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An Irish company is an onshore EU company. It works in euro, banks with an IE IBAN inside the SEPA area, pays 12.5% corporation tax on trading income and, subject to the anti-abuse tests, can rely on the EU Parent-Subsidiary and Interest and Royalties Directives and on 75 double taxation agreements in effect out of 78 signed. Hence its usual roles: an operating company selling into the EU, the European subsidiary of a group based elsewhere, or a holding company. Ireland offers no offshore version. The Registrar registers a company only if it appears that it will carry on an activity in the State, and a company incorporated in Ireland is tax resident there unless a treaty says otherwise, so owners and directors abroad do not move its tax home.
| Type | What sets it apart | Usual role |
|---|---|---|
| LTD, private company limited by shares | Single-document constitution with no objects clause, a sole director allowed, up to 149 members | Almost every trading or holding company, and the type we sell ready-made |
| DAC, designated activity company | Can act only within the objects in its memorandum; needs two or more directors | Credit institutions and insurers, barred from the LTD form |
| CLG, company limited by guarantee | No shares; members undertake to contribute a stated sum on a winding up | Bodies without share capital |
| PLC, public limited company | Share capital of at least €25,000 in its constitution; two or more directors | Companies offering their shares to the public |
Unlimited companies and the Societas Europaea also exist. How each type is registered is set out on our page on company formation in Ireland.
| Tax point | Position for an Irish company |
|---|---|
| Trading income | 12.5% corporation tax |
| Rental and investment income, excepted trades | 25% corporation tax |
| Large groups | A 15% minimum on profits for groups with consolidated revenue of €750m or more in two of the four preceding years (Pillar Two) |
| Dividends paid out | Dividend withholding tax of 25%, from which many shareholders resident in another EU or EEA state or a treaty country are exempt on filing a declaration |
| VAT | Compulsory above turnover thresholds of €42,500 for services and €85,000 for goods; an intra-EU number calls for evidence of trade with other Member States |
| Tax residence | Follows incorporation in Ireland unless a double taxation agreement assigns it elsewhere |
Shareholders may live anywhere; the conditions sit with the board. Directors are individuals aged 18 or over, and at least one must be resident in a state of the European Economic Area, which for Ireland means 183 days of presence in a year or 280 days across two consecutive years. Residents of the United Kingdom stopped counting at the end of 2020. A company without such a director needs a section 137 bond, valid for at least two years, or a section 140 certificate resting on a Revenue statement that it has a real and continuous link with economic activity in Ireland. Every company also has a secretary, a role a sole director cannot take on, and each director gives the CRO a PPS number or, lacking one, an identified person number obtained through Form VIF.
The people behind the company, anyone owning or controlling more than 25% of the shares or voting rights or controlling it by other means, are filed with the Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO), which the general public can no longer search. Where nobody on the board lives in the EEA and there is no bond, we can arrange an EEA-resident director, and a secretary or nominee shareholder if wanted, solely through a trust or company service provider authorised by the Minister for Justice or through a solicitor or accountant supervised by their professional body; that director owes the company all the duties in section 228 of the Companies Act 2014, independent judgment among them, and the true owner still goes on the RBO.
The annual return is the fixed point: the first is made up six months after incorporation without financial statements, and from then on Form B1 is due every year within 56 days of the annual return date, with financial statements annexed. Corporation tax runs on its own track: the CT1 return is filed and any balance paid on ROS by the 23rd day of the ninth month after the accounting period. Officer changes are notified on Form B10 and beneficial owner changes to the RBO, each within 14 days. A company meeting two of three limits, turnover of €15 million, a balance sheet of €7.5 million and 50 employees, may skip the audit, yet a single late annual return withdraws that exemption for the following two financial years, and persistent non-filing ends in strike-off.
An Irish bank must see the beneficial owners on the RBO before opening a company account. AIB’s online company route is limited to companies registered and trading in Ireland, wholly owned by up to five directors, with identity proved in a branch, and its form asks whether the company was bought off the shelf and expects the formation agent’s officers to have been replaced. Bank of Ireland asks limited companies to arrange a meeting with a business advisor. Deposits at banks authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland are protected up to €100,000 per person per institution. An account a ready-made company already holds stays with it, but the bank re-examines the new owners and may keep it, ask for more or close it. Each provider’s rules are on our page on bank accounts for Irish companies.
A new LTD fits most founders, who choose its name, constitution and shares themselves and wait for Form A1 to reach the front of the CRO’s date-order queue. An existing company fits when time or age counts. Its shares pass by a stock transfer form that the CRO does not have to approve, and its incorporation date, already public, is what a supplier, landlord or public body looks at when asking how long a company has existed. The EEA-director condition and the identity numbers apply whichever route you take. The detail is on our pages on forming an Irish company and ready-made shelf companies in Ireland, with a general comparison in our guide to off the shelf companies.
We can supply a ready-made Irish company or form a new one, prepare the transfer or formation documents, the CRO filings and the RBO entry, help prepare the bank application and, where we have a working contact at a suitable bank, make an introduction; the bank alone decides.
Rarely. Revenue registers a company for VAT because of the supplies it makes or will make, and for an intra-EU number it wants evidence of trade, or of a real intention to trade, with other Member States, such as contracts or a business plan. A company that has never traded normally holds no VAT number, so the buyer applies once the business is defined, and must do so above turnover thresholds of €42,500 for services or €85,000 for goods.
No. Irish company law has no limited liability company of the American kind. Its closest equivalent, and the form nearly everyone uses, is the LTD, a private company limited by shares: one or more shareholders whose liability is limited to any amount unpaid on their shares, a constitution in a single document and the full capacity of a natural person.
Not any more. The Register of Beneficial Ownership still records every individual who owns or controls more than 25% of an Irish company, but general public access ended in 2023 after the Court of Justice judgment of November 2022. Competent authorities such as An Garda Síochána and Revenue have full access, banks see entries for customer due diligence, and anyone else must prove a legitimate interest. The company’s own CRO record, with its officers and annual returns, stays public.
The starting point is dividend withholding tax at 25%, but many non-resident shareholders receive dividends gross. Individuals resident in another EU or EEA state or in a treaty country, and companies resident there that Irish residents do not control, are exempt, subject to Ireland’s defensive measures on outbound payments, once the paying company holds their declaration, Form V2A for an individual, certified by the home tax authority, or V2B for a company. A declaration runs until 31 December of the fifth year after it is made and is then renewed.
Yes. An Irish LTD owned from the United States or Asia is still an EU company working in euro, with an IE IBAN in the SEPA area and access to an intra-EU VAT number once Revenue sees evidence of cross-border trade. It still needs an activity in Ireland and an EEA-resident director, a section 137 bond or a section 140 certificate.
Considering an Irish company? Tell us where the future directors and owners live and what the company will do through our contact page, and ask which ready-made Irish companies are available now or what a formation would need. You can also write on Telegram or WhatsApp at +48 663 247 166.