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
| 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
