If you’re the owner-operator of a small business, there are probably a hundred vital and immediate tasks waiting for your attention every morning. As well as staying on top of everyday operations, company directors (and in some circumstances company secretaries) have statutory duties and obligations that keep a company compliant, each with its own deadline. These compliance obligations are governed by Irish company law and tax regulation, and they catch out well-run businesses just as often as chaotic ones.
If deadlines are missed, you can face fines, interest, and surcharges. Companies that are haphazard with Revenue filings face an increased chance of being audited. Being noncompliant could also mean you lose your tax clearance (a certification vital for public sector contracts and certain loan schemes) and/or your audit exemption. In the worst cases, the business can be struck off and the director disqualified.
To complicate matters further, many deadlines are specific to the company (such as being tied to the date the company was founded or its financial year) or are triggered by when events in the company happen. For that reason, there is no universal compliance calendar we can all use. Instead, it’s a very good idea to create your own list of deadlines and check what’s coming up every month so that things don’t fall through the cracks. Here is a list of the top compliance tasks to keep a watch on:
Annual return (Form B1)
The annual return is filed with Companies Registration Office via core.cro.ie within 56 days of your company’s Annual Return Date (ARD). Your ARD is specific to your company, not tied to your financial year end, which is exactly why it’s easy to lose track of. Your Financial Statements must be uploaded and attached to the same filing and become a public document on the CRO register once filed (small companies can additionally choose to file an abridged version – omitting the profit and loss account – as the public-facing document). If you miss the 56-day window, the company faces late filing penalties, and – if it’s a second late filing within a rolling five-year period – loses its audit exemption for the following two years.
Corporation Tax (Form CT1)
The CT1 is Revenue’s Corporation Tax return, filed via ros.ie, and is due nine months after your accounting period ends – by the 23rd of that ninth month if filing online. If your financial year ends 31st December, that’s 23rd September. The CT1 runs on a completely separate clock from the annual return; changing your financial year-end doesn’t automatically shift your ARD, or vice versa, so the two need to be tracked independently.
Third-party payments (Form 46G)
Form 46G is a return that declares payments made to third parties for services during the year (professional fees, commissions, and similar charges) where the total paid to any single supplier exceeds €6,000. It’s easy to overlook because the deadline is the same as your CT1 using the same nine-month window, but the 46G is a separate obligation for businesses of all sizes and must be filed on ros.ie.
Value Added Tax (Form VAT3)
The VAT3 is the standard VAT return, filed via ros.ie, declaring VAT collected on sales against VAT reclaimed on purchases for the period. The default filing period is bi-monthly, though Revenue may decide you can file every 4, 6, or 12 months. The deadline is the 23rd of the month following the end of the period if you file and pay online via ros.ie. You must file the VAT3 even if you had a nil period (no trading activity) – if you have a seasonal business, put those filing deadlines in your diary so you don’t skip any! Registering for VAT is optional for very small businesses (check the current thresholds here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/vat/vat-registration/who-should-register-for-vat/vat-thresholds.aspx), but the ability to reclaim VAT on purchases means that some will elect to register for VAT before they need to.
VAT Return of Trading Details (RTD form)
The Return of Trading Details is a VAT filing but separate from regular VAT3 returns and only comes around once a year. Filed via ros.ie, it summarises your total sales and purchases for the year, broken down by VAT rate, and is due within 23 days of the end of your VAT accounting year – for most businesses aligned to the calendar year, that’s 23rd January. Because it’s annual and most VAT returns are not, it’s the filing most likely to get missed in the general rhythm of VAT compliance.
Secretarial filings (Forms B2, B5, B10, etc.)
As the central repository of public statutory information on Irish businesses, CRO has a range of forms for you to file as specific events happen, all of which are filed through core.cro.ie. For example, Form B2 covers a change of registered office address, Form B5 is for when a company issues new shares, and Form B10 is to notify changes in directors or secretaries. Like the RBO updates below, these aren’t annual filings but become necessary because there have been changes in the business. The filing deadline is generally within 14 days of the change, so the challenge is to remember to file promptly.
Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO updates)
The Register of Beneficial Ownership records the individuals who ultimately own or control the company – anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights. It’s filed once via rbo.gov.ie, but the part that catches people out is that any change to beneficial ownership – a share transfer, a new investor crossing the 25% threshold, a director’s address changing – must be updated within 14 days. There’s no annual deadline for these; like the CRO filings above they are triggered by the event itself and easy to forget.
Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR)
If you pay employees or directors tax-free travel and subsistence, a remote working allowance (up to €3.20 a day), or small non-cash benefits like gift vouchers, those payments must be reported to Revenue. These Enhanced Reporting Requirements, in effect since January 2024, catch the kinds of payment that used to go unreported because no tax was due on them. The deadline can catch people out as reporting is due on or before the date of payment, not at the next payroll run or month-end. If you use payroll software, it should let you submit to ros.ie as part of processing the payment, but if these payments are handled outside of payroll, it’s easy to forget about your obligation to file entirely.
Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT form)
If your company pays dividends to shareholders, Dividend Withholding Tax (DWT) is deducted at 25%, and a return must be filed and paid via ros.ie by the 14th of the following month. Because it only applies in months where a dividend actually goes out, it’s easy to forget the filing exists at all until the next payment reminds you.
Local Property Tax (LPT deduction at source)
If one of your employees has fallen behind on their Local Property Tax or simply chooses to have it taken out of their wages, Revenue can start collecting it through payroll rather than from the employee themselves. LPT appears as an instruction inside the Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) that Revenue makes available for that employee. If you use payroll software like Simplepay or Parolla, the system picks up that instruction, works out the deduction, and spreads it evenly across the employee’s remaining payslips for the year, alongside their normal tax. Most software does this automatically, but it’s worth a check when you take on a new employee or process payroll straight after Revenue would have sent updates. If it’s missed, the employee can end up taxed incorrectly for that pay run, which then needs correcting.
Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT)
If your business is registered for Relevant Contracts Tax as a principal contractor (relevant to construction, forestry, and meat-processing sectors), every payment to a subcontractor needs to be notified to Revenue in advance via ros.ie, and a deduction summary is generated automatically each period based on those notifications. If nothing is amended, that pre-populated summary is treated as your return by default, with amendments due by the 23rd of the month following the period. The risk isn’t the filing itself so much as forgetting to check and correct the auto-generated summary before it’s deemed final.
VAT Intrastat and VIES
If your business is registered for intra-EU trade above the relevant thresholds, two additional VAT filings apply on top of your normal VAT3 returns. Intrastat reports the physical movement of goods between Ireland and other EU states, while VIES reports intra-EU supplies of goods and services to VAT-registered businesses elsewhere in the EU. Both are filed via ros.ie, generally due by the 23rd of the month following the relevant period. Remember, they are filings that are in addition to – not instead of – your regular VAT return.
If you would like to partner with an accountant for year-round support that includes monitoring your financial compliance tasks, we can help. Get in touch to discuss a package that’s tailored to your business needs.
Rory
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