Incorporated quickly and correctly
A founding couple set out to build a consumer goods e-commerce business as an Irish company, selling into Ireland and across the EU. Stock would be bought from a Spanish supplier, held with an Irish third-party logistics provider, and sold through Shopify.
What made the engagement unusual was what they did not need. They already had a finance team keeping the books in Xero, with reconciliations done and a clean trial balance maintained through the year. They were not looking for bookkeeping. They wanted an Irish accountant for the statutory and tax side, and they wanted the whole operation to run with as little administration as possible.
The key issue was never bookkeeping — they had that covered. It was making sure the Irish VAT and EU selling structure matched where the stock actually moved. Get that wrong at the outset and it surfaces in every return afterwards.
Yes. Some clients come to us purely for the Irish statutory and tax work — annual accounts, Corporation Tax, VAT returns and CRO filings — while their own team keeps the books. Others start that way and move the bookkeeping across later once they see how much it simplifies things. Both work.
Not necessarily, but it is often the cleanest route. An Irish company gives you an EU-established business, access to the Union OSS scheme for qualifying EU consumer sales, and a jurisdiction operating in English under common law. Whether it suits you depends on where you are based, where your stock sits and who your customers are — which is what the first conversation is for.
The Union OSS scheme allows qualifying cross-border sales to EU consumers to be reported through a single Irish return, rather than registering for VAT in each destination Member State. Where the €10,000 threshold applies and has not been exceeded, qualifying cross-border consumer sales can generally remain subject to Irish VAT. Whether OSS is the right route depends on what you sell, to whom and from where.
It can, and it is one of the most commonly missed points in e-commerce. Moving stock between EU Member States can create VAT registration and reporting obligations independently of the VAT treatment of the eventual sale to the customer. The exact position depends on where the stock is located, how it got there, who owns it and how the fulfilment arrangement operates — so it is worth checking before the first sale rather than after.
Yes. Both are common among our e-commerce clients, and the combination works well — the point of a cloud stack is that the numbers are already in order when they reach us, so compliance becomes a review rather than a reconstruction.
E-commerce businesses selling across Ireland and the EU can have complex accounting, VAT and compliance requirements, particularly when stock is sourced internationally and held with a third-party fulfilment provider. This case study demonstrates how the right Irish accounting support can work alongside an existing finance team.
By establishing the correct company structure, reviewing VAT and stock movements early, and setting up the appropriate OSS and compliance processes, businesses can reduce administrative complexity and avoid costly issues later.
If you’re running an e-commerce business in Ireland or planning to sell across the EU, speaking with an experienced Irish accountant early can help ensure your tax, VAT and statutory obligations are handled correctly from the outset.
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Copyright 2025 FORTI | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Design and Developed by Salt Marketing