Dissolution of a company in any country may be carried out either officially by the method prescribed by law (voluntary dissolution), or in a compulsory way by the country of incorporation for non-submission of reports or failure to make due payments (involuntary dissolution).

     In particular, if a non-resident company fails to pay the prescribed annual duties and does not submit the necessary reports and statements in its country of incorporation, it will eventually lose its status of Good Standing. After a certain period, the country of incorporation will automatically strike the company off the Register of Enterprises for non-compliance with the legislation (involuntary dissolution).

     If the owner of the company is satisfied with this situation, then the life of the company comes to an end. Undoubtedly, companies that are liable to tax, are the exception - for example, it is not possible to simply "abandon" a company in Great Britain without submitting the prescribed reports. In accordance with the local legislation, this is not only an administrative offence, but also a criminal offence.

     If, on the contrary, the owner is not satisfied with the situation where the country of incorporation invokes the involuntary-dissolution procedure, and he or she wishes to obtain a document stating that the company was not simply struck off for non-compliance, but was liquidated officially, in the manner prescribed by the relevant country's legislation, then the standard procedure for dissolution of the company has to be carried out.

     For this purpose, the company must firstly pay all duties outstanding at the moment of dissolution, and secondly the directors of the company must subsequently sign the resolution for dissolution (depending on the specific jurisdiction, this may be called the Certificate of Dissolution, or by some other name). After a certain period of time has elapsed (this depends on the specific country: in the USA this is 3 weeks, in other jurisdictions, anything up to 4 months), the Register of Enterprises issues the official notification, stating that the company concerned was liquidated in the manner prescribed by law.

     The cost of the official procedure for dissolution of a company depends on the specific jurisdiction, but varies from USD 300 - 600, excluding duties and other taxes outstanding at the date of dissolution.