Pradeep Dabas, ACCA, MIoD, MBA
Pradeep Dabas is a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA), Member of the Institute of Directors (MIoD), and founder of Forti, a Dublin-based accountancy and advisory firm helping Irish entrepreneurs and SMEs with company formation, bookkeeping, and compliance. He is also the founder of Salt Marketing, a Dublin-based digital marketing agency. Holding an MBA in Marketing and an ACCA qualification — both achieved in Dublin — and with over 20 years of experience in finance and business, Pradeep brings a rare combination of financial rigour and commercial thinking to every client relationship. He is also the creator of The Mentor Academy, an online education platform specialising in finance courses designed to help entrepreneurs and professionals take control of their financial future. Forti is based in Sandyford, Dublin and works with businesses across Ireland.
View all posts by Pradeep Dabas →
Starting a Business in Ireland? Here Is What No One Tells You About Compliance
You have the idea. You have the drive. You might even have your first customer lined up.
But between registering your company and issuing your first invoice, there is a maze of compliance obligations that catches many Irish founders off guard — Revenue registrations, CRO deadlines, VAT thresholds, payroll requirements, and beneficial ownership filings. Miss one, and you are looking at penalties, surcharges, and the kind of paperwork headache that eats into time you should be spending on your business.
This guide is a plain-English walkthrough of every accounting and compliance step a new Irish limited company needs to take, in the right order, so you can focus on building rather than firefighting.
Sole trader or limited company? Almost everything below applies to Irish Private Limited Companies (LTDs). If you are trading as a sole trader, your obligations differ — particularly around income tax (Form 11 vs PAYE), legal liability and accounting requirements. If you are deciding between the two structures, speak to an accountant before you start trading. The right structure depends on your turnover, risk profile and growth plans.
Step 1: Register Your Company With the CRO
Before anything else, your business needs a legal structure. Most Irish startups incorporate as a Private Limited Company (LTD) — it gives you limited liability, a professional profile, and the ability to access business banking and contracts.
Company registration is handled by the Companies Registration Office (CRO) at cro.ie. You will need:
A company name — checked against the CRO register; duplicates are rejected
At least one director — who must be EEA-resident, or the company must hold a Section 137 bond
A registered office address in Ireland
A company secretary — note that if the company has only one director, that director cannot also act as company secretary
Annual return dates — what founders regularly miss
Your company’s first Annual Return Date (ARD) falls six months after the date of incorporation. Importantly, no financial statements are required with this first B1 return — only the form itself must be filed. Subsequent B1 returns fall annually from that ARD and must include financial statements.
Under the rules applicable since 16 July 2025, a single late annual return no longer automatically causes loss of audit exemption. A company now generally loses audit exemption for the following two years where it files late more than once within a five-year period. This is a meaningful change from the previous position, but filing on time remains strongly advisable — late filing fees apply regardless, and the consequences of repeated lateness remain serious.
Step 2: Register Your Beneficial Ownership (RBO)
This step is missed by a significant number of newly incorporated companies, and the consequences can include fines.
Within five months of incorporation, your company must register its beneficial ownership information on the Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) at rbo.gov.ie. A beneficial owner is generally any individual who ultimately owns or controls more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or who otherwise exercises control over the company.
What you will need for each beneficial owner:
Full name, date of birth and nationality
Residential address
Nature and extent of interest held
PPS Number — or, where the individual does not have a PPS Number, a verified identity via the VIF (Verification of Identity Form) process
The RBO must also be updated whenever there is a relevant change in beneficial ownership. Failure to file within the deadline is an offence under the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations.
Step 3: Register With Revenue
Incorporation at the CRO does not automatically register your company with Revenue. You need to register separately — via ROS (Revenue Online Service) — for each tax head that applies to your business:
Corporation Tax (CT) — mandatory for all Irish limited companies from the date of incorporation
Employer PAYE/PRSI — required as soon as you take on staff or pay a salary to a director
VAT — see Step 4
Revenue registration is a separate process and can take time. Delays here can hold up your VAT registration and your ability to reclaim Irish input tax, so it is worth starting early.
Step 4: Understand Your VAT Position
VAT registration is mandatory in Ireland once your turnover exceeds:
€85,000 for the supply of goods
€42,500 for the supply of services
These thresholds took effect from 1 January 2025 (increased from €80,000 and €40,000 respectively) and remain in force as of the date of this guide. You can also register voluntarily below these thresholds — which many startups do, particularly if they are selling to other VAT-registered businesses and wish to reclaim input VAT on their costs.
Cross-border and EU VAT considerations
If your company makes intra-Community distance sales of goods or supplies certain cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting or electronic (TBE) services to consumers in other EU Member States, the €10,000 annual threshold for cross-border B2C supplies is relevant. Once exceeded, VAT must be accounted for in each customer’s Member State — unless you register for the OSS (One Stop Shop) scheme in Ireland, which allows you to file all EU VAT centrally via Revenue.
EU VAT SME Scheme (from 1 January 2025): Qualifying small Irish businesses with EU-wide turnover not exceeding €100,000 may be able to use VAT exemptions in participating EU Member States, subject to national thresholds and conditions. This can offer meaningful administrative simplification for startups selling across the EU in small volumes.
Reverse charge VAT: Nearly every startup purchases services from abroad — Google, Meta, Microsoft, Shopify and other SaaS providers. Where you receive services from a non-Irish supplier and you are VAT-registered, the reverse charge mechanism typically applies: you account for the VAT yourself on your VAT3 return. This is commonly overlooked in early-stage bookkeeping.
Step 5: Set Up Your Bookkeeping System From the Start
Irish company law requires that every company keep proper books of account that correctly record and explain its transactions. This is a legal requirement — books must be retained for at least six years. Good bookkeeping also makes VAT returns, payroll submissions and annual accounts significantly faster and cheaper to prepare.
At Forti, we work with Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho Books. Cloud-based platforms give real-time visibility and allow us to collaborate on your records without emailing spreadsheets back and forth.
What your bookkeeping needs to capture from day one:
All sales invoices issued
All purchase invoices and receipts received and stored
Bank transactions reconciled to your records
Director expenses — with receipts; undocumented expenses are not allowable
Payroll journals once payroll is running
Director’s loan account movements
Director’s loan account: When a founder puts money into the company or takes money out outside of payroll or a declared dividend, this is typically recorded as a director’s loan. The tax treatment depends on the nature and timing of the transaction. Overdrawn director’s loan accounts can have PAYE implications — worth understanding early.
Pre-trading expenses: Certain costs incurred in the three years before trading commenced — wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade — may be allowable as deductions in the first trading period. Keep receipts from the very beginning.
Step 6: Payroll — Even If It Is Just You
Many founder-directors pay themselves a salary through the company’s payroll. This is normal and common, but it carries compliance obligations.
How payroll reporting works in 2026
Payroll in Ireland is reported under PAYE Modernisation, in place since January 2019. There are no P30 or P35 forms. Instead:
Before or on the date employees (including directors) are paid, a payroll submission is made to Revenue reporting each individual’s pay, tax, PRSI and USC
Revenue issues a monthly statement based on those submissions, which becomes the employer’s return
PAYE, PRSI and USC are paid to Revenue on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the employer’s arrangement
Payslips must be issued to each employee for every pay period
Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs) must be retrieved and applied before each payroll run — these replace the old tax credit certificates
My Future Fund auto-enrolment (from 1 January 2026)
Ireland’s new workplace pension scheme is now mandatory for eligible employees. An employee is generally automatically enrolled where they:
Are aged between 23 and 60
Earn more than €20,000 per year
Are not already contributing to a qualifying pension arrangement through payroll
During Phase 1 (2026–2028), contributions are: Employee 1.5% | Employer 1.5% | State 0.5% — all based on gross earnings. Eligibility depends on each individual’s employment and pension circumstances. Not every company director automatically falls within the scheme.
BIK (Benefit in Kind) — company vehicles, health insurance and other benefits provided to directors or employees must be valued and reported through payroll. BIK is subject to PAYE, PRSI and USC.
Step 7: Know Your Corporation Tax Position
Irish companies pay Corporation Tax at 12.5% on trading profits — one of the most competitive rates in the EU. Non-trading income (such as investment or rental income) is generally taxed at 25%.
Section 486C Start-Up Relief
Qualifying new companies may be entitled to a reduction or elimination of their Corporation Tax liability under Section 486C TCA 1997. The relief is available for the first five years of a qualifying trade that commences on or before 31 December 2026. It is calculated by reference to qualifying employer PRSI paid:
Up to €5,000 per qualifying employee (including directors paying Class A PRSI)
Since 1 January 2025, a director’s own Class S PRSI also qualifies, up to €1,000 per individual
Aggregate PRSI relief cap: €40,000 per year
Full relief applies where the CT liability does not exceed the PRSI cap. Marginal relief applies where the CT liability falls between the PRSI amount and €40,000 above it. This is a genuine Revenue-sanctioned relief that many startups do not claim simply because they are not aware of it.
Preliminary Corporation Tax — important startup exemption
New companies do not have to pay Preliminary Corporation Tax in their first accounting period where the CT liability for that period is below €200,000. The full CT liability is instead paid when the CT1 return is filed. This is a meaningful cash-flow benefit that many early-stage founders are not aware of.
Your CT1 is due nine months after your accounting year-end (no later than the 23rd of that month for ROS filers). A company with a 31 December year-end must file by 23 September the following year.
Step 8: Annual Compliance — The Recurring Calendar
Once you are set up and trading, your compliance calendar looks like this:
Obligation
Frequency
Filed With
VAT3 Return
Generally bi-monthly (other periods may apply)
Revenue
Payroll Submission
On or before each pay date
Revenue
PAYE/PRSI/USC Payment
Monthly or quarterly
Revenue
CRO Annual Return (B1)
Annual — first ARD 6 months after incorporation
CRO
Corporation Tax Return (CT1)
Annual — 9 months after year-end
Revenue
Statutory Financial Statements
Annual
CRO / Revenue
RBO Update
As and when beneficial ownership changes
RBO
Form 11 (proprietary director)
Annual — where director is a chargeable person
Revenue
Form 11 note: A proprietary director — broadly, a director who owns more than 15% of the company’s shares — is a chargeable person and must file a Form 11 income tax return annually via ROS. A non-proprietary director whose income is dealt with entirely through PAYE does not necessarily have the same obligation, but the position depends on individual circumstances.
Common Mistakes Irish Startups Make (and How to Avoid Them)
1. Not separating company and personal finances
A limited company is a separate legal entity. It should operate through a dedicated company bank account, with company and personal spending kept clearly separate from day one.
2. Missing the RBO five-month deadline
The Register of Beneficial Ownership obligation is not well-publicised. Many founders are unaware of it until year-end — by which point they are already in breach.
3. Not registering for VAT on time
Many startups realise they have exceeded the threshold only when preparing annual accounts — months after the obligation arose. Retrospective registration and back-payment of VAT is painful and costly.
4. Misunderstanding the first CRO annual return
The first B1 is due six months after incorporation — earlier than most expect. No financial statements are needed with that first return, but the return itself must still be filed on time.
5. Treating director withdrawals as salary without a payroll structure
Taking money from the company without a proper payroll, dividend or director loan structure creates PAYE and Revenue risk.
6. Ignoring reverse charge VAT on overseas services
Buying Google Ads, Shopify subscriptions or any other service from a non-Irish supplier while VAT-registered creates a reverse charge obligation. It is very commonly missed in early-stage bookkeeping.
7. Not understanding My Future Fund eligibility
Auto-enrolment is now live. Failing to assess employee eligibility and make contributions on time will result in compliance breaches.
Ready to Get Your Compliance Right From the Start?
Whether you are incorporating next week or already trading and trying to get on top of your obligations, Forti can help. Book a free 30-minute consultation with our team. We will review your current position, identify any gaps, and give you a clear plan — with no obligation and no jargon.
▣ 01 906 5862|▣ info@forti.ie|▣ www.forti.ie
⌖Office 106, Nesta Business Centre, Burton Hall Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an accountant to set up a company in Ireland?
You do not legally need an accountant to incorporate, but professional support saves time, avoids early structural mistakes, and ensures the company is set up tax-efficiently from day one.
What is the Corporation Tax rate for Irish startups?
The standard trading rate is 12.5%. Qualifying new companies may also be entitled to Section 486C Start-Up Relief, which can reduce or eliminate Corporation Tax in the first five years of trading.
When do I need to register for VAT in Ireland?
VAT registration is mandatory once annual turnover exceeds €85,000 for goods or €42,500 for services (thresholds in effect since 1 January 2025). Voluntary registration below these thresholds is also possible and often advisable.
What is the first CRO annual return deadline?
Your first Annual Return Date falls six months after incorporation. No financial statements are required with that first B1 — but the return itself must be filed on time.
What is My Future Fund?
My Future Fund is Ireland’s mandatory workplace pension auto-enrolment scheme, effective 1 January 2026. Eligible employees aged 23–60 earning over €20,000 are automatically enrolled. Phase 1 contributions: 1.5% employee, 1.5% employer, 0.5% State.
What replaced P30 and P35 forms?
P30 and P35 were abolished in January 2019. Employers now submit payroll data to Revenue on or before each pay date. Revenue issues a monthly statement which serves as the employer return.
What is the RBO and when do I need to file?
The Register of Beneficial Ownership requires companies to register details of individuals who ultimately own or control more than 25% of the company. The initial filing must be made within five months of incorporation.
QUICK ANSWER Non-resident e-commerce founders can set up an Irish company without living in Ireland or the EEA — but the journey has two separate compliance tracks running in parallel: getting the company itself legally formed (Section 137 Bond, identity verification, AML/KYC), and getting it ready to actually trade across the EU (VAT registration, OSS/IOSS, and — if using Amazon FBA — a VAT footprint that can expand fast). Missing either track causes real delays; missing both at once is how most non-resident e-commerce setups go wrong.
At a Glance
Track One: Legal Formation
Track Two: Trading & Tax Readiness
1. Identity verification (VIF/IPN) — often the real starting point
1. Irish VAT registration (+ EORI if importing stock)
2. Section 137 Bond arrangement
2. OSS/IOSS setup for cross-border sales
3. CRO incorporation & RBO filing
3. Marketplace settlement reconciliation (A2X/Link My Books)
4. Fintech or corporate banking setup
4. Local VAT registration in each country if using Pan-EU FBA
If you’re running an e-commerce business from the US, UK, UAE, or anywhere else outside the EEA and looking at Ireland as your EU entry point, you’re not alone — Ireland is a common choice for exactly this reason: English-speaking, EU/eurozone membership, and a well-understood company law framework. But non-resident founders setting up specifically to sell online run into two distinct sets of requirements that rarely get covered together: the rules around forming a company without an EEA-resident director, and the e-commerce-specific VAT obligations that kick in the moment you start trading. This guide walks through both, in the order you’ll actually hit them.
Why Overseas E-commerce Sellers Choose an Irish Company for EU Market Access
An Irish limited company gives a non-resident e-commerce founder a genuine EU legal entity — which matters for more than just optics. It means access to the EU’s VAT simplification schemes (OSS/IOSS) as an EU-established business rather than a non-EU one, straightforward eligibility for Amazon’s European marketplaces and fulfilment programmes, and a recognised EU corporate structure that EU-based suppliers, payment processors, and logistics partners are set up to work with by default.
None of that requires you to live in Ireland, or anywhere in the EEA. It does require getting two things right at the outset: how the company itself satisfies Irish director-residency law, and how it registers for VAT before its first sale.
Track One: Getting the Company Legally Formed
Identity Verification Usually Comes First
Almost no non-resident founder holds an Irish PPSN, which CRO filings require by default. The workaround is a Verification of Identity Form (VIF), which gets you an Identified Person Number (IPN) usable on all future CRO and RBO filings. This is worth starting immediately, not treating as a formality alongside everything else — for many non-resident founders, IPN approval is now the actual gating step on the whole incorporation timeline, since CRO processing depends on it being in place first. One detail that catches founders out: as of 30 April 2026, this form must be witnessed with the declarant and witness physically in the same room — a fully remote, video-witnessed process is no longer accepted, so this needs to be booked and planned for early rather than assumed to be a same-day online task.
This applies to beneficial owners too, not just directors. Anyone owning more than 25% of the company who lacks a PPSN also needs their own VIF-based IPN for the Register of Beneficial Owners (RBO) filing. The RBO filing deadline is five months from incorporation, but there’s no reason to wait — get the beneficial owner’s identity verification done in the same window as the director’s, using the same process, rather than treating it as a separate task to pick up later.
The EEA-Resident Director Requirement
Under Section 137 of the Companies Act 2014, every Irish company needs at least one director resident in the EEA (EU plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein) — residency, not nationality. If none of your founding team lives there, which is the normal situation for an overseas e-commerce founder, the standard route is a Section 137 Bond: a surety bond covering the company for €25,000, arranged at incorporation and renewed every two years. It’s the fastest option available to a brand-new company — the alternative (a Section 140 “real and continuous link” certificate) isn’t available until a company has an established Irish trading history, which obviously doesn’t exist yet at formation.
AML/KYC
Standard anti-money-laundering due diligence applies to all incoming officers and shareholders, non-resident or not — proof of identity, proof of address, and source-of-funds documentation, gathered as part of formation rather than as a separate step afterwards.
For the full breakdown of the bond, the identity verification process, common mistakes, and pricing, see “Setting Up an Irish Company Without an EEA-Resident Director.”
The Part Founders Don’t Expect: Opening a Bank Account
This is the step that surprises most non-resident founders. Traditional Irish banks can open corporate accounts for non-resident-owned companies, but a fully remote process is genuinely difficult — most traditional banks still expect some form of in-person or video verification and a clear business rationale for banking in Ireland specifically. In practice, many non-resident e-commerce founders start with an EU-facing fintech business account (providers like Wise Business or Revolut Business are commonly used for this) to get trading immediately, and either keep that as their primary account or move to a traditional bank later once the business has an established trading history. Either path is workable — the mistake is not planning for this step at all and assuming a bank account will be ready the moment the company is incorporated.
Track Two: Getting Ready to Actually Trade
Company formation and VAT registration are separate processes, and treating them as sequential rather than parallel is one of the most common causes of delay we see.
VAT Registration From Day One
Once incorporated, an Irish company selling to Irish or EU customers needs Irish VAT registration once it crosses €85,000 (goods) or €42,500 (services) — or can register voluntarily below that, useful if there are significant VAT-bearing setup costs to reclaim early. For sales into other EU countries, the One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme lets you report that cross-border VAT through a single Irish return once combined EU sales pass €10,000, rather than registering separately in every country you sell into.
Importing inventory into Ireland? If you’re shipping physical stock from outside the EU — Great Britain, the US, or China — into an Irish hub, you’ll also need an EORI number linked to your VAT profile. It’s worth setting up Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) alongside your VAT registration at the same time: this lets you declare import VAT on your bi-monthly VAT3 return instead of paying it in cash at the border, which matters for cash flow if you’re importing stock regularly.
The Amazon-Specific Trap
If you’re planning to use Amazon’s Pan-European FBA programme, be aware before you opt in: the moment Amazon physically stores your stock in a country, you need a local VAT registration in that country — OSS does not cover this. As of January 2026, Amazon requires a minimum of five EU VAT registrations just to remain eligible for Pan-EU FBA. This is very commonly misunderstood by founders who assume OSS is a complete solution, and it’s worth deciding your fulfilment approach (Pan-EU FBA vs. the single-country European Fulfilment Network) before your VAT registrations are in place, not after stock has already started moving.
Planning to use Amazon Pan-EU FBA? Don’t let inventory transfers freeze mid-launch because a VAT registration wasn’t in place before stock landed. Request a free e-commerce & non-resident formation review and Forti will map your required VAT footprint before you opt in.
For the full detail on OSS vs IOSS vs local VAT registration, the Pan-EU FBA VAT trap, the 2026 customs duty changes, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR/Repak) obligations for sellers of packaged goods, see “The Complete Guide to E-commerce Accounting for Shopify and Amazon FBA Sellers in Ireland.”
Ongoing Compliance
Once trading, a non-resident-owned Irish e-commerce company carries the same ongoing obligations as any Irish company — CRO annual returns, Corporation Tax (CT1), VAT3 filings, and Register of Beneficial Owners (RBO) filings, required within five months of incorporation and whenever ownership changes — on top of the e-commerce-specific bookkeeping challenge of reconciling Amazon and Shopify settlement reports (typically via A2X or Link My Books) across currencies and jurisdictions.
Choosing a Partner Who Understands Both Sides
This is the practical reason most non-resident e-commerce founders end up frustrated with their first advisor: a generalist formation agent understands the Section 137 Bond but not OSS/IOSS or the Pan-EU FBA VAT trap. An e-commerce-focused accountant understands VAT and marketplace reconciliation but may not have handled a non-resident director bond or VIF/IPN identity verification before. Getting both tracks right — the formation side and the trading side — usually means working with one partner who handles both, rather than coordinating a formation agent and a separate accountant who’ve never had to think about how the two interact.
Two Founders, Two Different Starting Points
These are composite, illustrative scenarios based on patterns we see across non-resident e-commerce clients — not specific named businesses.
The FBA seller who assumed OSS was enough
A US-based founder incorporated an Irish company, registered for Irish VAT and OSS, and started selling on Amazon — all correctly. Six months later, they opted into Pan-EU FBA to speed up EU delivery, assuming their existing OSS registration already covered it. It didn’t. Amazon began distributing stock into Germany, France, and Poland, and inventory transfers stalled while five local VAT registrations were arranged retroactively — during what should have been their busiest sales period.
The founder who left identity verification too late
A Dubai-based founder lined up their Section 137 Bond and company name in advance, expecting incorporation within days. They hadn’t accounted for the VIF process — booking an in-person notary appointment abroad took over two weeks, during which the CRO filing sat waiting on the IPN. The bond was never the bottleneck; the identity verification step was.
Both are avoidable with the same fix: treat both tracks as running from day one, not one after the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a non-resident register a company in Ireland to sell on Amazon or Shopify?
Yes. There’s no requirement to live in Ireland or the EEA to form or own an Irish company. You do need to satisfy the EEA-resident director requirement, typically via a Section 137 Bond, and complete identity verification if you don’t hold an Irish PPSN.
Do I need to be VAT registered before I start selling?
You need Irish VAT registration once you exceed €85,000 (goods) or €42,500 (services) in turnover, though many non-resident founders register voluntarily from the outset. If you’re selling cross-border into the EU from day one, registering for OSS alongside your Irish VAT number is standard practice.
Can I open an Irish business bank account remotely as a non-resident?
It’s difficult with traditional banks, which usually expect some in-person or video verification. Most non-resident founders start with an EU-facing fintech business account to begin trading, then reassess once the company has an established history.
Does forming the company and registering for VAT happen at the same time?
They’re separate processes that can run in parallel, but they aren’t automatic — VAT registration has to be actively applied for once you know your trading plans, and it’s worth starting this alongside incorporation rather than waiting until the company is fully formed.
Do beneficial owners need identity verification too, or just directors?
Both. Anyone who owns more than 25% of the company and lacks an Irish PPSN needs their own VIF-based IPN for the RBO filing, separate from any director’s IPN. It’s worth doing both at the same time rather than leaving the beneficial owner’s verification until closer to the five-month RBO deadline.
Do I need an EORI number if I’m not importing anything myself?
No — an EORI number is only required if you’re importing physical stock into Ireland from outside the EU. If you’re sourcing entirely from EU suppliers or drop-shipping, it doesn’t apply.
What’s the biggest mistake non-resident e-commerce founders make?
Assuming OSS covers all their EU VAT obligations. It doesn’t cover local VAT registration triggered by holding stock in a country — which is exactly what happens under Amazon’s Pan-EU FBA programme.
Get Your Non-Resident E-commerce Setup Right From Day One
Forming the company and getting it ready to trade are two different jobs — Forti handles both together, so your identity verification, Section 137 Bond, VAT/OSS registration, and ongoing bookkeeping are managed as one process rather than passed between separate providers.
QUICK ANSWER E-commerce accounting differs from standard Irish SME accounting because several distinct compliance regimes apply from the first sale, with no minimum threshold. The biggest blind spots are: VAT registration is required in every country where Amazon physically stores your stock (OSS does not cover this); the EU’s low-value customs duty exemption ended 1 July 2026; and packaging, electronics, or battery sellers may owe Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) registration in Ireland regardless of where the business is based.
Running an e-commerce business looks deceptively simple from the outside: list a product, make a sale, ship it out. In reality, the moment a business starts selling across borders — which almost every Shopify or Amazon seller does within their first year — it inherits a compliance footprint that looks nothing like a typical Irish SME’s. A standard bookkeeping model built around one VAT number, one set of accounts, and domestic sales simply doesn’t hold up.
This guide walks through what actually makes e-commerce accounting different, covering the areas that most catch sellers out: VAT and OSS/IOSS, the specific VAT trap hidden inside Amazon’s Pan-European FBA programme, the customs duty change that took effect in July 2026, an environmental compliance obligation most sellers have never heard of, and how to actually reconcile the mess of data a marketplace generates every month.
The Irish E-commerce Market at a Glance
E-commerce isn’t a side channel in Ireland any more — it’s mainstream. Retail e-commerce in Ireland reached an estimated €8.8 billion in 2025, up around 6% year-on-year, and roughly 37.5% of Irish businesses now report having e-commerce sales. Amazon remains the single largest online retailer serving the Irish market by a wide margin. Growth of this scale is exactly why compliance gaps that were once minor — a missed VAT registration, an overlooked packaging obligation — now carry real financial exposure for sellers who are scaling faster than their back-office setup can keep up with.
Why E-commerce Accounting Doesn’t Fit a Standard Bookkeeping Model
A typical Irish limited company sells to Irish customers, charges Irish VAT, and files one VAT3 return covering one jurisdiction. An e-commerce business rarely works that way for long. Within months of scaling past a modest turnover, a Shopify or Amazon seller is likely to be:
Selling to customers in multiple EU countries, each with its own VAT rate
Holding stock in fulfilment centres outside Ireland, which changes where VAT is actually owed
Generating hundreds or thousands of small transactions a month, each bundled with marketplace fees, refunds, and currency conversions
Subject to environmental and product compliance obligations that have nothing to do with tax at all
None of this is optional or something that can be addressed “later, once the business is bigger.” Several of these obligations apply from the very first sale, with no minimum threshold. Getting the structure right early avoids a much more expensive clean-up exercise down the line.
VAT and OSS/IOSS Registration for Cross-Border Sellers
The starting point for any Irish e-commerce business is Irish VAT registration. As of May 2026, the Irish VAT registration thresholds are €85,000 for goods and €42,500 for services. Below these thresholds, registration is optional; above them, it’s mandatory.
But for a business selling into other EU countries, Irish registration is only the beginning. The One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme lets a business report VAT on cross-border B2C sales to other EU countries through a single return filed in Ireland, rather than registering separately in every country it sells into. The OSS threshold remains €10,000 — combined across all cross-border EU sales, not per country — above which OSS (or individual country registration) becomes necessary.
For non-EU sellers shipping low-value goods directly to EU consumers, the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) serves a similar purpose for import VAT, allowing VAT to be collected at the point of sale rather than at the border.
A caution on registering below the threshold: sellers below the €85,000/€42,500 thresholds can register for VAT voluntarily, which is often worthwhile if there are significant VAT-bearing costs to reclaim. But Revenue does scrutinise voluntary applications from pre-trading or pre-revenue businesses more closely than standard registrations. Be ready to show concrete evidence of an intention to trade — supplier contracts, a live Shopify store, or inventory invoices — as applications lacking this can be queried or rejected outright.
Importing Stock Into Ireland? Don’t Overlook PVA and Your EORI Number
Many Irish e-commerce sellers import stock from Great Britain (now treated as a non-EU import post-Brexit) or from Asia before listing it on Shopify or Amazon. Two additional pieces of the compliance picture come into play the moment goods are imported from outside the EU:
An EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) is required to clear customs, and needs to be linked to the business’s Revenue VAT registration.
Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) lets a VAT-registered, Customs & Excise-registered importer account for import VAT directly on their VAT3 return — declaring and reclaiming it in the same return — rather than paying it in cash at the point of entry. This is a genuine cash-flow advantage for any business importing stock regularly, and Revenue’s own guidance confirms it removes the need to pay VAT at the point of importation, subject to the usual deductibility rules.
Businesses that were both VAT- and Customs & Excise-registered before PVA’s introduction received automatic entitlement to use it; anyone registering for VAT and Customs & Excise since then should confirm their postponed accounting position is properly set up — including the correct PA1 entries on the VAT3 — before their first import lands.
Comparing OSS, IOSS, and Local VAT Registration
These three mechanisms are frequently confused, and mixing them up is the single most common VAT mistake among growing e-commerce sellers.
OSS
IOSS
Local VAT Registration
What it covers
Cross-border B2C sales to other EU countries, from stock held in one EU country
Import VAT on low-value goods (≤€150) shipped directly to EU consumers from outside the EU
VAT on sales and stock held physically within that specific country
Threshold
€10,000 combined cross-border EU sales
No threshold — per consignment≤€150
No threshold — triggered by holding stock in-country≤€150
Common mistake
Assuming it covers Pan-EU FBA stock-holding — it doesn’t
Assuming it still means duty-free after 1 July 2026 — it doesn’t
Assuming Amazon handles this automatically — it doesn’t
The crucial limitation to understand: OSS only covers where VAT is owed on the sale, not where a business is required to hold a full local VAT registration. That distinction becomes critical the moment stock is physically stored outside Ireland — which is exactly what happens with Amazon’s Pan-European FBA programme.
Pan-EU FBA: The VAT Obligation Most Sellers Don’t See Coming
This is the single most common compliance gap among growing Amazon sellers, and it catches out businesses that are otherwise fully VAT compliant in Ireland.
Amazon’s Pan-European FBA programme distributes a seller’s inventory automatically across its European fulfilment network to speed up delivery and reduce shipping costs. It’s a genuinely useful feature — but it comes with a rule that has nothing to do with sales thresholds: the moment inventory is physically held in a country, VAT registration is required in that country, from the very first unit stored. OSS does not cover this. There is no minimum threshold and no grace period.
In practice, this means a seller enrolled in Pan-EU FBA can find their stock automatically moved into Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic — sometimes more — without VAT registration in any of them. Amazon has tightened this further: as of January 2026, sellers must hold VAT registrations in a minimum of five EU countries just to remain eligible for the Pan-EU programme at all. Fall short, and Amazon can restrict or block inventory transfers, which quietly removes the delivery-speed and fee advantages the programme exists to provide in the first place.
Sellers who want to avoid this exposure without giving up FBA altogether typically use the European Fulfilment Network (EFN) instead — storing stock in a single country and shipping cross-border from there — which limits the VAT footprint to that one country plus OSS for cross-border sales, at the cost of slightly slower delivery in some markets.
Illustrative Example: How a Growing Seller’s VAT Footprint Changes
This is a composite scenario based on patterns we see repeatedly across e-commerce clients — not a specific named business.
A Shopify and Amazon seller starts out shipping only from Ireland. In year one, all stock sits in a single Irish warehouse , one VAT registration, one VAT3 return, straightforward. As EU sales grow past €10,000, the seller registers for OSS, which now handles the cross-border VAT on those sales through a single Irish filing ; still manageable.
In year two, the seller opts into Amazon’s Pan-EU FBA programme to speed up delivery across Europe. Overnight, Amazon begins distributing stock into Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. OSS does not cover any of this stock-holding — the seller now needs five separate local VAT registrations, five sets of local filing obligations, and (per Amazon’s current rules) must have all five in place simply to stay eligible for the programme. A seller who enrolled without anticipating this can find inventory transfers frozen mid-flow while registrations are sorted out — often the first sign something has gone wrong, and a costly one during a peak sales period.
The practical takeaway: before opting into Pan-EU FBA, know exactly which countries your stock will land in and have VAT registrations in place before it arrives, not after. Amazon’s Inventory Event Detail Report is the standard way to track where stock is actually being held.
Unsure where your stock is currently being stored?
Amazon FBA inventory transfers happen automatically behind the scenes, which is exactly how sellers end up with an unregistered VAT obligation without realising it. Request a free e-commerce VAT & EPR review → forti.ie
The 2026 Customs Duty Change: What It Means for Low-Value Consignments
Until recently, the EU allowed goods valued at €150 or less to enter the bloc free of customs duty. That exemption ended on 1 July 2026. In its place, a temporary flat customs duty of approximately €3 per HS-code line item now applies to consignments of €150 or less, regardless of whether the Import One Stop Shop is used. This interim measure is expected to run until 1 July 2028, ahead of a broader EU customs reform.
The detail that trips people up: IOSS still simplifies how VAT is collected at checkout, but it no longer means duty-free. These are two separate things that used to align neatly and no longer do. A seller who assumes their IOSS registration still covers “no extra charges at the border” for small parcels is working from an outdated assumption that changed only recently — worth flagging explicitly to customers and factoring into landed-cost pricing for low-value items shipped directly from outside the EU.
A Compliance Obligation Most Sellers Have Never Heard Of: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
This is the area most e-commerce guides skip entirely, and it’s a genuine blind spot for sellers focused only on VAT.
Extended Producer Responsibility is an environmental compliance regime that makes anyone placing packaged goods, electrical equipment, or batteries on the Irish market financially responsible for that product’s end-of-life collection and recycling. In Ireland, packaging EPR is administered through Repak, the country’s approved compliance body, with separate schemes covering WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) and batteries.
The important point for e-commerce sellers: this obligation applies to distance sellers, not just Irish-based manufacturers. A business based outside Ireland — including a non-resident seller — that supplies packaged goods directly to Irish consumers is treated as a “producer” under Irish packaging regulations and carries the same registration and reporting obligation as a local manufacturer would. The same logic applies to anyone selling electronics or battery-powered products to Irish buyers via Amazon.ie or a Shopify store shipping into Ireland.
Businesses placing packaging on the Irish market above certain thresholds (broadly, larger volumes and turnover) are classed as “major producers” and must join Repak, reporting packaging weights and paying a fee based on volume
Smaller producers typically have a simplified registration route with a fixed annual fee rather than the full major-producer reporting burden
Sellers of electrical or battery-powered goods have a parallel obligation through the National WEEE Register
This is easy to overlook because it isn’t a tax and doesn’t show up on a VAT return — but it’s a genuine legal obligation with financial penalties for non-compliance, and it’s one that grows more relevant every year as EU packaging waste rules tighten. Any e-commerce business shipping packaged goods into Ireland at meaningful volume should have this checked, not assumed away.
Reconciling Amazon and Shopify Settlements With A2X or Link My Books
Beyond registration and compliance, the day-to-day bookkeeping challenge for e-commerce sellers is different in kind from a typical business. A single Amazon settlement report can bundle together gross sales, referral fees, FBA fees, storage fees, refunds, promotional discounts, and VAT — all in different currencies if selling across multiple marketplaces — and dumping that raw data into a general ledger produces a mess that no accountant can make sense of, let alone use for accurate VAT filings.
This is where reconciliation tools like A2X and Link My Books earn their keep. Both integrate directly with Amazon, Shopify, and other marketplaces, breaking down each settlement into its individual components and posting a clean, correctly categorised summary into Xero or QuickBooks — with VAT correctly split by jurisdiction, which matters enormously once a seller has multiple VAT registrations in play. Attempting to reconcile marketplace settlements manually, without one of these tools, is one of the most common causes of inaccurate VAT filings among growing e-commerce sellers.
Corporation Tax and Multi-Marketplace Bookkeeping Considerations
Once the VAT and reconciliation side is under control, standard Irish company obligations still apply on top: Corporation Tax (CT1) on annual profits, CRO annual returns, and — where turnover and other thresholds are exceeded — statutory audit requirements. The complexity multiplies with the number of marketplaces and currencies involved: a seller running Shopify, Amazon, and perhaps eBay simultaneously needs bookkeeping that consolidates all three cleanly into one set of management accounts, ideally on a monthly cycle rather than being reconstructed at year-end.
What to Look for in an E-commerce Accountant
Given everything above, a generalist accountant without e-commerce experience will typically miss at least one of these areas — most often the Pan-EU FBA VAT trap or the EPR obligation, since neither shows up unless someone is specifically looking for it. When choosing who handles your accounts, look for:
Direct, practical experience with Amazon and Shopify settlement reconciliation, not just general bookkeeping
Familiarity with OSS/IOSS registration and the distinction between cross-border sales VAT and local stock-holding VAT
Awareness of EPR/Repak obligations for physical goods sellers — not every accountant will think to raise this
Comfort working with tools like A2X or Link My Books as standard practice, not an unfamiliar add-on
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to register for VAT in every country where Amazon stores my stock?
Yes. The moment Amazon physically holds your inventory in a country under Pan-EU FBA, you need a local VAT registration there — there’s no threshold and no grace period. OSS does not cover this; it only applies to cross-border sales, not stock-holding.
What’s the difference between OSS and IOSS?
OSS covers cross-border B2C sales of goods and services to other EU countries where you hold stock in one EU country. IOSS covers import VAT on low-value consignments (€150 or less) shipped directly to EU consumers from outside the EU. They serve different situations and aren’t interchangeable.
Does OSS cover Pan-EU FBA VAT registration?
No. This is the most common misunderstanding among growing sellers. OSS handles VAT on the sale itself; it does not replace the local VAT registration required wherever your stock is physically held.
Is IOSS still duty-free for orders under €150?
No, not since 1 July 2026. The EU’s duty-free exemption for consignments of €150 or less ended on that date. A flat customs duty of roughly €3 per HS-code line item now applies regardless of whether IOSS is used, as an interim measure expected to run until 1 July 2028.
Do I need to register for EPR/Repak if I only sell through Amazon FBA?
Potentially, yes. If you supply packaged goods, electronics, or batteries directly to Irish consumers — including via Amazon.ie — you may be classed as a “producer” under Irish packaging regulations regardless of where your business is based, and carry a Repak (or WEEE Register) registration obligation.
How many EU VAT registrations do I need for Amazon Pan-EU FBA in 2026?
As of January 2026, Amazon requires a minimum of five EU VAT registrations to remain eligible for the Pan-EU FBA programme. The exact countries depend on where your stock is distributed — commonly Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
What tools help reconcile Amazon and Shopify settlements for VAT?
A2X and Link My Books are the two most widely used tools. Both break marketplace settlement reports into their individual components (sales, fees, refunds, VAT) and post a clean summary into Xero or QuickBooks, split correctly by jurisdiction.
How does Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) help Irish e-commerce importers?
PVA lets a VAT-registered, Customs & Excise-registered business account for import VAT on its VAT3 return instead of paying it in cash at the point of import. It preserves working capital on imported stock, but requires an active EORI number and correct PA1 reporting on the VAT3.
E-commerce accounting isn’t harder than standard SME accounting because the numbers are more complicated — it’s harder because there are simply more distinct compliance regimes running in parallel, several of which apply from the first sale with no threshold to build up to. Getting the structure right from the outset is considerably cheaper than untangling it after a few years of growth.
Get Your E-commerce VAT and Compliance Position Reviewed
If you’re selling on Shopify or Amazon — or planning to opt into Pan-EU FBA — it’s worth having your VAT registrations, OSS/IOSS setup, and EPR obligations checked by someone who works with e-commerce sellers day to day, before a gap like the ones above turns into a frozen inventory transfer or a backdated liability.
Forti works with Shopify and Amazon FBA sellers on VAT registration, OSS/IOSS compliance, and monthly bookkeeping using A2X and Link My Books — from €195/month.
A missed annual return or an uncancelled VAT registration is one thing when nobody’s looking. It’s a different problem entirely when a buyer’s solicitor, an investor’s due diligence team, or Revenue’s own tax clearance system starts looking — which is exactly what happens the moment you try to sell, merge, or formally close a company.
Why Compliance History Becomes Visible at Exactly the Wrong Moment
Throughout this series we’ve looked at what happens when a business owner simply stops trading and leaves the paperwork unresolved. Selling a company, bringing in an investor, or even just formally winding it down properly surfaces every one of those gaps at once — because each process relies on independent, third-party verification of exactly the things that tend to get left until later: CRO filing history, Revenue’s tax clearance system, and the Register of Beneficial Ownership.
None of this is hidden. A company’s late filing history is publicly searchable on the CRO register, RBO discrepancies are checked as standard AML due diligence, and Revenue’s tax clearance status is verified electronically in real time. A buyer’s solicitor will find what’s there — the only question is whether it’s found before or after you’ve agreed a price.
Share Sale vs Asset Sale: Why Compliance History Matters Differently
Share Sale
When shares in the company are sold, the buyer acquires the company itself — its history, its liabilities, and its compliance record, warts and all. Every unresolved CRO filing, every unpaid Revenue liability, and every RBO discrepancy transfers with it unless specifically carved out. This is why share sale agreements lean so heavily on warranties and indemnities: the buyer is pricing in exactly this risk, and will expect the seller to stand behind it contractually.
Asset Sale
When the buyer instead purchases specific assets — a customer list, equipment, a brand, a lease — out of the company rather than the company itself, historic compliance issues are less likely to transfer directly. But the company itself still needs a clean compliance position to complete the sale in the first place: a Tax Clearance Certificate is often required to satisfy the buyer and their bank, and if the sale involves property, a CG50 clearance certificate is required under Section 980 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 — without it, the purchaser is legally required to withhold part of the sale proceeds and remit them to Revenue.
What Due Diligence Actually Uncovers
Late CRO filing history — publicly visible on the register and an immediate flag for any buyer’s solicitor running standard checks.
Loss of audit exemption from a prior late filing — meaning historic accounts may need to be re-audited before a deal can close cleanly.
An expired or refused Tax Clearance Certificate — Revenue’s electronic system checks compliance in real time and will not issue clearance while returns or liabilities remain outstanding.
RBO mismatches — beneficial ownership details that don’t match the actual shareholding, a standard check under anti-money-laundering due diligence.
Unresolved VAT, OSS, or foreign VAT registrations — particularly relevant for ecommerce or multi-country sellers, as covered in Part 3 of this series.
A CG50 requirement the seller wasn’t aware applied — relevant wherever property or certain high-value assets form part of what’s being sold.
Preparing a Company for Sale or Formal Closure
Bring every CRO annual return up to date well before entering negotiations — a clean filing history removes one of the most visible red flags in due diligence.
Apply for a Tax Clearance Certificate early. The electronic system checks compliance automatically, and any gap will surface immediately rather than at the point you actually need it.
Confirm the Register of Beneficial Ownership entry matches the current shareholding exactly, updating within 14 days of any change.
Resolve any dormant, ceased-trading, or multi-country VAT ambiguity — as set out in Parts 1 through 3 of this series — so the buyer’s due diligence team isn’t the one working out what category the company actually falls into.
If property or qualifying assets are involved, apply for CG50 clearance as soon as contracts are signed rather than waiting until closing, since Revenue can take up to several weeks to process it.
Where the company won’t be sold at all but simply needs to close, follow the voluntary strike-off process from Part 2 rather than leaving it to lapse mid-negotiation.
What Happens If You Sell Anyway, Issues Unresolved
Deals don’t usually collapse outright over compliance gaps — they get renegotiated. A buyer who discovers late filings, a lapsed audit exemption, or an unresolved VAT position will typically respond in one of a few predictable ways: a reduction in price to reflect the cost of fixing it, a specific indemnity requiring the seller to cover any resulting liability after completion, or a delay to closing while the seller resolves the position. In each case, the seller ends up paying for the same fix they could have made earlier — just later, under time pressure, and with less negotiating leverage.
Case Studies
Case Study 1 — A Share Sale Delayed by an Expired Audit Exemption
A services company preparing to sell discovered during due diligence that a prior year’s late annual return had cost it audit exemption for two years — years for which the accounts had never actually been audited. Completion was delayed by several weeks while a retrospective audit was arranged, and the buyer negotiated a price reduction to reflect the delay and the risk.
Case Study 2 — A Missed CG50 Almost Cost the Seller Cash at Closing
A business owner selling a company that held a small commercial property assumed the sale would proceed like any other share transaction. Their solicitor identified that a CG50 clearance certificate was required under Section 980 given the property involved, and without it, the purchaser would have been legally required to withhold part of the proceeds. Applying as soon as contracts were signed avoided a hold-back at closing that would otherwise have tied up a meaningful portion of the sale price.
Case Study 3 — An RBO Mismatch That Slowed Down Investor Due Diligence
A founder seeking investment for an otherwise healthy business found the round delayed when the investor’s AML checks flagged a discrepancy between the Register of Beneficial Ownership and the company’s actual shareholding, following an earlier share transfer that had never been updated on the register. The correction itself was straightforward, but it added weeks to a process the founder had expected to close quickly.
(These case studies are illustrative composites reflecting patterns we see regularly among Irish business owners, not individual clients.)
1. Capital Gains Tax Clearance (Section 980 & Form CG50A)
When an asset sale or a share sale involves specific Irish assets (such as land, buildings, goodwill, or unquoted shares deriving their value from Irish land), strict statutory thresholds apply under Section 980 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997:
The Triggers: A Form CG50A clearance certificate is legally required if the disposal consideration exceeds:
€500,000 for commercial property, land, business goodwill, or qualifying unquoted shares.
€1,000,000 for residential property.
The Withholding Penalty: If the seller fails to produce a valid CG50A certificate to the buyer prior to or at closing, the purchaser is legally mandated to withhold exactly 15% of the gross purchase price and remit it directly to Revenue within 30 days.
Processing Timelines: Applications must be submitted electronically via the eCG50 facility on ROS (Revenue Online Service). Revenue standard processing times typically range from 3 to 4 weeks, meaning applications should ideally be initiated as soon as contracts are exchanged.
Filing histories are scrutinized heavily during corporate transactions due to the severe downstream legal impacts of a missed deadline:
Automatic Loss of Exemption: Under the Companies Act 2014, if a company files its annual return late by even one day, it automatically forfeits its right to claim an audit exemption for the financial year in question and the subsequent financial year.
The Transaction Impact: If a company has traded through those years without an audit under the assumption it was exempt, it will be forced to commission a retrospective audit before a share sale can cleanly close. This frequently causes severe delays and triggers price chips from buyers.
3. Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) Compliance
The 14-Day Rule: To comply with statutory Anti-Money Laundering (AML) frameworks, any internal corporate restructuring, share transfer, or allotment must be updated on the central Register of Beneficial Ownership within 14 days of the change.
Due Diligence Friction: Discrepancies between the company’s internal stock transfer book and the public RBO register automatically flag during a buyer’s or investor’s standard AML checks, halting funds from being drawn down until rectified.
Key Action Checklist for Pre-Sale Due Diligence
Compliance Area
Verification Action
Timing Requirement
1.Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC)
Check ROS electronic status across all tax heads (VAT, Relevant Contracts Tax, Corporation Tax, PAYE/PRSI).
Run 6–8 weeks before negotiations to catch hidden flags.
2.CG50 Clearance
File electronic application via eCG50 on ROS if transaction hits the €500k/€1m thresholds.
File immediately upon exchange of contracts.
3.CRO History
Verify that no annual returns are pending and check for past late filings that might have triggered an audit requirement
Review before drafting the initial Heads of Terms.
4.RBO Alignment
Cross-reference the central RBO register against the current register of members
Remediate any discrepancies at least 3 weeks prior to closing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Tax Clearance Certificate to sell my company?
It’s frequently required by buyers, their banks, or as part of standard due diligence, even where not strictly a legal precondition of the sale itself. Applying early, since Revenue’s electronic system checks compliance automatically, avoids delay at the point you actually need it.
What’s the difference between a Tax Clearance Certificate and a CG50?
A Tax Clearance Certificate confirms your overall tax affairs are in order. A CG50 is a separate clearance specifically relevant where property or certain qualifying assets are part of the sale, confirming Revenue doesn’t require the purchaser to withhold part of the proceeds.
Can late CRO filings actually stop a sale from completing?
They rarely stop a sale outright, but they routinely delay it and give the buyer leverage to negotiate a lower price or demand a specific indemnity covering the risk.
Does an asset sale avoid all these compliance issues?
Not entirely. While historic liabilities are less likely to transfer with specific assets rather than the company as a whole, the company itself typically still needs a Tax Clearance Certificate and, where property is involved, a CG50 to complete the transaction.
How long does it take to fix these issues once discovered mid-deal?
We prepare companies for sale or formal closure well before a buyer’s solicitor gets involved — bringing CRO filings current, securing tax clearance, correcting RBO entries, and resolving any dormant or ceased-trading ambiguity, so the compliance story is already clean by the time due diligence begins.
Preparing to Sell or Close? Talk to Forti Early
Monthly bookkeeping and management accounts from€195/month + VAT
Tax clearance, RBO correction and pre-sale compliance clean-up available on request
If a sale, investment round, or formal closure is on the horizon, get in touch with the Forti team at forti.ie before a buyer’s due diligence team finds the gaps for you.
Ecommerce sellers carry more moving parts than most business owners when they stop trading — an OSS registration, possibly a foreign VAT registration tied to stored stock, and a marketplace account that keeps running whether you’re paying attention to it or not. Here’s what needs to be closed down deliberately, and what happens if it isn’t.
Why Ecommerce Sellers Are a Special Case
Most of the compliance failures we’ve covered in this series apply to any Irish business. Ecommerce sellers carry extra exposure on top: a Union OSS registration reporting sales across every EU state you sell into, potentially a local VAT registration in any country where you’ve stored stock, and — if you sell through Amazon, eBay or Etsy — a marketplace account that continues taking orders, holding your inventory, and generating transactions long after you’ve mentally ‘stopped.’ None of these switch off on their own, and each has its own separate deregistration process.
Deregistering From OSS: The Steps That Actually Matter
1. Notify Revenue electronically, through the VAT OSS section in ROS, that you wish to deregister. This must be done at least 15 days before the end of the calendar quarter prior to the quarter in which you intend to stop using the scheme.
2. File your final OSS return covering the last quarter of use, and pay any VAT still due — deregistering doesn’t cancel liability for supplies already made under the scheme.
3. Keep OSS records for the full 10-year retention period required under EU rules, even after deregistration — Revenue and other member states can still request them.
4. If you’re stopping trading altogether rather than switching schemes, also cancel your underlying Irish VAT registration via TRCN1 once all final returns are filed.
Miss the 15-day notice window and simply stop filing instead, and you risk a different outcome entirely: exclusion from the scheme by Revenue for non-compliance, which triggers a quarantine period during which you cannot re-register for OSS even if you resume trading. A deliberate, on-time deregistration and an enforced exclusion are not the same thing on your compliance record.
The Stock Problem: What Happens to Inventory You Still Hold
If you’re deregistering with stock still on hand, Revenue treats the retention of that stock — for personal use, write-off, or simply because it wasn’t sold — as a deemed supply, meaning VAT still needs to be accounted for on it in your final return. This is one of the most commonly missed steps in a rushed closure: sellers cancel the registration and quietly dispose of remaining stock without accounting for the VAT position on it first.
The bigger risk sits with sellers using Amazon FBA or another pan-EU fulfilment model. OSS never covered the stock itself — only the sale to the end consumer. If stock is still sitting in a warehouse in Germany or Poland when you deregister from OSS and cancel your Irish VAT number, the local VAT registration in that country doesn’t disappear with it. It has to be separately closed, and any stock still physically there needs to be cleared, transferred, or accounted for under that country’s own rules first.
Marketplace Accounts Don’t Close Themselves Either
Closing an Amazon, eBay or Etsy seller account is a commercial step, not a tax one — but leaving it active after you’ve stopped trading creates exactly the kind of loose end that causes problems later. Outstanding orders, returns, and marketplace-collected VAT under the deemed supplier rules can continue generating activity on an account you’ve mentally already closed, and reconciling that activity months later, against tax registrations that have already been cancelled, is far harder than closing everything in the right order at the time.
A Sensible Closing Order
Stop taking new orders across every channel and let existing orders and returns run to completion.
Clear or transfer any stock held in foreign warehouses, and close the associated local VAT registration in that country.
Account for VAT on any stock you retain rather than sell, in your final return.
Submit your OSS deregistration at least 15 days before the end of the prior quarter, and file the final OSS return.
Cancel your underlying Irish VAT registration via TRCN1 once all final returns are filed and settled.
Close the marketplace seller accounts themselves once orders, returns and payouts have fully settled.
If the business traded through a limited company, follow the CRO closure steps covered in Part 2 of this series — dormancy, voluntary strike-off, or restoration, depending on where things stand.
Case Studies
Case Study 1 — A Clean OSS Deregistration
A Shopify-based homeware seller decided to close the business at the end of a calendar quarter. The deregistration notice was submitted to Revenue in good time, the final OSS return was filed and paid, and the underlying Irish VAT registration was cancelled once no further stock remained. No penalties, no quarantine period, and no loose ends.
Case Study 2 — Stranded Stock in a German Warehouse
An Amazon FBA seller cancelled their Irish VAT registration and OSS scheme without first arranging for stock still held in Amazon’s German fulfilment centre to be cleared. The German VAT registration tied to that stock remained technically open, and Amazon continued to report inventory movements against it. The position was only resolved once the stock was removed and the foreign registration formally closed — a step that should have preceded, not followed, the Irish deregistration.
Case Study 3 — Missing the Notice Window
A multi-channel seller simply stopped filing OSS returns after winding the business down informally, without submitting a deregistration notice. Revenue excluded the registration for non-compliance rather than processing a clean deregistration, which placed the business in a quarantine period before it could register for OSS again — relevant a year later when the same founder started a new ecommerce venture and found the scheme temporarily unavailable to them.
(These case studies are illustrative composites reflecting patterns we see regularly among Irish ecommerce clients, not individual businesses.)
When an asset sale or a share sale involves specific Irish assets—such as land, buildings, business goodwill, or unquoted shares deriving their value from Irish land—specific financial thresholds apply:
The Triggers: A clearance certificate is required if the transaction value exceeds:
€500,000 for commercial property, land, business goodwill, or qualifying unquoted shares.
€1,000,000 for residential property.
The Withholding Penalty: If the seller fails to produce a valid clearance certificate to the buyer prior to or at closing, the purchaser is legally required to withhold exactly 15% of the gross purchase price and pay it directly to Revenue within 30 days.
Processing Timelines: Applications must be submitted electronically. Standard processing times typically range from 3 to 4 weeks, meaning applications should be initiated as soon as contracts are signed.
2. Company Registration History & Audit Exemption Rules
Filing histories are scrutinized heavily during corporate transactions due to the severe downstream impacts of a missed deadline:
Automatic Loss of Exemption: If a company files its annual return late by even a single day, it automatically loses its right to claim an audit exemption for that financial year and the subsequent financial year.
The Transaction Impact: If a company has traded through those years without an audit under the assumption it was exempt, it will be forced to commission a retrospective audit before a share sale can cleanly close. This causes severe transaction delays and often triggers price reductions from buyers.
3. Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) Compliance
The 14-Day Rule: Any internal corporate restructuring, share transfer, or new allotment must be updated on the central Register of Beneficial Ownership within 14 days of the change.
Due Diligence Friction: Discrepancies between the company’s internal share register and the public RBO register automatically flag during standard anti-money laundering checks, halting funds from being drawn down until corrected.
4. One Stop Shop (OSS) Timelines & Penalties
The Cut-off Logic: To stop using the Union OSS scheme, a business must notify Revenue by the 15th day of the final month of a calendar quarter (e.g., to exit from 1 October, notice must be submitted on or before 15 September). Missing this deadline locks the business into the scheme for the next full 3-month cycle.
The Quarantine Mechanic: A forced exclusion from the scheme due to persistent non-compliance (such as failing to file or pay for 3 consecutive quarters) results in an automatic 2-year suspension. During this time, the business cannot register for OSS in any EU Member State and must instead seek multiple local retail VAT registrations.
Data Retention Mandate: All records supporting OSS returns must be maintained digitally and made available upon request for exactly 10 years from the end of the year of the transaction.
5. Domestic VAT Cessation & Stock Asset Disposal
Deemed Supply Rule: Goods forming part of the assets of a business that ceases to trade are treated as sold by the business to itself.
Valuation: The VAT on unsold closing stock must be calculated based on the cost price (or purchase price) of the goods at the time of cessation, not the retail price.
Cancellation Mechanism: The domestic VAT cancellation is processed through an electronic registration facility once all final returns and liabilities hit zero.
6. Cross-Border Fulfillment & Marketplace Rules
Storage vs. Sale: Holding stock in a fulfillment center outside of Ireland immediately triggers a local VAT registration requirement in that host country. Canceling the Irish OSS scheme does not automatically close foreign VAT accounts.
Marketplace Rules: Digital platforms are responsible for collecting tax on certain transactions. However, if a merchant account is left active with automated returns or customer credits processing post-closure, the platform will continue to generate data entries that conflict with cancelled tax registrations.
Pre-Sale & Pre-Closure Sequence Checklist
Step
Compliance Channel
Metric / Deadline
1. Stock Liquidation
Marketplace / Warehouse
Clear, destroy, or legally transfer all foreign inventory out of non-Irish fulfillment hubs.
2. Foreign VAT Closure
International Tax Authorities
File final local returns and submit formal deregistration forms to every individual country where stock was stored.
3. Tax Clearance Certificate
Electronic Revenue System
Check status across all tax heads (VAT, Corporation Tax, PAYE/PRSI) 6–8 weeks before negotiations.
4. Deemed Supply Calculation
Domestic VAT Return
Value remaining Irish stock at cost price; include this figure on the final VAT return.
5. OSS Exit Notice
Electronic OSS Portal
Submit deregistration request 15 days or more before the quarter’s end.
6. Capital Gains Clearance
Electronic Revenue System
File clearance application if the transaction hits the €500k/€1m thresholds immediately upon exchange of contracts.
7. Domestic Cancellation
Electronic Revenue System
Submit formal cancellation for the underlying domestic VAT number once all liabilities are clear.
8. RBO Alignment
Central Register
Cross-reference the central RBO register against the current internal register of members at least 3 weeks prior to closing.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.Can I just stop filing OSS returns once I’ve stopped trading?
Ans: You can, but it’s the wrong way to close it. Simply stopping without notifying Revenue can result in exclusion from the scheme rather than a clean deregistration, which carries a quarantine period before you can register again.
2. Do I need to deregister OSS and Irish VAT at the same time?
Ans: Not necessarily at the same moment, but in the right order — OSS deregistration first (with its 15-day notice requirement), followed by cancellation of the underlying Irish VAT registration once all final returns are filed and settled.
3. What happens to VAT on stock I don’t sell before closing?
Ans: It’s treated as a deemed supply and needs to be accounted for in your final VAT return, whether you retain it, write it off, or dispose of it another way.
4. Does closing my Amazon or eBay seller account cancel my VAT obligations?
Ans: No. The marketplace account and your tax registrations are entirely separate. Closing one has no effect on the other, and outstanding marketplace activity can continue to affect a tax position you thought was already closed.
5. If stock is stored in another EU country, do I need to do anything before deregistering?
Ans: Yes. Clear or transfer the stock and close the local VAT registration in that country first — OSS and your Irish VAT registration never covered that separate obligation.
How Forti Helps
We handle the full sequence — OSS and VAT deregistration, foreign VAT closures tied to stored stock, and the underlying CRO position — so an ecommerce business closes cleanly across every channel, rather than leaving a registration open somewhere that resurfaces later.
In Part 1, we looked at why ‘stopped trading’ isn’t the same as ‘closed down,’ and what it costs when business owners leave that gap unresolved. This follow-up is the practical playbook: the exact steps to restore a struck-off company, deregister properly with Revenue, close a company the right way, or keep a dormant one compliant — with the current CRO fees and timelines for each route.
Step One: Work Out Which Situation You’re Actually In
Before picking a fix, confirm the starting point. The route — and the cost — depends entirely on which of these applies to you right now.
Your company is still on the CRO register, but annual returns are overdue — you’re at risk, but not yet struck off.
Your company has already been struck off and dissolved — you need restoration if you want it back.
Your company is trading-inactive but compliant so far — you want to formally mark it dormant or close it properly before anything lapses.
You stopped self-employment as a sole trader — your fix runs through Revenue and, if you registered a business name, the CRO’s RBN3 form.
Search the CRO’s public register (cro.ie) for your company name or number — it will show your last filed annual return and current status, which tells you immediately which path below applies.
Path A: Restoring a Struck-Off Company
If it’s been less than 12 months since dissolution — Administrative Restoration
1. File Form H1 through the CRO’s CORE portal. The filing fee is €300, payable by bank draft, CRO deposit account, or online payment — cheques are no longer accepted.
2. File every outstanding annual return, each with its financial statements. Late filing penalties apply per return (€100 plus €3/day, capped at €1,200), though on a restoration the cumulative late-filing exposure across the last three returns is capped at €3,600.
3. If the company was struck off for Revenue non-compliance rather than CRO non-filing, you’ll also need written confirmation from Revenue that all outstanding statements have been delivered before the CRO will process restoration.
4. Confirm the company still meets the Section 137 requirement for an EEA-resident director (or holds the relevant bond), and that director/secretary details are up to date.
5. Once the Registrar is satisfied, the company is restored and treated, for continuity purposes, as if it had never been dissolved — though the gap in filings and the strike-off itself remain on the public record permanently.
If it’s been more than 12 months — Court Order Restoration
After the 12-month administrative window closes, restoration can only happen through the High Court, under Section 738 of the Companies Act 2014, provided fewer than 20 years have passed since dissolution.
This route requires a solicitor, a letter of no objection from the CRO’s Enforcement Section, confirmation from Revenue that all liabilities are discharged, and a court hearing before the order is filed with the CRO (a further €15 fee). It is slower, adds legal costs on top of the same outstanding CRO penalties and Revenue confirmations, and can take several months from start to finish — which is exactly why administrative restoration, actioned promptly, is the route worth protecting.
Path B: Closing a Company Properly (Voluntary Strike-Off)
If the company is solvent, has no outstanding creditors, and you genuinely want to close it rather than restore or reactivate it, voluntary strike-off is the cheapest and cleanest route — a fraction of the cost of letting the CRO strike it off involuntarily and dealing with the fallout later.
1. Confirm the company meets the Section 733 conditions: it has ceased trading (or never traded), has no assets or liabilities, and is not the subject of any court proceedings.
2. Ensure all Revenue tax registrations are cancelled and any final returns filed — the CRO’s H15 process assumes no outstanding Revenue position.
3. File Form H15 through CORE. The filing fee is €15.
4. Place a newspaper advertisement (published within 30 days of your CRO submission) announcing the intention to strike off, and submit the full page of that newspaper alongside the H15.
5. The CRO publishes a notice in the CRO Gazette. Any party has 90 days to object using Form H16; if no valid objection is received, the company is struck off and dissolved in an orderly, planned way — not an enforcement action against you.
Path C: Deregistering Correctly With Revenue
Whether you’re closing a company, pausing it as dormant with no further tax activity, or winding up a sole trade, Revenue registrations don’t cancel themselves — you have to tell them.
1. Submit a Tax Registration Cancellation Notification (Form TRCN1), or cancel online through ROS/myAccount where the facility is available, for each registration that no longer applies: VAT, employer PAYE, Corporation Tax, or Income Tax.
2. File all outstanding returns up to the date of cessation first. Cancelling the registration stops future obligations — it does not remove liability for periods before the cessation date.
3. Account for VAT on any assets or stock retained at the point of deregistration; Revenue treats this as a deemed supply in your final VAT return.
4. If you employed staff, complete final payroll submissions and issue final pay and tax details before cancelling your employer PAYE registration.
5. Keep the cancellation confirmation Revenue issues — you’ll need it if you later apply to have a company restored to the CRO register, since the CRO requires written confirmation that all Revenue statements were delivered.
Path D: Keeping a Dormant Company Properly Compliant
If the plan is to keep the company on the register — perhaps to protect a name, hold an asset, or pause before restarting
dormancy is a valid, low-cost status, but it still comes with a fixed annual routine.
Hold a directors’ meeting before the financial year end to formally record the decision that the company is dormant and will claim the dormant company audit exemption, minuted in accordance with Section 365.
File the CRO annual return (Form B1) every year, on time, with a balance sheet carrying the required dormant company exemption statement.
Submit a nil Corporation Tax return (CT1) to Revenue within nine months of the financial year end, every year, without exception.
Leave VAT and employer PAYE registrations cancelled unless there’s a specific reason to keep them live — an unused live VAT number is one of the most common sources of unexpected penalties.
Diarise the Annual Return Date itself; missing it even for a genuinely dormant company triggers the same late fees and, after repeated lapses, the same loss of audit exemption as an active company.
A Quick Reference: Fees at Each Stage
CRO Fees Table 2026
Action
CRO fee (2026)
Annual return (Form B1), filed online
€20
Late filing penalty per return
€100 + €3/day, capped €1,200
Voluntary strike-off (Form H15)
€15
Administrative restoration (Form H1)
€300
Court order restoration lodgement
€15 (plus legal costs)
Business name cessation (Form RBN3)
No fee
These are the direct CRO fees only. Revenue penalties, interest, and any professional fees for preparing outstanding accounts or liaising with Revenue sit on top, and are almost always the larger part of the final bill for anyone recovering from a lapse rather than acting proactively.
Case Studies: Three Business Owners Who Fixed It
Case Study 1 — Restored Within the 12-Month Window
A Dublin design consultancy discovered, eight months after the fact, that its company had been struck off for missing two annual returns. Because it was still inside the 12-month administrative window, the director filed Form H1, submitted both outstanding annual returns with accounts, paid the capped late filing penalties, and had the company restored within several weeks — materially cheaper and faster than the court route it would have needed a few months later.
Case Study 2 — A Clean Voluntary Strike-Off
A part-time online retailer decided to close permanently after two years of declining sales. Before applying to the CRO, the director cancelled the VAT registration, filed a final VAT return accounting for the small amount of remaining stock, and confirmed no creditors were outstanding. The Form H15 application, newspaper notice, and 90-day objection period ran smoothly, and the company was dissolved in an orderly way with no penalties and no restoration ever required.
Case Study 3 — Reactivating a Dormant Company Instead of Starting Fresh
A founder who had paused a company for eighteen months while exploring a new venture wanted to start trading through it again rather than incorporate a new entity. Because the company had continued filing its annual return and nil CT1 every year while dormant, reactivation simply meant registering for VAT and employer PAYE again and updating Revenue on the resumption of trading — no restoration, no penalties, and no gap in the company’s history.
(These case studies are illustrative composites reflecting patterns we see regularly among Irish business owners, not individual clients.)
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly should I act once I realise a company has been struck off?
Immediately. Administrative restoration is only available within 12 months of dissolution — after that, the only route is a High Court application, which costs significantly more and takes considerably longer.
Can I do the administrative restoration myself, or do I need a solicitor?
Form H1 can be filed directly through CORE without a solicitor, provided you can gather the outstanding returns, accounts, and any required Revenue confirmation yourself. Court restoration, by contrast, generally requires a solicitor to prepare the court application.
What happens to contracts or a bank account if the company is later restored?
Restoration is treated, for continuity purposes, as though the company had never been dissolved, which is what makes it possible to pick up existing arrangements. In practice, banks and counterparties may still ask questions about the gap, so it’s worth having the restoration paperwork ready to show.
Do I need to cancel VAT before I can voluntarily strike off a company?
Yes, in practice. The voluntary strike-off process assumes no outstanding Revenue position, and a live VAT registration with returns still due will hold up or invalidate the application.
Is it cheaper to restore an old company or just incorporate a new one?
It depends on the value tied up in the old entity — its trading history, contracts, VAT registration, or name. If none of that matters, incorporating fresh is often simpler. If the company has an established track record, restoring it within the 12-month window is usually the better value.
What if I genuinely can’t afford the restoration or penalty costs right now?
Speak to Revenue and, where relevant, the CRO before the relevant deadlines pass. Revenue operates phased payment arrangements for tax debts, and addressing the position early — even in instalments — is materially better than letting a strike-off or court restoration become the only remaining option.
How Forti Helps
We handle the practical side of every path above — restoration filings, voluntary strike-off applications, Revenue deregistration, and ongoing dormant company compliance — so the paperwork gets done correctly the first time, rather than compounding into a bigger bill later.
Get Back on Track With Forti
Monthly bookkeeping and management accounts from €195/month + VAT
Irish company formation, CRO fee included: €250
Company restoration, voluntary strike-off and dormant company filing support available on reques
Whether you’re inside the 12-month restoration window, ready to close a company for good, or need a dormant company kept compliant, get in touch with the Forti team at forti.ie — the earlier you act, the fewer of these fees actually apply to you.
Every year, Irish business owners quietly stop trading and assume that’s the end of it. It isn’t — and in 2026, with the CRO and Revenue both enforcing more actively than at any point in recent years, that assumption is proving very expensive.
The Misconception That Costs Thousands
Closing the laptop is not the same as closing the company. When a shop stops taking orders, a contractor stops invoicing, or a founder simply moves on to something else, the company or business name they used doesn’t disappear along with the activity. It stays on the register at the Companies Registration Office (CRO), and it stays live with Revenue, until someone formally deals with it.
Throughout 2026, both the CRO and Revenue have sharply increased enforcement. Following the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024, the CRO has fully resumed involuntary strike-off action against non-filing companies, and Revenue continues to apply fixed penalties and daily interest on unresolved VAT and tax positions regardless of whether a business is actually trading. Directors who assume that silence equals closure are the ones most often caught out.
Five Ways a Business Can Be ‘Not Trading’ — and What Each One Requires
1. Dormant Company (Still Registered, No Activity)
Under Section 365 of the Companies Act 2014, a company is dormant if it has no significant accounting transactions during the financial year and its only assets or liabilities are permitted ones (such as amounts due to or from group companies). A dormant company can qualify for audit exemption regardless of its size — but it is not exempt from filing. It must still file an annual return (Form B1) with the CRO every year and submit a nil Corporation Tax return (CT1) to Revenue within nine months of its year end. The single most common mistake we see is a director assuming ‘dormant’ means ‘no filing needed.’ It doesn’t.
2. Ceased Trading, But the Company Is Still on the Register
This is the grey zone that catches most people out. The business has stopped operating, but the company was never formally struck off or dissolved. Every statutory obligation continues exactly as before: CRO annual returns, corporation tax returns, and — critically — VAT and payroll registrations, which don’t cancel themselves. If you were VAT registered and don’t tell Revenue you’ve stopped trading, Revenue’s systems will continue to expect returns and will issue estimated assessments and penalties when they don’t arrive.
3. Sole Trader Who Stopped Self-Employment
Sole traders have it slightly simpler but the obligations are just as real. You need to notify Revenue that you’ve ceased self-employment, cancel any VAT and employer PAYE registrations that no longer apply, and file a final Income Tax return covering the period up to cessation. If you traded under a registered business name, you’re also required to notify the CRO of the closure within three months.
4. Voluntary Strike-Off (Closing Down Properly)
This is the correct route for a solvent company with no outstanding creditors that genuinely wants to close. Directors apply to the CRO using Form H15, confirm the company has ceased trading and has no assets or liabilities, and place a newspaper advertisement confirming the intention to close. Done correctly, this results in an orderly, planned dissolution — the opposite of what happens when a company is simply abandoned.
5. Involuntary Strike-Off (What Happens When Nothing Is Done)
This is the default outcome of doing nothing. When annual returns go unfiled, the CRO issues a statutory notice, followed — if there’s no response — by a public notice in the CRO Gazette. If the company still doesn’t act, it is struck off and dissolved. From that date, the company ceases to exist as a legal entity, limited liability protection ends, and anyone continuing to trade through it is doing so in a personal capacity. The full process typically runs several months from the first missed deadline, but once the Gazette notice is published, the clock moves quickly.
The Revenue Side: Obligations That Don’t Switch Off on Their Own
Ceasing to trade doesn’t cancel your tax registrations — you have to do that deliberately. Revenue requires a formal cancellation request (Form TRCN1, or notification through ROS) for VAT, employer PAYE, and Corporation Tax registrations. Until that’s done, Revenue’s systems keep expecting returns.
VAT: a fixed penalty of €4,000 can apply for late or non-registration, non-submission of returns, or incomplete and incorrect returns — each treated as a separate default. Unpaid VAT accrues daily interest at approximately 0.0274% per day (roughly 10% annualised).
Income Tax, Corporation Tax and CGT: unpaid liabilities accrue daily interest at approximately 0.0219% per day.
Failure to pay or file outstanding returns after a registration is formally ceased can still result in penalties and interest for the periods up to the cessation date — cancelling the registration doesn’t erase what was already due.
These are not nominal late fees that fade away on their own. They compound the longer a business owner leaves the position unresolved, and Revenue’s enforcement has become considerably more systemised in the past year.
The CRO Side: The Filing Obligation That Survives Closure of the Business
Compliance Failure Table
Compliance failure
Cost / consequence
Late annual return (Form B1)
€100 + €3/day, capped at €1,200
Late filing (more than once in 5 years)
Loss of audit exemption for 2 years
Forced statutory audit after losing exemption
Approx. €2,000–€8,000 per year
Persistent non-filing
Involuntary strike-off proceedings
Company struck off / dissolved
Loss of limited liability protection
Beyond the direct fees, a strike-off record is permanent and public. It shows up in due diligence for future investment, financing, or directorships, and directors of dissolved companies can face disqualification proceedings brought by the Corporate Enforcement Authority in more serious cases. Restoring a struck-off company is possible — administrative restoration within twelve months of strike-off, or a High Court application after that — but both routes involve legal costs, accumulated penalties, and outstanding filings, all of which must be cleared before restoration is granted
Case Studies: Three Business Owners, Three Outcomes
Case Study 1 — The Ecommerce Founder Who Just Stopped
A Dublin-based Shopify seller closed their online shop after eighteen months, moved on to full-time employment, and assumed the company would ‘wind down on its own’ since there was no activity left. Two annual returns were missed. The CRO issued a statutory notice, then a Gazette notice, and the company was struck off and dissolved roughly five months later. The founder discovered this only when a supplier queried an old invoice — by then, restoring the company required a court application, accumulated late filing penalties, and legal fees that came to several times what a proper voluntary strike-off would have cost at the outset.
Case Study 2 — The Consultant Who Forgot to Deregister VAT
An IT contractor stopped trading through their limited company to take up a permanent role, but never submitted a VAT cancellation request. Revenue’s system continued to expect bi-monthly VAT returns. After several periods with no returns filed, fixed penalties and daily interest began accumulating on an account that had, in reality, no further business activity. The position was only resolved once the company engaged an accountant to formally cancel the VAT registration and negotiate the outstanding penalties — a process that took weeks and cost considerably more than the five-minute cancellation would have, had it been done at the time trading stopped.
Case Study 3 — The ‘Dormant’ Company That Wasn’t Filing
A holding company set up for a property investment sat dormant for three years while its director focused on other ventures, on the assumption that a dormant company had no filing obligations at all. In fact, the company had missed its CRO annual returns for two consecutive years. This triggered the loss of audit exemption for the following two years, meaning the eventual return to compliance required a full statutory audit of accounts that, in substance, contained almost no transactions — an audit bill running into thousands of euro for a company that had done, quite literally, nothing.
(These case studies are illustrative composites reflecting patterns we see regularly among Irish business owners, not individual clients.)
How to Close, Pause, or Keep a Company Compliant — Properly
Decide early whether you’re pausing (dormant) or ending (strike-off) — the obligations are different, and ‘I’ll figure it out later’ is how both get missed.
If dormant: hold a directors’ meeting to formally record the dormancy decision, and keep filing your annual return and nil CT1 every year without fail.
If ceasing trading permanently: cancel VAT, employer PAYE and any other Revenue registrations via TRCN1 or ROS, file final accounts and a final tax return, and settle any outstanding liabilities.
If closing the company entirely: use the voluntary strike-off process (Form H15) while the company is solvent and has no outstanding creditors — this is materially cheaper and faster than recovering from an involuntary strike-off later.
If you traded under a registered business name as a sole trader, notify the CRO of the closure within three months using Form RBN3.
Frequently Asked Questions
If my company isn’t trading, do I still need to file anything?
Yes. A dormant or non-trading company still must file its CRO annual return every year and submit a nil Corporation Tax return to Revenue. Only a company that has been properly struck off or dissolved has no further filing obligation.
Can I just let Revenue and the CRO strike the company off on their own?
You can, but it’s the most expensive way to close a business. Involuntary strike-off leaves accumulated penalties, a permanent public compliance record, and — if you need the company back — a restoration process that costs far more than a planned voluntary strike-off.
What happens to my personal liability if the company is struck off?
Limited liability protection ends on dissolution. If the business continues to operate in any form afterwards, it’s being carried on in a personal capacity, without the legal protection the company structure was providing.
I stopped trading as a sole trader — is there anything to file with the CRO?
Only if you registered a business name. In that case, you must notify the CRO of the closure within three months using Form RBN3. You’ll also need to notify Revenue and file a final Income Tax return.
Does cancelling my VAT registration clear penalties from before the cancellation?
No. Cancelling a registration stops future obligations; it doesn’t remove liability for returns or payments that were already due before the cessation date. Outstanding periods still need to be filed and settled.
Can a struck-off company be restored?
Usually yes. Administrative restoration is available within twelve months of strike-off provided all filings are brought up to date and penalties paid. After that window, restoration requires a High Court order, which involves legal costs and takes considerably longer.
What’s the cheapest way to avoid all of this?
Make the decision — dormant, wind down, or close — while the company is still in good standing, and act on it immediately rather than leaving it unresolved. Every one of the case studies above would have cost a fraction of the eventual bill if addressed in the first few months.
How Forti Helps
Whether a company is dormant, has stopped trading, or needs to be closed down properly, we handle the CRO filings and Revenue cancellations that keep the process clean — so it doesn’t turn into a strike-off, a forced audit, or a personal liability problem months down the line.
Talk to Forti Before You Walk AwayMonthly bookkeeping and management accounts from €195/month + VATIrish company formation, CRO fee included: €250Dormant company filings, VAT/PAYE deregistration and voluntary strike-off support available on request.
If you’re thinking about pausing, closing, or you’ve already stopped trading and aren’t sure what’s still outstanding, get in touch with the Forti team at forti.ie before the CRO or Revenue make the decision for you.
For Irish-based online sellers shipping to customers across the EU, VAT is rarely simple — and getting it wrong is one of the most expensive mistakes a growing ecommerce business can make.
Why Ecommerce VAT Trips Up Even Careful Founders
Most Irish ecommerce founders start out registered for VAT in Ireland and assume that covers them. It doesn’t — not once sales cross into other EU member states. The rules that determine where VAT is due, at what rate, and under which scheme change the moment a business starts selling cross-border, and Revenue’s enforcement of these rules has tightened considerably as EU-wide reporting has become more joined up.
The good news is that the framework, once understood, is manageable. The two things that matter most are knowing your registration thresholds and knowing whether the One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme is right for your business — and both of those depend heavily on which platform, or mix of platforms, you’re actually selling through.
Step One: Categorise Your Sales Channels
Before any registration decision can be made, you need to know which category each of your sales channels falls into. VAT treatment is not the same across Shopify, Amazon, eBay and Etsy — the platform’s role in the transaction changes who is legally responsible for charging and remitting VAT.
Your Own Storefront: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce
On a self-hosted or owned storefront, you are the vendor of record for every sale. There is no intermediary collecting VAT on your behalf. This means your checkout needs to determine the customer’s location, apply the correct VAT rate, and your business needs to report that sale under either standard Irish VAT or the OSS scheme, depending on where the buyer is based. Full responsibility — and full liability if it’s done incorrectly — sits with you.
Online Marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, Etsy
Marketplaces are treated differently under EU ‘deemed supplier’ rules introduced in 2021. For certain transactions — mainly consignments valued under €150 imported from outside the EU, and sales by non-EU sellers to EU consumers — the marketplace itself is deemed to be the supplier for VAT purposes and collects and remits the VAT instead of you. Critically, this does not apply to every transaction: EU-based sellers shipping EU-held stock to EU consumers are generally still responsible for their own VAT, even when the sale happens through Amazon or eBay. Assuming the marketplace ‘has it covered’ across the board is one of the most common — and costly — misconceptions we see.
Multi-Channel and Hybrid Sellers
Most growing Irish ecommerce businesses end up selling through more than one channel — a Shopify store for brand and margin, plus Amazon or Etsy for reach. This is entirely normal, but it means your VAT reporting has to be built channel-by-channel: some sales collected and remitted by the marketplace, others fully your responsibility, all feeding into a single, reconciled VAT position. Trying to manage this with a single blended assumption across all channels is where errors creep in.
Irish VAT Registration Thresholds
Ireland applies two separate thresholds depending on what you’re selling. Once your turnover in any continuous 12-month period exceeds the relevant figure, VAT registration in Ireland becomes mandatory.
Registration trigger
Irish threshold
Supply of services
€42,500
Supply of goods
€85,000
Many ecommerce sellers combine goods and services (for example, a product business that also sells digital add-ons or consulting), which is where the calculation gets more complex. It’s worth reviewing your revenue mix at least quarterly rather than waiting for a year-end surprise.
Which Registration Applies — and at What Revenue Level
Once you know your channel mix, the next question is which registration(s) you actually need. For most Irish ecommerce sellers, it isn’t one registration — it’s a combination that builds up as revenue and reach grow.
Irish domestic VAT registration — required once you cross €42,500 (services) or €85,000 (goods) in Irish-based turnover. This is your baseline registration regardless of where else you sell.
EU OSS (Union scheme) — required once your total cross-border B2C sales into other EU member states exceed €10,000 in a calendar year. Below that figure you may continue charging Irish VAT on those sales; above it, OSS (or local registration in each country) becomes necessary.
Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) — relevant if you import and sell goods valued at €150 or less directly to EU consumers from outside the EU. IOSS lets you charge VAT at the point of sale and avoid customers being hit with surprise import VAT on delivery.
Local country VAT registration — triggered independently of OSS the moment you store stock in another EU country, most commonly through Amazon FBA or a pan-EU fulfilment network. OSS covers the sale; it does not cover the stock movement or the fact that you now have a taxable presence in that country.
Intrastat — a separate statistical filing once your intra-EU goods movements pass the relevant threshold, regardless of your VAT or OSS status (covered in more detail below).
The practical implication: a Shopify-only seller under €10,000 in EU sales might need nothing beyond standard Irish VAT. The same business, once it starts using Amazon FBA with stock held in Germany, could simultaneously need Irish VAT, OSS, a German VAT registration and Intrastat reporting — four obligations arising from one growth decision. This is precisely why channel and fulfilment choices should be reviewed with your accountant before scaling, not after.
The One Stop Shop (OSS) Scheme, Explained
The OSS scheme was introduced to simplify EU VAT for cross-border sellers, and for most Irish ecommerce businesses selling B2C into other member states, it’s the better option than registering for VAT in every country you sell into.
One registration, filed through Revenue in Ireland, covers your VAT obligations across all EU member states where you sell to consumers.
You charge the VAT rate of the customer’s country, not Ireland’s, on qualifying cross-border B2C sales.
Returns are filed quarterly, consolidating all EU sales into a single OSS return rather than dozens of local filings.
OSS applies once your total cross-border B2C sales into other EU states exceed €10,000 in a calendar year (a separate, EU-wide distance-selling threshold from the Irish domestic thresholds above).
The trade-off is that OSS requires precise record-keeping: you need to track the customer’s country for every sale, apply the correct local VAT rate, and reconcile it all at quarter-end. This is where a lot of founders — perfectly capable of running the commercial side of the business — start to lose time and accuracy.
Don’t Forget Intrastat
If your ecommerce business moves physical goods across EU borders (holding stock in an overseas fulfilment centre is a common trigger), you may also have an Intrastat reporting obligation, separate from your VAT return. Intrastat tracks the physical movement of goods between EU member states for statistical purposes, and thresholds and filing frequency depend on your volume of intra-EU trade. It’s a common blind spot for sellers using pan-EU fulfilment models, since the obligation exists independently of whether you’re OSS-registered.
The Most Common Compliance Mistakes We See
Registering for VAT in Ireland but continuing to charge Irish VAT on cross-border B2C sales that should carry the customer’s local rate under OSS.
Missing the €10,000 EU-wide distance-selling threshold because it’s tracked separately from the Irish domestic thresholds.
Treating marketplace sales (Amazon, Etsy, eBay) as fully compliant by default — deemed supplier rules mean the marketplace may account for VAT on your behalf, but only for certain transaction types.
Overlooking Intrastat obligations when stock is held or moved through overseas warehouses.
Reconciling VAT annually instead of monthly, which turns small errors into large, hard-to-unwind ones.
Case Studies: Three Irish Sellers, Three Different Paths
Case Study 1 — Emerald Home Goods (Shopify, direct-to-consumer)
Emerald Home Goods sells homeware exclusively through its own Shopify store, shipping from a single warehouse in Dublin. As an owned-storefront seller, Emerald is the vendor of record for every transaction. Once EU sales (outside Ireland) passed €10,000 in a calendar year, Emerald registered for OSS through Revenue, allowing it to charge the correct local VAT rate for each EU customer through a single quarterly return rather than registering separately in each country. Because all stock stays in Ireland, no Intrastat or additional local VAT registrations were triggered — OSS alone covered the cross-border position.
Case Study 2 — CelticTech Gadgets (Amazon FBA, pan-EU fulfilment)
CelticTech Gadgets sells electronics accessories through Amazon, using Amazon’s pan-EU fulfilment network to hold stock in Germany and Poland for faster delivery. Because Amazon is the marketplace for these sales, deemed supplier rules meant Amazon collected and remitted VAT on qualifying transactions. However, storing stock in Germany and Poland created a taxable presence in each country, independent of Amazon’s role — meaning CelticTech needed local VAT registration in both, alongside its existing Irish VAT registration, and a monthly Intrastat filing to report the stock movements. OSS was not sufficient on its own because it doesn’t cover the cross-border movement of a seller’s own stock.
Case Study 3 — Aisling Crafts (Etsy and eBay, hobby to business)
Aisling Crafts began as a part-time Etsy shop selling handmade candles and grew into a registered business within eighteen months. Early sales stayed under both the Irish threshold and the €10,000 EU OSS threshold, so no VAT registration was required. As UK and EU orders grew, Aisling crossed the OSS threshold first, followed by the Irish domestic threshold shortly after. Because the business tracked its channel-by-channel revenue from the outset, both registrations were completed proactively rather than in response to a compliance query from Revenue — avoiding any late-registration penalties or backdated VAT exposure.
(Emerald Home Goods, CelticTech Gadgets and Aisling Crafts are illustrative composites based on common patterns we see across Irish ecommerce clients, not individual businesses.)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to register for VAT if I only sell within Ireland?
Only once your turnover exceeds the relevant Irish threshold — €42,500 for services or €85,000 for goods in any continuous 12-month period. Below that, registration is optional, though some businesses register voluntarily to reclaim VAT on costs.
If Amazon collects VAT on my sales, do I still need to register?
Possibly. Amazon’s deemed supplier rules only apply to specific transaction types — mainly low-value imports and non-EU seller sales. If you’re an Irish seller with EU-held stock, you very likely still carry the VAT obligation yourself, and may need OSS or local registration regardless of Amazon’s involvement.
Does OSS replace the need for Irish VAT registration?
No. OSS is an additional scheme for reporting cross-border B2C sales into other EU states. You still need standard Irish VAT registration once you exceed the domestic threshold, and OSS sits alongside it for EU sales beyond the €10,000 distance-selling threshold.
What happens if I store stock in another EU country?
Holding stock abroad — commonly through Amazon FBA or a European 3PL — generally creates a local VAT registration requirement in that country, along with an Intrastat obligation, regardless of your OSS status. This is one of the most frequently missed obligations for scaling sellers.
How often do OSS and Intrastat returns need to be filed?
OSS returns are filed quarterly. Intrastat filing frequency depends on your volume of intra-EU trade, but is typically monthly once the threshold is triggered.
What are the penalties for getting this wrong?
Penalties can include interest and fixed penalties on late or incorrect VAT, backdated liabilities if registration should have happened earlier, and in more serious cases, Revenue audit exposure. The cost of correcting a multi-country VAT position retrospectively is almost always higher than the cost of setting it up correctly from the start.
How Forti Helps Ecommerce Sellers Stay Compliant
This is exactly the kind of complexity we handle day-to-day for Irish ecommerce clients — from initial VAT and OSS registration through to ongoing monthly bookkeeping and quarterly OSS filings. We build the reporting so that country-by-country VAT is tracked correctly at the point of sale, not reconstructed under pressure at return time.
Work with Forti
Monthly bookkeeping and management accounts from €195/month + VAT
Irish company formation, CRO fee included: €250
VAT, OSS registration and Intrastat compliance built in for ecommerce clients
Every week, people search for some version of the same question: “Can I hire someone to open a company in Ireland for me?” The answer is yes — and it is simpler, faster, and more affordable than most people expect.
Whether you are a non-resident founder wanting an EU base, an IT contractor transitioning from PAYE, a returning emigrant setting up a consultancy, or an international business establishing an Irish subsidiary — Forti Accountants handles the entire formation and compliance process on your behalf. You do not attend an office. You do not fill in CRO forms. You do not call Revenue. We do all of it.
Why Most People Want Someone Else to Handle This
Irish company formation is not technically complex — but it is time-consuming, procedurally specific, and easy to get wrong if you are not familiar with how the Companies Registration Office (CRO) and Revenue operate. The typical DIY journey involves:
Researching CRO requirements and choosing the correct company type
Drafting and filing a Constitution (previously called a Memorandum and Articles of Association)
Selecting and registering a company name, including conflict checks against the CRO register
Appointing at least one EEA-resident director — or arranging a Section 137 bond if non-EEA
Registering a company registered address in Ireland (a physical address, not a PO Box)
Filing Form A1 with the CRO — the primary incorporation document
Registering with Revenue for Corporation Tax, VAT, and Employer PAYE
Opening a business bank account — which itself requires certified company documents
Setting up payroll, bookkeeping, and real-time Revenue reporting (ERR) systems
Each step involves specific forms, reference numbers, and processing timelines. A single error — a misspelt director name, an incorrect PPSN, a missing signature field — can delay incorporation by weeks. For someone running a business or operating from abroad, this is not the best use of their time.
The Core Reason People Outsource Formation
It is not that the process is impossible. It is that the cost of getting it wrong — delays, incorrect registrations, compliance gaps from day one — far exceeds the cost of having a specialist handle it correctly the first time.
What “We Handle Everything” Actually Means
When Forti says we handle everything, that is a precise statement. Below is every task Forti manages on your behalf as part of a full company formation engagement:
Task
Handled by
When
Company name search and reservation
✔ Forti
Day 1
Constitution drafting (company rules document)
✔ Forti
Day 1
Form A1 preparation and CRO filing
✔ Forti
Day 1–2
Registered address provision (if needed)
✔ Forti
Day 1
EEA director arrangement (if applicable)
✔ Forti
Day 1–3
Revenue — Corporation Tax registration (TR2)
✔ Forti
Post-CRO
Revenue — VAT registration
✔ Forti
Post-CRO
Revenue — Employer PAYE registration
✔ Forti
Post-CRO
ROS (Revenue Online Service) setup
✔ Forti
Post-CRO
Xero cloud accounting setup + bank feed
✔ Forti
Week 1
Payroll system setup + first payrun
✔ Forti
Week 1–2
Bank account referral and documentation pack
✔ Forti
Week 1
Director’s service agreement template
✔ Forti
Week 1
Ongoing compliance calendar + deadline reminders
✔ Forti
Ongoing
Your role in the process is limited to: providing your personal details, signing completed documents electronically, and attending a single onboarding call of approximately 30–45 minutes. Everything else is handled by Forti.
The Step-by-Step Process — From First Call to Trading
Here is exactly what happens once you engage Forti to handle your company formation:
Free consultation call (Day 0)
A 30-minute call with your Forti accountant to understand your business type, revenue model, expected income, client base, and whether you need VAT registration, multiple directors, or specialist structure. No cost, no obligation.
Information collection (Day 1)
Forti sends you a short secure onboarding form — your full legal name, date of birth, home address, PPSN (or foreign tax identifier), and proposed company name preferences. This takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.
Name check and CRO filing (Day 1–2)
Forti searches the CRO register for conflicts, confirms your preferred name, drafts the Constitution, prepares Form A1, and files with the CRO electronically. Standard CRO processing takes 3–5 business days. Expedited processing (same-day) is available at an additional CRO fee of €50.
Certificate of Incorporation issued (Day 5–7)
The CRO issues your Certificate of Incorporation with your unique Company Registration Number (CRN). Forti receives it on your behalf and sends you a copy immediately.
Revenue registrations (Day 7–10)
Using your CRN, Forti registers the company with Revenue for Corporation Tax, VAT (if applicable), and Employer PAYE. Revenue assigns your Tax Reference Number (TRN). Forti handles all ROS access setup.
Banking and accounting setup (Week 2)
Forti provides a bank referral letter and full documentation pack for your business bank account application. Simultaneously, your Xero cloud accounting environment is set up with automated bank feeds.
Payroll and first invoice (Week 2)
Your director salary is configured on payroll and your first payslip is processed. If billing clients from day one, Forti provides an invoice template with your company number, VAT number, and correct Irish payment terms.
You start trading — Forti handles everything else
From this point, Forti manages your ongoing compliance: bi-monthly VAT returns, monthly payroll, annual financial statements, corporation tax return, and ERR reporting. You focus on your work.
Typical Timeline
From your first call to a fully operational company — registered with the CRO and Revenue, with accounting and payroll set up — takes approximately 10–14 business days in standard cases. Expedited CRO formation can issue your Certificate of Incorporation within 24 hours of filing.
Setting Up Remotely — No Irish Address Required
One of the most common questions from international enquirers: “Do I need to be in Ireland to set up the company?” The answer is no. Forti has completed formations entirely remotely for clients in the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK, across the EU, and the Middle East.
The Non-EEA Director Requirement
Irish company law requires at least one director ordinarily resident in an EEA country. If you are not EEA-resident, two compliant solutions are available:
Section 137 bond: A €25,000 insurance bond placed with a registered insurer — Forti arranges this on your behalf.
Nominee EEA director: Forti can refer you to a compliant nominee director service. The nominee has no operational control — they exist solely to satisfy the legal requirement.
Registered Address in Ireland
Every Irish company must have a registered address in Ireland — a physical address where CRO and Revenue correspondence is received. Forti provides a registered address service as part of the formation package. All correspondence received is scanned and forwarded to you digitally on the day of receipt.
Fully Remote Formation — What You Need to Provide
To set up an Irish company remotely through Forti, you need:
(1) a government-issued photo ID;
(2) proof of your home address;
(3) your PPSN if you have one — or a foreign tax identification number;
(4) approximately 10 minutes to complete an online form.
Everything else is handled by Forti.
Case Studies: Two Real Formation Stories
The following case studies are based on composite client profiles from Forti’s formation client base. Names and details have been fictionalised. Financial outcomes are realistic representations under current Irish Revenue rules.
1. Łukasz — Polish-born Software Engineer, Remote Formation from Warsaw
14 days
Call to trading
€700/day
Contract day rate
0
Forms filled by Łukasz
Łukasz is a senior DevOps engineer who moved from Ireland to Warsaw in 2022 after his employer went fully remote. In early 2026, he secured a contract with a Dublin-based fintech paying €700 per day. The client required him to invoice through an Irish-registered entity — either an umbrella company or his own limited company.
Background
Łukasz had no Irish address, no Irish bank account, and had not used his PPSN in several years. He had never formed a company before. He found Forti through an online search and booked a free consultation the same day.
What Forti handled
Confirmed Łukasz’s PPSN was still active with Revenue
Provided a registered Irish address for the company
Filed Form A1 with the CRO — Certificate of Incorporation issued in 4 business days
Registered the company for Corporation Tax and VAT with Revenue
Set up Xero with automated bank feeds linked to his Wise Business account
Issued his first invoice template — he sent it to his client on day 14
Key Complexity Resolved
Łukasz’s client required a VAT number on the invoice. Because his annual billing would exceed €40,000 from a single Irish client, VAT registration was mandatory. Forti registered the company for VAT within 5 days of the Certificate of Incorporation — meaning there was no delay to his first invoice.
Results after 12 months
Metric
Outcome
Gross annual revenue (200 days @ €700)
€140,000
Director salary extracted
€42,000
Employer PRSA contribution
€40,000
Corporation tax paid
€6,100
PSS surcharge
€0
Forms filled by Łukasz personally
0
Forti monthly fee
€195 + VAT
“I genuinely had no idea how to set up an Irish company from abroad. I assumed it would take months and involve a solicitor. Forti had it done in two weeks and I never had to travel to Ireland once. The whole thing was done over email and one video call.”
— Łukasz, DevOps Engineer, client since January 2026
2. Sinéad — Irish Marketing Consultant, Transitioning from Agency to Freelance
7 days
Call to incorporated
€95k
Year-one revenue
3
Active clients by month 3
Background
Sinéad spent eight years as a senior digital marketing manager at a Dublin agency before going independent in late 2025. She had two clients lined up and a clear service offering — brand strategy and performance media for Irish SMEs. Her projected year-one revenue was €90,000–€100,000.
Sinéad’s concern was not whether to form a company — she knew she needed one. It was about getting it right: the correct structure, the right VAT setup, and a system that would keep her compliant without consuming her time. A contractor friend referred her to Forti.
What Forti handled
Advised on optimal company structure — single-director LTD was appropriate
Confirmed VAT registration was required from day one given projected revenue
Filed Form A1 — Certificate of Incorporation issued in 7 business days
Registered for Corporation Tax, VAT (23%), and Employer PAYE with Revenue
Set up Xero with automated expense capture via Hubdoc
Configured payroll for a monthly director salary of €3,500 (€42,000 per annum)
Prepared client contract template and invoice template with correct Irish VAT wording
“What I valued most was that Forti didn’t just set up the company and disappear. They explained what I should be paying myself, when to think about pension contributions, and what to do at year-end — before those decisions became urgent. That proactive advice is what I was really paying for.”
— Sinéad, Marketing Consultant, client since November 2025
What It Costs — Transparent Pricing
Forti‘s formation and ongoing accounting fees are straightforward. There are no hidden charges, no surprise add-ons, and no annual fee hikes without notice.
Service
Fee
Notes
Initial consultation
Free
30–45 minute call, no obligation
Company formation (CRO filing + all Revenue registrations)
€200 + VAT
One-off. Includes name search, Form A1, TR2, VAT & PAYE registration
CRO standard processing fee
€50
Paid directly to CRO — not a Forti charge
Expedited CRO processing (same-day)
€100 additional
Optional — Certificate within 24 hours of filing
Registered office address (if needed)
€450/year + VAT
Includes scanning and digital forwarding of all correspondence
Section 137 bond (non-EEA directors)
At cost
Forti manages — typically €1,500–€2,000 first year
A qualified accountant charges €150–€300 per hour. Correct company formation — name checks, Constitution drafting, CRO filing, and all Revenue registrations — typically takes 4–6 hours of professional time. Forti’s flat formation fee of €200 + VAT represents significant value versus hourly billing, and eliminates the risk of errors that delay your trading start date.
10 Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do I need to be in Ireland to form an Irish company?
No. The entire formation process can be completed remotely. Forti handles all CRO filings and Revenue registrations electronically. You will need to provide proof of identity and address, sign documents electronically, and complete a short online information form. No in-person attendance is required at any stage. Forti has completed formations for clients based in the US, UK, Poland, UAE, Australia, and across the EU — all without the client setting foot in Ireland.
2. How long does it take to form an Irish company?
The CRO’s standard processing time is currently 3–5 business days from the date of filing. Once Forti has your information (typically day one of engagement), Form A1 is filed that day or the next. Your Certificate of Incorporation typically arrives within 5–7 business days. Expedited CRO processing is available for an additional €50 fee, issuing the Certificate within 24 hours. Revenue registrations follow and are typically completed within a further 5 business days. Total time from first contact to fully operational: approximately 10–14 business days.
3. What type of company should I form?
For the vast majority of Irish contractors, consultants, and small business owners, a Private Company Limited by Shares (LTD) is the correct structure. It requires a minimum of one director and one shareholder (who can be the same person), has no minimum share capital requirement, and benefits from the 12.5% Corporation Tax rate on trading profits. Forti will confirm the right structure during your initial consultation — in some cases a DAC or CLG may be more appropriate, and Forti will explain why.
4. I don’t have an Irish address — can I still form a company?
Yes. Every Irish company must have a registered address in Ireland where official CRO and Revenue correspondence is received. If you do not have an Irish address, Forti provides a registered address service at €450 per year + VAT. All official correspondence received is scanned and forwarded to you digitally on the day of receipt. This is entirely standard practice used by thousands of Irish companies.
5. Do I need a PPSN to form an Irish company?
Directors of Irish companies are required to provide a PPS number when registering with Revenue. If you are an Irish citizen or previously worked in Ireland, you will already have a PPSN — Forti can verify it is still active. If you have never held a PPSN and are not resident in Ireland, Revenue accepts foreign tax identifiers for non-resident directors. Forti navigates this process on your behalf.
6. What is the difference between company formation and company registration?
In common usage the terms are interchangeable. Technically, ‘formation’ describes the legal act of creating the company entity (CRO filing and Certificate of Incorporation), while ‘registration’ refers to the broader combined process of formation plus Revenue tax registrations. When Forti handles your formation, both are included: CRO filing and all Revenue registrations are managed as a single, complete process for the one flat fee.
7. Can Forti set up a company for me if I already have a UK company?
Yes — this is a common scenario since Brexit. Many UK-based businesses want an Irish (and therefore EU) entity for regulatory reasons, EU client relationships, or EU procurement access. Forti handles this as a standard formation. Your Irish company will be a separate legal entity from your UK company, with its own CRN, tax reference, and bank account. Forti can also advise on intercompany arrangements and transfer pricing considerations.
8. What ongoing responsibilities do I have after the company is formed?
An Irish LTD has several annual compliance obligations: filing an Annual Return with the CRO; submitting a Corporation Tax return (CT1) within 9 months of your financial year-end; filing VAT returns (bi-monthly for most companies); running monthly payroll; and meeting Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR) for employee expenses in real time. All of the above are managed by Forti as part of the monthly service. You will never miss a filing deadline.
9. What happens if my company doesn’t trade for a while after formation?
A company that is not yet trading is known as a dormant company. Dormant companies still have Annual Return obligations with the CRO — failure to file results in late fees and, ultimately, the company being struck off the register. Revenue obligations are suspended during dormancy but must be formally notified to Revenue. Forti manages dormancy status on your behalf — we notify Revenue, file nil returns where required, and ensure your company remains in good standing.
10. Why use Forti rather than an online company formation service?
Online formation services typically file your Form A1 and stop there — you receive a Certificate of Incorporation and are left to handle Revenue registrations, VAT, payroll, accounting, and ongoing compliance yourself. Forti’s formation service is the beginning of a complete, managed accounting relationship. We handle the CRO filing, all Revenue registrations, Xero setup, payroll configuration, and ongoing monthly compliance — under one fee, with one point of contact, and with proactive tax planning built in from day one.
Ireland’s technology sector is booming. Software engineers, DevOps architects, data engineers, and product managers are commanding daily rates between €550 and €850+ — figures that permanently employed peers rarely see reflected in their monthly payslips.
This guide cuts through the jargon and shows you exactly what the numbers look like — whether you’re weighing up your first contract or optimising an existing limited company structure.
The Mindset Shift: Permanent Employee vs. IT Contractor
The most significant barrier between a talented technologist and the contractor life is not technical — it is psychological. Permanent employment offers guaranteed salary, employer pension, sick pay, and the comfortable illusion of job security. But here is the reality: the permanent contract is, in many ways, a wealth-limiting arrangement.
As a contractor, you reclaim the margin your employer captures on your skills — and the Irish tax system, when navigated correctly, allows you to keep far more of it.
From Trading Time for Salary to Selling Expertise at Market Rate
A permanent employee earning €85,000 per year takes home approximately €57,000 net after income tax, USC, and PRSI. That is it, regardless of the revenue your skills generate for your employer. An IT contractor billing €650 per day over 220 working days generates €143,000 in gross company revenue. Through a properly structured Personal Limited Company, the same individual can retain significantly more after-tax wealth and simultaneously build a substantial pension fund.
What Autonomy Actually Looks Like
Control over your rate — your skills have a market price; contracting lets you charge it
Tax efficiency through structure — your company pays 12.5% corporation tax, not your marginal income tax rate
Asset accumulation — your LTD becomes a vehicle for pension wealth and retained earnings
Flexibility — between contracts you choose: breaks, upskilling, travel
The shift from employee to contractor is not about risk tolerance — it is about recognising that you already take on risk as a PAYE worker (redundancy, restructuring, stagnant pay reviews), but receive none of the financial upside in return.
Business Structures: Umbrella Company vs. Personal LTD
Once you decide to contract, the next decision is how to structure your business. In Ireland, there are two primary routes. Neither is universally ‘right’ — the optimal choice depends on your income level, time horizon, and financial goals.
Comparison at a Glance
Factor
Umbrella Company
Personal LTD Company
Setup Speed
✔ Same day
2–5 business days
Admin Burden
✔ Very low — managed
Moderate — needs accountant
PRSI Class
✔ Class A (employee)
Class S (director)
Tax Efficiency
✘ Low — taxed as PAYE
✔ High — 12.5% CT rate
Pension Options
~ Limited personal only
✔ Unlimited employer PRSA
Expense Deductions
✘ Very limited
✔ Full business expenses
Wealth Building
✘ Minimal
✔ Significant potential
Ownership & Control
✘ None — umbrella employs you
✔ Full company ownership
Best Suited For
Short-term / first contracts
Consistent income >€80k p.a.
The Umbrella Company Route
An umbrella company acts as your employer of record. They invoice your end client or agency, deduct income tax, USC, and PRSI (Class A), and pay you a net salary — keeping a fee for the service.
The appeal: zero administrative overhead, instant start, and you retain access to Class A PRSI — maintaining entitlement to Jobseeker’s Benefit between contracts and contributing toward state pension eligibility.
The trade-off: you will be taxed at the marginal income tax rate (up to 40% + USC + PRSI) on almost all your contractor income. For a contractor billing €600/day, this typically results in significantly lower after-tax income compared to an LTD structure.
UMBRELLA COMPANIES: A WORD OF CAUTION
Not all umbrella companies are created equal. Some make claims about tax efficiency that are not compliant with Irish Revenue rules. Always verify that your umbrella company operates a fully PAYE-compliant model and is registered with Revenue as an employer.
The Personal Limited Company (LTD)
For contractors billing at sustained rates of €80,000 per annum or above, incorporating a Personal Limited Company is almost always the more financially intelligent structure. You become a director and shareholder of your own company. The company invoices clients, collects revenue, and pays 12.5% corporation tax on its profits.
Corporation Tax rate: 12.5% on trading profits (versus up to 52% marginal PAYE rate)
Salary extraction: Pay yourself efficiently, leveraging personal tax credits
Compliance is not optional. Understanding the rules protects your contracting income, your business, and your reputation. In 2026, three areas demand particular attention from IT contractors in Ireland.
The Karshan Case (2023) & Employment Status
In 2023, the Irish Supreme Court delivered its landmark judgment in Karshan (Midlands) Ltd v Revenue Commissioners. The court affirmed a five-step framework to distinguish genuine self-employment from what Revenue terms ‘disguised employment.
1. Mutual Obligation — Does the client have an obligation to offer work, and do you have an obligation to accept it? A genuine contractor can decline assignments. If you must accept whatever is offered, this suggests employment.
2. Substitution — Can you send a qualified substitute to perform the work in your place? If yes — and this right exists in practice — it strongly indicates self-employment.
3. Control — Does the client dictate how you work (tools, methods, hours), or do they simply define the outcome required? Genuine contractors control their own working methods.
4. Integration — Are you integral to the client’s business — on their systems, org chart, attending internal meetings as an employee would? Genuine contractors remain external service providers.
5. Economic Reality — Do you bear genuine financial risk? Do you invest in your own equipment, market services to multiple clients, and stand to profit or lose based on efficiency?
Risk: Reclassification
If Revenue determines that your contracting arrangement is effectively disguised
employment, the consequences can be severe — back-payment of PAYE, PRSI, and USC
with interest and penalties. Your contract and working practices must genuinely
reflect self-employment. The substance of the arrangement matters, not just the
paperwork.
The Professional Services Surcharge (PSS)
The Professional Services Surcharge is one of the most frequently misunderstood — and most expensive when mismanaged — elements of Irish contractor taxation.
Under Section 441 TCA 1997, a 15% surcharge applies to 50% of the undistributed trading income of a company providing professional services in a given accounting year. In plain terms: if your company earns significant profits and you leave them sitting in the company without extracting them or directing them to a pension, Revenue will levy an additional 15% charge on half of those retained profits — on top of the 12.5% corporation tax already paid.
How to Manage the PSS Effectively
Extract a reasonable salary — reduces retained profits and PSS exposure
Maximise employer PRSA contributions — reduces company profit before CT, directly reducing the PSS base (the single most powerful tool)
Pay dividends strategically — distributing profits reduces the ‘undistributed’ element subject to the surcharge
Time your year-end carefully — the PSS is calculated per accounting year; plan extractions before year-end
Work with a proactive accountant — the PSS is entirely avoidable with proper planning
Expenses & Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR)
Since 1 January 2024, Revenue’s Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR) mandate that employers — including director/shareholders of personal LTD companies — report certain expense payments to Revenue in real time via ROS.
The golden rule for business expenses remains unchanged: costs must be incurred wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for the purposes of the trade.
Expense Category
Deductible?
Notes
Professional indemnity & liability insurance
✔ Yes
Required by most contracts — fully deductible
Laptop, monitor, peripherals
✔ Yes
Capital allowances: 12.5% p.a. over 8 years
Software & SaaS subscriptions (business)
✔ Yes
Must be for business use — document this
Home office (heat, light, broadband)
~ Partial
Revenue e-worker flat rate or apportionment
Travel to client site (not home to office)
✔ Yes
Civil service mileage rates — must be logged
Professional development & training
✔ Yes
Relevant courses, certifications, conferences
Accountancy & legal fees
✔ Yes
Fully deductible as a business operating cost
Client entertainment / meals
✗ No
Revenue does not allow entertainment expenses
Commuting (home to regular workplace)
✗ No
Personal cost — not a business deduction
ERR Compliance in 2026
From 2024 onwards, Revenue ERR requires real-time digital reporting
of employee benefits and certain expense payments via ROS — before or
on the date the payment is made. Penalties apply for non-compliance.
Forti’s automated Xero-integrated workflows handle ERR reporting as standard.
The Numbers: Earning Potential & Wealth Building
Let’s put figures on what the contractor structure actually means. The following comparison uses realistic 2026 figures for a senior Irish IT professional — software engineer or architect level, 8–12 years of experience.
Scenario: Permanent PAYE vs. IT Contractor LTD (Same Skill Level)
Metric
PAYE Employee (€85k)
IT Contractor LTD (€650/day)
Gross annual income
€85,000 salary
€143,000 billing (€650×220)
Income tax & USC
~€24,720
Salary only: ~€12,000
PRSI
~€3,040
Director Class S: ~€5,700
Employer PRSA contribution
€4,250 (employer 5%)
€40,000 (unlimited, no BIK)
Corporation tax
N/A
~€6,400 on balance
Annual net cash take-home
~€57,240
~€34,200 net salary
Total annual wealth created
~€61,490
~€96,000+ (cash + pension)
Advantage vs. PAYE
—
+€34,500 per year
* Figures are illustrative based on 2026 Revenue bands. Individual circumstances and allowable deductions will vary. Always seek personalised advice from a tax-focused accountant.
Key Market Figures — IT Contracting in Ireland, 2026
Typical IT contractor daily rate in Dublin: €550 – €850+
Irish Corporation Tax rate on trading profits: 12.5%
Employer PRSA contributions: Unlimited (no BIK since Finance Act 2023)
Marginal PAYE rate (income tax + USC + PRSI): up to 52%
The PRSA Revolution: Tax-Free Wealth Through Your Company
The 2023 Finance Act delivered a game-changing provision for IT contractors. From 1 January 2023, employer contributions to an employee’s PRSA are no longer subject to the Benefit in Kind caps that historically limited their effectiveness.
In practical terms, your limited company can now pay any amount into your PRSA as an employer contribution. These contributions are:
Fully deductible against your company’s corporation tax liability
Not subject to Benefit in Kind — no income tax, USC, or PRSI arises on you
Growing tax-free within the pension fund until retirement
Accessible from age 60 with up to 25% as a tax-free lump sum
The Pension Advantage In Numbers
€40,000 contributed to a PRSA by your LTD as an employer contribution
costs the company approximately €40,000 (reducing its CT liability by
€5,000). The same €40,000 extracted as salary would be subject to up
to 52% marginal tax — costing nearly €20,800 in personal tax. The
pension route is, in many scenarios, 2x more capital-efficient.
Accountancy Fee Price Guide — Ireland 2026
One of the most common questions from contractors considering a personal LTD is: how much does proper contractor accounting actually cost? The honest answer is: less than you think, and far less than the value it delivers.
Full-service LTD contractor accounting in Ireland — covering VAT returns, monthly payroll, bookkeeping, year-end financial statements, and corporation tax returns — typically ranges from €150 to €250+ per month plus VAT.
Service Comparison
Service
Market Range
Forti Accountants
VAT returns (bi-monthly)
✓ Basic
✓ Full + Revenue ERR
Payroll processing
✓ Director only
✓ Salary + dividend optimised
Bookkeeping
Basic
✓ Xero real-time cloud
ERR compliance (2024+)
✗ Not included
✓ Included as standard
Year-end accounts + CT1
✓
✓
PSS & pension planning
✗ Reactive only
✓ Proactive quarterly review
Karshan status review
✗
✓ Contract review included
Dedicated tech-specialist
✗ Shared team
✓ Named accountant
Typical monthly cost
€150–€200 +VAT
From €195 +VAT
Why Technology Makes the Difference
Not all accountancy practices are equal — and the difference is rarely in the technical knowledge. It is in the systems, responsiveness, and whether your accountant is reactive (catching problems after the fact) or proactive (preventing them and actively growing your wealth).
Forti Accountants is built specifically for Ireland’s technology professional sector — software engineers, DevOps leads, data architects, and tech founders across Dublin and remote-first roles.
Xero-integrated bookkeeping — real-time P&L, VAT position, and cash flow visibility at any moment
Automated digital workflows — expense capture via Hubdoc, automated bank feeds, digital approval
Proactive tax planning — quarterly review calls to optimise salary, pension, and dividend timing
ERR compliance built in — all required real-time Revenue reporting handled as standard
A contractor billing €143,000 annually who avoids the PSS through
proper pension planning typically saves €6,000–€10,000 per year in
unnecessary surcharge. Forti’s service from €195/month costs €2,340
per year — the proactive planning alone delivers a net return of
3×–4× the accountancy fee before counting additional corporation
tax savings.
🚀
Initial Setup
(First 6 Months)
UMBRELLA COMPANY
✓
Zero administrative setup required
€
Income taxed entirely under PAYE
📄
Retained only ~51% of gross earnings
➜
📈
Optimised Transition
PERSONAL LTD COMPANY
🏢
Set up via Forti & Xero
%
Taxed at 12.5% CT rate
↗
Net wealth retention >72%
Client Case Studies & FAQs
Real-world contractor outcomes & expert answers — Forti Accountants, June 2026
The following case studies are based on composite client profiles from Forti’s contractor client base. Names and identifying details have been fictionalised. Financial figures are realistic representations of outcomes achievable under current Irish Revenue rules. The FAQs address the questions we hear most frequently from IT professionals considering or already operating through a limited company.
From Permanent Dev to €130k Contractor: Ciarán’s Story
€85,000
Previous PAYE salary
€650/day
Contracting day rate
+€38,400
Additional annual wealth
Background
Ciarán is a senior software engineer with eleven years of experience, specialising in cloud-native architecture on AWS and Azure. In early 2024, his employer — a Dublin-based fintech — announced a restructuring that eliminated his role. Rather than accept the first permanent offer that came his way, Ciarán contacted Forti to explore whether contracting was a viable path.
At the time, Ciarán was earning €85,000 per year in a permanent PAYE role. His net monthly take-home after income tax, USC, and PRSI was approximately €4,700. He had a modest PRSA with €42,000 accumulated over eight years — largely because his employer’s contributions were the minimum 3% and he had not made significant personal top-ups.
The Challenge
Ciarán’s hesitations were typical of a first-time contractor. He worried about the administrative burden of running a company, was unclear on the tax implications, and was concerned about losing his Class A PRSI entitlement — particularly Jobseeker’s Benefit protection between contracts.
After a detailed free consultation with Forti, it became clear that Ciarán’s skills were in extremely high demand in the Dublin contract market, with day rates for his profile ranging from €620 to €720. We walked him through the Karshan employment status framework, the Personal LTD structure, and modelled the difference between umbrella and LTD routes at his income level. The numbers made the decision straightforward.
The Solution: Personal LTD + Aggressive PRSA Strategy
Forti incorporated Ciarán’s company — CKD Tech Solutions Ltd — within four business days of engagement. We registered for VAT (standard 23% on IT services), set up payroll, and onboarded him to Xero with automated bank feeds from his company current account.
The key insight from Ciarán’s tax planning session was that he had significant scope to use employer PRSA contributions to rebuild his pension fund rapidly — something the post-2023 Finance Act changes made dramatically more effective. We structured his extraction as follows:
Annual director salary: €42,000 — efficiently utilising personal tax credits and standard rate band
Employer PRSA contribution: €45,000 per year — fully deductible for the company, zero BIK on Ciarán
Retained profit in company: managed below PSS threshold through salary + pension extraction
VAT billing: registered and filing bi-monthly returns via ROS — managed entirely by Forti
ERR compliance: all expense payments reported in real time via automated Xero workflow
Karshan Compliance Check
Ciarán’s contracts with his two clients were reviewed by Forti against the five-step Karshan framework. We confirmed:
(1) no mutual obligation — he works project-by-project;
(2) right of substitution is included in his contracts;
(3) he supplies his own MacBook Pro and cloud tooling;
(4) he bills via company invoice, not staff email;
(5) he carries professional indemnity insurance of €1m and bears genuine financial risk.
His self-employed status is robust.
Results After 12 Months
Metric
Outcome
Gross company revenue (220 days @ €650)
€143,000
Net annual salary extracted (after tax)
€34,100
Employer PRSA contribution (tax-free wealth)
+€45,000
Corporation tax paid
€6,200
PSS surcharge
€0 — fully avoided through planning
Total annual wealth created (cash + pension)
~€79,100
vs. previous PAYE net + employer pension
+€17,600 additional per year
PRSA fund balance after 12 months
€87,000 (incl. prior + investment growth)
Forti monthly fee
€195 + VAT
Beyond the numbers, Ciarán reported that the Xero dashboard transformed his relationship with his company finances. For the first time, he could see his corporation tax liability in real time — meaning no year-end surprises. Quarterly planning calls with Forti ensured that dividend timing and salary levels were always optimised before deadlines, not after them.
Ciarán’s Take
“I put off contracting for two years because I thought the admin would be overwhelming.
Forti made it completely straightforward. I now earn significantly more, my pension is
growing faster than it ever did in permanent employment, and I have more control over
my working life. The free consultation was the best phone call I made in 2024.”
Optimising an Existing LTD: Aoife’s PSS Wake-Up Call
€8,400
PSS saved in year one
€750/day
Current day rate
€55,000
Pension contribution, year 1
Aoife is a Data Architect with fourteen years of experience, working primarily in the financial services and insurance sector. She has been contracting through her own limited company — Aoife Brennan Data Consulting Ltd — for six years, having made the transition from a permanent role in 2019 at a rate of €580 per day.
By early 2025, Aoife’s rate had grown to €750 per day and her company was generating approximately €165,000 in annual revenue. She had been using a general accounting practice for her annual returns and had assumed her affairs were in good order. A conversation with a fellow contractor at a Dublin tech meetup prompted her to reach out to Forti for a second opinion.
The Problem: An Avoidable Tax Leak
When Forti reviewed Aoife’s prior year accounts, three issues were immediately apparent.
Professional Services Surcharge: Aoife’s previous accountant had not structured her profit extraction to avoid the PSS. In the prior tax year, she had paid €8,400 in PSS that was entirely avoidable — money that should have gone into her pension fund instead.
Suboptimal salary level: She was drawing a salary of €60,000 — well above the efficient extraction level — pushing a significant portion of her income into the 40% tax band unnecessarily, when a lower salary combined with pension contributions and dividends would have been more efficient.
No employer PRSA in place: Despite the 2023 Finance Act changes removing BIK limits on employer PRSA contributions, her previous accountant had not set up an employer PRSA arrangement. Aoife had been making personal PRSA contributions from her after-tax salary — by far the least efficient route.
THE COST OF REACTIVE ACCOUNTING
In Aoife’s case, the combination of avoidable PSS, suboptimal salary extraction,
and the absence of an employer PRSA arrangement meant she had effectively overpaid
— in unnecessary tax and foregone pension efficiency — by an estimated €18,000–€22,000
in a single year. This is not unusual. Many contractors with existing LTDs are in
the same position without realising it.
The Solution: Restructure, PRSA Setup, and Ongoing Planning
Forti took over Aoife’s company accounting from the beginning of her new financial year. The restructuring involved several immediate changes:
Salary reduced to €42,000: efficiently uses personal credits and stays within the standard rate band
Employer PRSA established: Aoife’s company now makes annual employer PRSA contributions of €55,000 — zero BIK, fully CT-deductible
PSS exposure eliminated: with profits correctly routed through salary and pension, retained undistributed income is now managed below the level at which the surcharge becomes significant
Xero migration: Aoife’s bookkeeping moved to real-time Xero cloud accounting — giving her live visibility on VAT position, director loan account, and CT liability at all times
ERR compliance activated: all expense payments, including her monthly home office allowance and client travel, are now reported in real time in compliance with 2024 Revenue ERR rules
Quarterly review calls: Forti conducts a structured Q4 planning session each October to optimise year-end extraction before the company’s financial year closes
Results: Year One with Forti
Metric
Outcome
Gross company revenue (220 days @ €750)
€165,000
Director salary (tax-efficient level)
€42,000
Net salary after tax
~€34,100
Employer PRSA contribution
+€55,000
Corporation tax on remaining profit
~€7,100
PSS surcharge
€0 — eliminated vs. €8,400 prior year
Total wealth created (cash + pension)
~€89,100
Improvement vs. prior accountant setup
+€26,000 in year one
Cumulative pension fund (after restructure)
€142,000 and growing
Aoife’s case is a reminder that having a limited company is only the starting point. The real wealth-building potential of an IT contractor LTD is unlocked through ongoing, proactive tax planning — not annual compliance filing.
10 Questions IT Contractors Ask Forti Most
Should I use an umbrella company or set up my own limited company?
For contractors earning consistently above €80,000–€100,000 per year, a Personal Limited Company almost always delivers significantly better financial outcomes. The umbrella route taxes your income at the same marginal PAYE rates as a permanent employee — up to 52% — with no opportunity to retain profits at the 12.5% corporation tax rate or make tax-efficient employer pension contributions. The umbrella does retain Class A PRSI (useful for Jobseeker’s Benefit between contracts), which is a genuine benefit for early-stage or intermittent contractors. If you are testing contracting for the first time or taking a single short-term contract, umbrella can be a practical starting point. But for anyone planning to contract consistently for more than 12 months at market IT rates, the limited company is almost always the right structure.
How much does it cost to set up a limited company in Ireland?
Incorporating a private limited company through the Companies Registration Office (CRO) costs €50 online. In practice, your accountant will typically handle the incorporation as part of their onboarding — Forti includes company formation, VAT registration, PAYE employer registration, and Xero setup within the initial onboarding process. There is no additional charge for setup beyond the standard CRO filing fee. The ongoing cost is your monthly accountancy fee — Forti’s full-service LTD management starts from €195 per month plus VAT, which covers VAT returns, payroll, bookkeeping, ERR compliance, year-end accounts, and corporation tax return.
What is the Professional Services Surcharge and do I need to worry about it?
The Professional Services Surcharge (PSS) is a 15% charge applied to 50% of a company’s undistributed professional service income in a given accounting year (Section 441 TCA 1997). It exists to prevent contractors from accumulating profits inside their company and deferring personal tax indefinitely. For a company retaining €60,000 of undistributed profit, the surcharge could add approximately €4,500 on top of the corporation tax already paid. The good news is that the PSS is entirely avoidable with proper planning. By extracting a reasonable salary, making employer PRSA contributions, and timing dividend payments before year-end, virtually all IT contractors working with Forti pay zero PSS. The surcharge is not inevitable — it is a penalty for lack of planning.
Can my limited company make pension contributions on my behalf without it being taxed as income?
Yes — and this is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools available to Irish IT contractors. Since the Finance Act 2023, employer contributions to an employee’s PRSA are no longer subject to the historical Benefit in Kind caps that previously limited their usefulness. Your limited company can now make employer PRSA contributions of any amount. These contributions are: (1) fully deductible against your company’s corporation tax liability at 12.5%; (2) not treated as a benefit in kind on you as the employee or director — so no income tax, USC, or PRSI arises; and (3) invested tax-free within the pension fund until retirement. For a contractor billing €143,000 per year, directing €40,000–€55,000 annually into a PRSA through the company is both legal and highly efficient. Over a 10-year contracting career, this builds a substantial pension fund — far exceeding what would be achievable through personal pension contributions from after-tax salary.
What is the Karshan case and does it affect my contracting status?
The Karshan (Midlands) Ltd v Revenue Commissioners case (Irish Supreme Court, 2023) is the leading Irish authority on distinguishing genuine self-employment from disguised employment. The court affirmed a five-step test — covering mutual obligation, right of substitution, control, integration, and economic reality — that Revenue will apply when assessing whether a contractor is truly independent or effectively an employee of their client. For IT contractors, the risk of reclassification as an employee is real — and the consequences are severe: back-payment of PAYE, USC, and PRSI with interest and penalties. The key practical steps to protect your status include: ensuring your contract does not contain mutual obligation clauses, retaining a right of substitution, supplying your own equipment, maintaining professional indemnity insurance, billing through your company (not as an individual), and working for more than one client where possible. Forti reviews client contracts against the Karshan framework as part of our onboarding process.
Do I need to charge VAT as an IT contractor in Ireland?
If your annual turnover from IT services exceeds €40,000 (the current registration threshold for services), you are legally required to register for VAT in Ireland. Most IT contractors register voluntarily from day one even if below the threshold, because VAT-registered clients can reclaim the VAT you charge — meaning it is not a cost to them — and registration signals professionalism. The standard VAT rate for IT services in Ireland is 23%. You collect VAT on invoices, submit bi-monthly VAT3 returns to Revenue, and pay over the net VAT collected. If your clients are EU-based businesses (outside Ireland), different rules apply under the EU reverse-charge mechanism — your Forti accountant will ensure your invoices are structured correctly for each client arrangement.
How do I pay myself from my limited company in the most tax-efficient way?
The most tax-efficient extraction strategy for most IT contractor LTDs in 2026 combines three elements: (1) Director salary of approximately €42,000 — this uses your personal income tax credits and standard rate band efficiently without pushing large amounts into the 40% bracket; (2) Employer PRSA contributions — use the post-2023 Finance Act rules to route as much as commercially reasonable into a PRSA before extracting further cash; (3) Dividends — once salary and pension are optimised, remaining profits can be extracted as dividends, subject to Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) at 25% unless you are able to claim an exemption. The precise optimal mix depends on your personal circumstances, the company’s profit level, and your other income sources. Forti models this individually for each client at our quarterly review sessions.
What business expenses can I deduct through my limited company?
Allowable expenses must be incurred wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for the purposes of your trade. For IT contractors, this typically includes: professional indemnity and public liability insurance; hardware (laptop, monitor, keyboard — claimed via capital allowances at 12.5% per annum over 8 years); business software and SaaS subscriptions; travel to client sites (not home to a fixed office — civil service mileage rates apply); a portion of home utility costs if you work from home (either the Revenue flat rate or a vouched apportionment); relevant professional development and training courses; and accountancy and legal fees. Items that are not deductible include: client entertainment and meals; commuting from home to a regular fixed place of work; and any expense with a personal as well as business element where the business purpose is not the primary driver. Since 2024, ERR rules also require that certain expense reimbursements to directors are reported to Revenue in real time — Forti handles this automatically.
What happens to my limited company if I take a break between contracts or return to permanent employment?
Your limited company continues to exist as a legal entity regardless of whether it is actively trading. If you take a gap between contracts — whether a planned career break, extended holiday, or period of personal leave — the company simply has no income during that period. Compliance obligations (annual return to the CRO, corporation tax return) still apply even for a dormant or low-activity period. If you return to permanent employment, you have several options: keep the company dormant (useful if you plan to contract again in future), voluntarily strike the company off the register if you are certain you will not use it again, or — if the company has retained profits — continue to extract them in a tax-efficient manner even while employed elsewhere. Forti advises clients on the most appropriate approach for their individual situation. Importantly, a gap between contracts does not affect the validity of your LTD structure or create any automatic Revenue compliance issue.
How do I find the right accountant for my IT contractor limited company — and what should I expect to pay?
The right accountant for an IT contractor LTD is one who: (a) specialises in the contractor and technology sector and understands the nuances of employment status, PSS, and PRSA planning; (b) uses cloud-based accounting (Xero or equivalent) for real-time visibility; (c) handles ERR compliance as standard rather than as an add-on; (d) offers proactive quarterly planning rather than purely reactive year-end filing; and (e) charges a transparent, all-inclusive monthly fee. In Ireland, full-service IT contractor LTD accounting ranges from approximately €150 to €250+ per month plus VAT. Be wary of very low-cost providers who may not include ERR compliance, VAT filing, or year-end accounts in their headline price. Forti Accountants charges from €195 per month plus VAT — fully inclusive of VAT returns, payroll, Xero bookkeeping, ERR reporting, annual financial statements, and corporation tax return, with proactive tax planning included as standard. We offer a free initial consultation with no obligation. Book at www.forti.ie.
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Our full company secretary service ensures your company adheres to corporate governance standards. This includes maintaining statutory registers, filing annual returns, handling board resolutions, and advising on legal compliance. By outsourcing this service, you can reduce administrative workload and ensure your company avoids compliance-related risks.
Historical filing and bookkeeping services are for businesses that have gaps in their financial year filings. We will require this information for compliance and reporting purposes, regardless of the gap duration.
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Drafting Minutes for Board Meetings (AGM Included) (Included)
Ongoing Company Secretarial Advice (Annual Limit) (Up to 300 minutes)
