off the public record. Your profit still goes to HMRC with your tax return.

What's "deferred tax" and do I have to worry about it?

It's a future-tax estimate that bigger companies put in their accounts. Under FRS 105 it's left out entirely, so no, you don't.

How do I know if I can use FRS 105?

It comes down to a simple size test (your money in, what your company owns, and how many people you employ). Our Am I a micro-entity? guide walks through it, and in any case we work it out from your figures for you.

Ready to do it the easy way?

You don't need to know a thing about FRS 105 to file. We read your year's money in and out, build your micro-entity accounts and your Company Tax Return together, and show you every figure before anything is sent, for £99, once, no subscription.

Start your return →

Or, if your company is more complex, like a group, a charity or a plc, an accountant may be the better fit, and that's an honest call to make.

General guidance, not advice. This guide explains how the rules generally work for small UK limited companies. It isn't tax advice for your specific situation, if you're unsure, check with us or an accountant.