Directors’ legal obligations in Ireland

Healy Consultants helps our multi-national Clients’ timely discharge their annual Ireland accounting and tax and audit obligations. It is important our Clients’ cooperate with us to meet Ireland statutory deadlines.

  • Our Client’s responsibility

    1. The director of an Irish company is obligated to timely prepare reliable and accurate annual financial statements to give a true and fair view of the business activity during the accounting period. The financial statements are to comply with Accounting Standards, following specimen formats and disclosing certain information by way of notes to the financial statements;
    2. Every business is required to register for any applicable taxes with the Revenue Commissioners within 30 days of starting to trade.
    3. Annually, the directors are responsible (click link) for submitting a legal annual return to Ireland Companies Registry (click link), comprising signed financial statements, not later than its Annual Return Date (ARD) (click link),
    4. Companies are required to keep proper books of account which give a true and fair view of the company’s financial affairs under company act;
    5. A company must keep adequate accounting records under company act section 281;
    6. The company act requires companies to disclose details of their financial statements at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and to attach a copy of those financial statements to the annual return filed with the CRO.
  • Healy Consultants' responsibility

    1. Timely inform our Client of upcoming statutory deadlines;
    2. Prepare financial statements from the trial balance supplied to us by our Client;
    3. From the signed financial statements, submit a quality corporation tax return to the Irish Tax and Customs Authority;
    4. Legally minimize our Clients’ international tax burden;
    5. Secure an exemption from independent statutory annual audit obligation;
    6. Healy Consultants’ accounting and tax team can assist our client to timely discharge their annual accounting and tax and audit requirements stipulated by Ireland Companies Registry and Irish Tax and Customs Authority and minimize the administration burden;
    7. Our help includes: i) conducting monthly bookkeeping services ii) reconciliation of bank statements and management accounts iii) schedule and liaison with independent auditor iv) compilation and preparation of our accounting reports and financial reports for in accordance with the Ireland Company Act v) filling of legal annual return with Ireland Companies Registry and submission of corporation tax return with Irish Tax and Customs Authority.
  • Failure to comply with Director’s Duties

    1. Late filed with the CRO incur a late filing penalty of €100 with effect from the expiry of the company’s filing deadline, with a daily penalty of €3 accruing thereafter, up to a maximum of €1,200 per return. Registrar of Companies is empowered under law to take a number of enforcement measures in respect of those companies that file late;
    2. Under section 797 Companies Act 2014, the Registrar is empowered, after the expiry of a period of 14 days following the issue of a notice to a company and/or its directors, if the outstanding annual return(s) has/have not been filed at the end of that period, to apply to the High Court for:
      • An order directing the company and any officer thereof to make good the default within such period as the court may specify;
      • An order directing that the costs of and incidental to the application be borne by officers of the company responsible for the default.

    3. A company, which fails to file an annual return in respect of any one year, may be struck off the register and dissolved. In the event that a company has an annual return outstanding, one statutory warning only is required to be issued by the CRO to the registered office of the company;
    4. A director of a company who fails to take all reasonable steps to secure compliance by the company with the requirements of any of adequate accounting records under company act sections 281 to 285, or has by his or her own intentional act been the cause of any default by the company under any of them, shall be guilty of conviction on indictment can result in a term of imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to €50,000 or both;
    5. If a person in any return, statement, financial statement or other document required by or for the purposes of any provision of this Part intentionally makes a statement, false in any material particular, knowing it to be so false, the person shall be guilty of a category 2 offence: conviction on indictment can result in a term of imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to €50,000 or both under company act chapter 22;
    6. A company that contravenes basic requirements for accounting records hall be guilty of
      • A term of imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to €50,000 or both;
      • Or conviction on indictment can result in a term of imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to €500,000 or both.

    7. An officer of a company who knowingly makes a statement that is misleading or false in a material particular, or makes such a statement being reckless as to whether it is so, shall be guilty of a term of imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to €50,000 or both.

Contact us

For additional information on our legal services in Ireland, please contact our in-house country expert, Mr. Aidan Healy, directly:
client relationship officer - Aidan