Ireland Company Register: CRO Search, Annual Returns and the RBO

cro.ie, CORE and rbo.gov.ie: Where the Irish Register Lives

The Ireland company register is kept by the Companies Registration Office, the CRO, under the Companies Act 2014. Its website, cro.ie, carries the guidance, the forms and the weekly CRO Gazette with its strike-off lists. The register itself is searched and filed on CORE, the CRO’s online system at core.cro.ie, which covers companies, limited partnerships and business names. Filing needs a CORE account, free to open.

Beneficial ownership sits elsewhere. The Register of Beneficial Ownership, the RBO, at rbo.gov.ie, was set up under anti-money laundering law, its Registrar is a separate legal entity, and a CORE login does not open its portal. A company registered in Northern Ireland is on neither: it is a UK company, filed at Companies House (see UK company formation).

A CORE Search: What Is Free and What Is Paid

A CRO company search runs on the company name or number. Below the free record sits the submission list: every document filed by or about the company, with its type, status and dates. Without opening anything, it shows whether annual returns arrived in time and what else has been filed. The documents themselves are sold.

Item	Free or paid	What it gives you
Company record	Free	Number, name, registration date, status, last and next annual return dates
Submission list	Free	The filing history by type and date
Image of a filed document	Paid, per image	The form itself: Form A1, annual returns, B10 officer changes, financial statements, the constitution
Printout of basic company details	Paid	A summary of the record in one document
Search of the paper file	Paid	Mostly older documents
Duplicate certificate of incorporation	Paid	Certificates are now issued only electronically

Directors and shareholders are not among the free fields. Their names, and the directors’ home addresses, are in the filed forms; an officer can withhold a home address only exceptionally, through a T1 application backed by An Garda Síochána. A small company claiming the audit and abridgement exemptions files only a balance sheet and a directors’ report extract.

The CRO Number and Where It Must Appear

The CRO number is the registered number the CRO assigns on registration and prints on the certificate of incorporation. It survives a change of name. It is not the Tax Reference Number, which Revenue issues only once the CRO number exists, nor a business name number: a trading name registered on Form RBN1B has its own entry on the business names register.

Business letters and order forms, on paper or by email, must state the legal form, the place of registration and registered number and the registered office; letters also name the directors, with their nationality if not Irish. A company website shows the same particulars on or next to its homepage. The number’s equivalents abroad are compared on our company registration number page.

Form B1 and the 56-Day Window

The annual return keeps an Irish company on the register. The first annual return date falls six months after incorporation and that return goes in without financial statements; the date then recurs yearly. Each Form B1 is delivered on CORE within 56 days of the date it is made up to or, where financial statements are annexed, by the earlier of that deadline and nine months and 56 days after the financial year end. The B1 carries each director’s PPS or identified person number, and is where a new shareholder first appears, since share transfers are not notified to the CRO when they happen.

After a Missed B1: Penalty, Audit Exemption and Strike-Off

• Late filing penalty. It falls due the day after the 56 days run out and grows daily up to a cap per return. The CRO hears no appeals; the route is a District Court or High Court order under section 343 extending the time, sought before the return is delivered.
• Audit exemption. Since 16 July 2025, section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024 tolerates one late return in five years; a second within that period removes the exemption for the following two years.
• Prosecution. The Registrar can fine persistent late filers on the spot and prosecute the company and its officers.
• Strike-off. One missed year is enough. A statutory notice goes to the registered office, a notice of impending strike-off appears in the CRO Gazette 28 days later, and 28 days after that the company is struck off unless every outstanding return is in. The CRO strikes off more than 11,000 companies a year on average.

Dissolution runs from the Gazette notice: the assets pass to the State, and anyone carrying on the business does so without limited liability. Restoration is administrative within 12 months under section 737, or by court order within 20 years under section 738, which can make officers liable for debts run up meanwhile. A missing Form 11F statement reported by Revenue, or no EEA-resident director and no section 137 bond, sets off the same procedure.

The RBO After Case C-37/20: Who Sees What

Every Irish company files on the RBO the individuals who own or control more than 25% of its shares or voting rights, or control it by other means: within five months of incorporation, then within 14 days of each change to its internal register. Filing is online and free. Who may read the register changed after the Court of Justice judgment of 22 November 2022 in case C-37/20.

Reader	What they see
An Garda Síochána, FIU Ireland, Revenue, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the Central Bank and other listed authorities	Everything, through authorised officers
Designated persons doing customer due diligence, such as banks and accountants	Each owner’s name, month and year of birth, country of residence and nationality, and the nature and extent of the interest, in a paid report
Anyone who proves a legitimate interest to the Registrar	The same particulars as a designated person
The general public	The company’s profile and the number of beneficial owners filed
The company itself, its officers and agents	Nothing, once the filing is made

The legitimate interest route, added by SI 308 of 2023, is narrow: the applicant must work against money laundering or terrorist financing, want the information for that work, and show that the company is connected with persons convicted of those offences or holds assets in a high-risk third country. Owners who are minors are withheld outside the first tier.

So when a bank asks for a beneficial ownership report, it means the company’s internal register, since the company cannot download its own entry. The bank compares the two, reports any discrepancy to the Registrar, who can note it on the register, and opens no account until the owners are on the RBO; see bank accounts for Irish companies.

Checking an Irish Ltd on CORE Before You Buy

The free record and submission list answer most questions, and a few paid images the rest. The transfer itself is on our page on ready-made shelf companies in Ireland.

Look at	What it tells you
Status and the latest CRO Gazette	Whether the company is in normal standing or on a strike-off list
Next annual return date	Whether a B1 is overdue; the penalty runs against the company you buy, and no change of name is approved meanwhile
Received dates of past B1s	Whether a late return in the last five years already counts towards losing the audit exemption
B10 entries and the latest B1 image	Who the CRO records as directors and secretary, to match against the seller’s register and resignations
C1 entries	Any charge over the company’s assets, ranking from the time the CRO received it
“HC Order charging shares of shareholder”	A High Court order charging the seller’s shares, filed publicly to warn anyone dealing in them
Register of business names	Whether each trading name the seller mentions is registered on Form RBN1B, and to whom

The RBO is the one register a buyer cannot read. Ask the seller for the internal register of beneficial owners and confirmation that it matches the filing: the change goes to the RBO within 14 days of completion, and your bank will compare the two. Ask too how section 137 is met, by an EEA-resident director or a bond, because its absence is itself a ground for strike-off once the seller’s director resigns.

What We Do with CRO and RBO Records

We supply ready-made Irish companies and form new ones. Before you commit, we can go through a company’s CORE record with you and obtain the filed documents that matter; after completion we prepare the B10, any other CRO filings and the RBO update. Background is on our Ireland page, and the route for a new company on company formation in Ireland.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Irish Company Register

Is the Irish company register search free?

Yes, for the basics. A CORE search by name or number shows free of charge the company’s number, name, registration date, status and annual return dates, and lists every document filed. Opening a document is paid per image, as are the printout of basic company details, paper-file searches and duplicate certificates.

How do I find a company’s CRO number?

Search the company by name on CORE at core.cro.ie; the result gives its registered number. It is also printed on the certificate of incorporation and must appear on the company’s business letters, order forms and website. It survives a change of name and is not the Revenue tax reference.

Can I see who owns an Irish company?

Partly. Shareholders appear in the annual returns on the CRO file, sold as document images. Beneficial owners are on the RBO, where the public now sees only the company’s profile and the number of owners filed. Banks and other designated persons see names and interests; anyone else must prove a narrow legitimate interest.

What happens if an Irish company misses its annual return?

A late filing penalty starts the day after the 56-day window closes and grows daily up to a cap. A second late return within five years removes the audit exemption for two years. The CRO can prosecute, and after one missed year start a strike-off that runs through two 28-day notice periods.

Is a Northern Ireland company on the CRO register?

No. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, so its companies are registered at Companies House and searched on the UK register, not on CORE. The CRO holds Irish companies, limited partnerships, business names and the Irish branches of foreign companies, and an Irish company’s registered office must be in the State.