What it costs to run an Irish company.
Running a company in Ireland means filing an annual return with the registry, a corporation tax return with Revenue, and a payroll report every time you pay somebody. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) can keep all three calendars and file on them for you. If you run your own entity in Ireland, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you a designated person who has done this before, 24/5 human support with a first response within 15 minutes, and service terms adjusted to suit you, within reason.
Three calendars
Running a company is three separate clocks
People expect one annual bill and one annual form. An Irish company has three obligations running at different speeds, to two different bodies, and missing any of them costs money in a different way.
The registry wants an annual return. Revenue wants a corporation tax return once a year and a payroll report every time you pay anybody. That last one surprises people most, because it is not annual at all. Under real time reporting you file on or before each pay date, so a monthly payroll means twelve filings a year before you have touched the tax return.
None of these pause because a quarter was quiet. A company that traded for one month still files for the whole year, and a company that did not trade at all still files.
| Filing | Who to | When |
|---|---|---|
| Annual return with financial statements | Companies Registration Office | First one six months after incorporation, then every year |
| Corporation tax return | Revenue | Nine months after the financial year end |
| Payroll report | Revenue | On or before every pay date |
| VAT return | Revenue | Usually every two months, if registered |
| Beneficial ownership | Central register | Within five months, then kept current |
The expensive mistake
What happens if the annual return is late
The late filing fee itself is not the part that hurts. It starts at €100, then accrues €3 for every day the return is outstanding, capped at €1,200 per return. For most companies that lands somewhere in the hundreds, which is annoying rather than serious.
The serious cost is audit exemption. A small Irish company can normally file abridged accounts without an audit. File the annual return late and that exemption is lost for the following two years, which means paying for two audits nobody budgeted for. The gap between the penalty and the audit fees is usually an order of magnitude.
This is the strongest argument for having somebody own the filing calendar rather than leaving it with whoever has least on that week.
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual return, filed on time | €20 |
| Initial late filing fee | €100 |
| Daily default fee | €3 |
| Maximum late fee per return | €1,200 |
What you actually pay
The fees are small. The work is not.
Ireland charges €20 to file an annual return online. That is the whole state cost of keeping a company on the register for a year. Everything else you spend is professional work, and it scales with how complicated the company is rather than how big it is.
Market estimate
€1,500 to €3,500 a yearWhat the market charges for accounts, the tax return and company secretarial work on a small company. Not a Teamed price.
Your options
Who can keep it running for you
You can run a company in Ireland yourself or pay someone to, and the right choice depends on whether it employs people.
You can file the annual return yourself with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) and the tax returns with Revenue. That suits a founder with no staff and the time to track each deadline.
A company-secretarial or accounting service will keep the routine filings up to date at low cost. That suits a company with no employees.
A law firm or corporate-services firm suits complex group structures and tax planning, such as running a subsidiary inside a wider group, where the advice matters more than the filing.
For companies that will employ people in Ireland, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you real HR and legal experts you can reach when it matters, pricing with no hidden costs and one system from your first EOR hire to your own entity. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR when you're ready. Teamed already owns an entity in Ireland.
If you are a solo founder with no staff, filing yourself or using a company-secretarial service is the cheaper way to keep the company in good standing.
Worth saying plainly
This is the cost people forget when they compare
Setting up is a one off and it is easy to picture. Running the company is the part that repeats, and it is the part that decides whether owning an entity was worth it.
If the annual running cost looks heavy against the size of your team in Ireland, that is useful information rather than a problem. An employer of record carries all of this inside one monthly fee, and it is a fair answer rather than a lesser one.
Teamed's employer of record in Ireland is from €560 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency pairing and one invoice at the end of it. Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work, not a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it for Ireland.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, move your people across, and keep it running.
GEMO is how Teamed forms your company and keeps it running, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
In Ireland that matters a little more than elsewhere, because Teamed employs through its own Irish entity rather than a partner. The people who would run your company are the people already running ours.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Questions about running an Irish company
When is the first annual return due?
Six months after incorporation. That first one does not need financial statements attached. Every return after it does, and they fall annually.
What does it cost if we file late?
An initial fee of 100 euro, then 3 euro for every day the return is outstanding, capped at 1,200 euro per return. The bigger cost is losing audit exemption for the following two years.
Do we need an audit?
Most small companies do not, provided they stay within the size thresholds and file on time. Filing the annual return late removes the exemption for the following two years.
How often do we file payroll?
Every pay run. Ireland uses real time reporting, so the filing goes in on or before each pay date rather than at year end.
What if the company did not trade?
It still files. A dormant company has fewer numbers to report but exactly the same deadlines.
Sources
- Companies Registration Office, company fees and late filing penalties
- Companies Registration Office, filing an annual return
- Revenue, corporation tax return dates and real time payroll reporting
The rest of the Ireland guides
Looking for a job in Ireland yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
