COMPANY REGISTRATION What is the cost to set up a Limited Company in Ireland?

Simple? Actually, there's more to it than just incorporating a company. Everybody has different demands, and you could end up paying more than €1,000 with a lot of Irish company formation providers. To calculate how much you will pay for Irish company formation, you need to understand company registration obligations.

As an aside, always remember: The cheapest part of owning a company is the incorporation costs - the annual running costs are generally higher. Incorpro provide Ongoing Accounting Packages at a low fixed monthly cost that you may want to avail of once your company is registered.

Basic Company Requirements and Their Cost

Let’s start from the beginning and try to understand what we're getting into when we form a company.

Company Incorporation

To register a company with the CRO, you need to prepare the following:

• Company Name
• Registered Address
• Company Secretary
• Directors
• Share Capital and Shareholders

Let's quickly run through each to find out what the total cost could add up.

Company Name

Ok, simple enough. "I just choose a company name and that's free." Well, yes and no.

Yes. The name is pretty much free. But, no, you do not just choose any name and register it. Firstly, as you might have guessed, you cannot use the same name as another company already registered. Secondly, and importantly, your company name must be sufficiently distinguishable from other company names already registered. This is a common basis for the CRO to refuse a company name registration.

HINT: The more words you add to your company name the more distinguishable it becomes.

Thirdly, there are a number of restricted words that you cannot use, such as "Bank", "University" and, something which catches people out, domain name extensions (".com", ".ie", etc).

You can read more about the company name restrictions under our dedicated company name guidance article.

COMPANY NAME CHECK TOOL

Use our instant Free Company Name Check Tool to check if your proposed company name will be accepted by the Companies Registration Office.

We provide you with a name strength ranking and a probability of approval by the CRO. This will allow you to proceed with your company registration with confidence and reduce potential delays.

Registered Address

Every company incorporating in Ireland is required to have a registered office within the country. This address is where official documents are served and where people have the right to visit to inspect documents and to make deliveries by hand.

If you have a residence or offices in Ireland, then you can use one of those as your registered address. If you do not have a residence or office in Ireland, or you just don't want to use them as your registered address, then you can use a Virtual Office provider. Incorpro provide this virtual address service for €199 + VAT p.a. You can learn more by reading our guidance article Registered Office requirements.

Company Secretary

Legally, anybody can act as Company Secretary, including other companies. For companies with only one Director, the Company Secretary must be a different person. For individuals who set up a single member company, it is not always straightforward to find somebody to act as the Company Secretary. Under the Companies Acts 2014, the Company Secretary can be subject to fines, however unlikely they are to occur.

With this in mind, there are Company Secretary Nominee service providers who will act as your company's Company Secretary for an Annual Fee. Incorpro can act as Company Secretary for an annual fee of €199 + VAT p.a. You get a better understanding of the Company Secretary's role and Nominee Company Secretary Services by reading our Company Secretary guidance article.

Directors

The rules around Directors are generally quite straightforward. Only individuals can act as Directors and at least one director should be EEA resident. If there are no EEA resident directors then the company is required to hold a bond (basically, take out insurance covering potential fines under Corporate and Tax legislation) to the value of €25,000. From 23 April 2023, Directors are required to provide their PPS Number to the CRO when registering a company. If you do not hold a PPS Number, then you should refer to our Non-Irish Resident Company Setup guidance note.

Share Capital and Shareholders

The Issued Share Capital of a Company is the total number of shares issued to a Shareholder. The value of these shares represents the liability of the Shareholder to the company. It is good practice to keep this figure low, typically €100 worth of shares in total, to minimise your exposure to the company. You can learn more about Shares and Shareholders by reading our Shareholder guidance article.

Tax Registration Costs

A lot of people do not think about registering their company for tax once it is set up, but every company needs to register for Corporation Tax within 30 days of commencing to trade. If you set up your company through Incorpro, then we will register your company for Corporation Tax, Domestic VAT and Payroll Tax free of charge.

If you have an existing company and would like Incorpro to register your company for taxes see our Tax and VAT Registration service.

When deciding to register for VAT, you can consult Revenue's article Who should register for VAT? Just be aware that you may require an accountant's help to file VAT returns and Payroll Tax returns, so this will add to the running costs of the company.

Total Company Set Up Costs

Hopefully, you have been keeping track of what company formation costs will apply to you. You will be spending €99 + VAT to incorporate a company. You may also need Registered Office and Company Secretary services for an additional amount of €199 + VAT p.a each. As part of our company registration package, we will register your company for tax free of charge at a saving of €149 + Vat.

Non-Irish Resident Company Setup through Incorpro will cost more.

Finally

Keep in mind that we have just covered the initial set up costs for a limited company above. The costs of bookkeeping and maintaining compliance with Corporate and Tax law are high and should be evaluated before incorporating.

If you would like to speak to us about any of your accounting and tax needs, call us on 01-4429409 or find more contact information at Contact us and follow us on twitter.