Accountants in Ireland

Updated on Thursday 02nd March 2023

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Company owners in the country choose to work with a team of accountants in Ireland who have adequate training and licensing in order to ensure compliance with the ongoing rules and regulations for regular reporting.

Our partner team of accountants in Dublin provide tailored accounting solutions that include, but are not limited to routine bookkeeping, taxation and payroll services.

Read below to find out more about the main services provided by a team of accountants as well as the most important accounting regulations in Ireland.

Quick Facts
Bookkeeping services in Ireland	Maintaining the accounts receivable and accounts payable, books of accounts maintenance
Payroll services	Calculating wages, paying wages, electronic payroll records, payroll taxes calculation and payment
Invoicing	Invoice issuing, invoice tracking, overdue invoice management
Cash management	Reconciling the bank statements, cash payments and receipts management
Reporting	Our accountants in Ireland offer services related to preparing and submitting the annual financial statements, mandatory for all companies
Financial analysis	Budgeting, cash flow analysis, profitability ratio calculation, etc.
Forensic accounting	Financial information analysis as required for legal proceedings (cases involving fraud, money laundering, other types of financial crimes)
Tax compliance	Tax compliance, tax filing and payment in Ireland, information about tax incentives and assistance for companies that wish to benefit from these
VAT compliance and reporting	VAT registration for suppliers in Ireland that are subject to this registration, VAT filing and payment
Audit offered by our accountant in Ireland	Audit for companies that to not meet the audit exemption (has a turnover of more than €12 million, etc.)
Property financial matters	Annual local property tax payment and compliance, information on the tax rates on the occupation of commercial real property in Ireland
Statutory compliance in Ireland	IAS/IFRS/Irish GAAP compliance
Tax authority assistance	Representation, as needed, with the Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Support for voluntary dissolution	Settling liabilities, distributing the remaining funds to the shareholders
Services for foreign companies offered by our accountants in Ireland	Assistance for foreign company taxation, including information on the double tax treaties signed by Ireland

Services offered by our accountants in Ireland

The main services offered by our partner team of accountants in Ireland are the following:

Financial accounting: recording, summarizing, reporting the transactions that result from the company’s business operations;
Management accounting: preparing and presenting financial information that will serve the company’s leaders in making important decisions;
Auditing: the independent examination of the company’s financial information, performed by our team of accountants in Ireland;
Payroll: processing the reports, making the payments and submitting the forms related to the company’s employees.

Financial accounting and bookkeeping are commonly requested by companies in Ireland and these basic services allow them to remain compliant with the statutory requirements. A small company or a start-up in Ireland may only need these two services, along with the ones related to payroll, however, growing businesses and large companies on the market can benefit from requesting a complete package that will also include additional support and auditing services.

The general accounting services are tailored according to the client company. The sole trader financial statements are different from the partnership ones. Our team can help you with dedicated services for preparing and submitting the financial statements or the abridged financial statements, depending on your type of company in Ireland. The general bookkeeping services include those such as preparing the bank account statements, debtors and creditors maintenance, fixed asset and general ledger maintenance, providing the profit and loss statement, and many more.

A team of accountants in Ireland will always make sure that the needed statements are reports are filed in due time, so that the business will be compliant with the ongoing rules and regulations.

Choosing to work with accountants in Dublin is important for companies during all stages. You can choose the accounting services you will be using even as soon as you commence the incorporation process in Ireland, or soon afterwards. New companies will need to comply with the accounting requirements and investors can benefit from having a supporting team of professionals to guide them from the company’s first year of existence.

We offer services in Dublin, Cork, as well as other areas.

The accounting exemptions in Ireland, explained by our accountants in Dublin

Companies can be exempt from having to submit the annual financial statements if they are micro companies or if they are small companies. The following three conditions need to be satisfied in order for this to be possible:

Balance sheet: for small companies it cannot exceed 6 million euros and for micro companies it cannot exceed 350,000 euros;
Annual turnover: it cannot exceed 12 million euros for small companies and 700,000 euros for micro companies; our accountants in Ireland can give you more information about these conditions;
Total number of employees: a maximum of 50 for small companies and no more than 10 for micro companies.

When working with a local team of accountants in Ireland, foreign investors can rest assured that their financial issues are handled properly.

We invite you to watch a short video on the most important accounting services available:

Accounting regulations summarized by our accountants in Ireland

CPA Ireland is one of the most important accountancy bodies in Ireland, formerly known as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland. It has more than 5,000 members and students and offers qualifications for those who are interested in a career in accountancy.

Obtaining the qualification as a certified accountant, is subject to a number of examinations as well as a minimum period of training of 3 years. A certified accountant, or CPA in Ireland, is able to provide quality services that are recognized worldwide. Companies in Ireland, both small and large ones, will wisht to work with an accountant who has the qualifications issued by the CPA.

Another notable accountancy body in the country is the Chartered Accountants Ireland which also provides various business qualification options and specialist qualifications for those interested in becoming a CPA in Ireland.

All licensed accountants in the country observe a number of professional standards as they appear in the 2014 Companies Act and the Statutory Instrument No. 360 of 2017. These are the main acts that outline the professional and ethical requirements as well as the roles of the bodies that regulate the profession.

Some of the ethical principles observed by accountants in general and our accountants in Dublin, including our auditors, are the following:

Objectivity: the company and the staff providing the services shall treat the business activities with integrity and objectivity;
Due care: the accountant acts diligently and serves the clients with professional competence by exercising sound judgment;
Confidentiality: keep the information confidential and take all the reasonable steps to maintain confidentiality;
Professionalism: the accountant will maintain a professional behaviour, including complying with the relevant laws and regulations; will not knowingly engage in an activity that might impair the integrity of the profession.

A professional accountant shall also identify any threats to the compliance with the fundamental principles. These can represent self-interest threats, self-review threats, the advocacy, familiarity or intimidation threat. A professional accountant complies with the fundamental principles and the conceptual framework set forth in the Code of Ethics issued by the Chartered Accountants Ireland and followed by its members.

The Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority is the one in charge of supervising the functions of the prescribed accountancy bodies and the manner in which these bodies regulate and monitor their members, a CPA in Ireland.

Consultancy and specialised accounting services provided by our experts

Our accounting services focus on the general bookkeeping and record keeping, however, they also include consultancy services and forensic accounting, if needed.

Our accountants can help with bookkeeping and accounting services and at the same time we can advise our clients on matters that concern cash-flow management, valuations for shareholdings, preparing strategic reviews, as well as submitting certain business plans. What’s more, our team can assist those who need specialised accounting services in case of mergers and acquisitions.

Forensic accounting in Ireland is a specialised branch of accountancy that deals with asset tracking and reports so that you can be sure that the financial information you are presented with is completely accurate. This service is useful not only in case of mergers of acquisitions in Ireland, when you wish to make sure that the acquisition is a recommended one, but also internally, if you suspect that your company is subject to fraud.

Specialised accounting services, such as forensic accounting, are also required in case of litigation. In these situations, the report prepared by an accountant can be used in court and, as needed, for expert witness testimony.

Forensic accounting is useful in:

company due diligence;
internal audits;
fraud investigations;
company restructuring;
solvency and restructuring;
shareholder disputes;
professional negligence claims, commercial and liability claims, business interruption claims;
business termination.

An in-depth investigation of the financial transactions is useful for detecting discrepancies both in-house and when purchasing a legal entity. The data uncovered in a forensic accounting investigation can be subsequently used in court for damages claim or in order to render a contract void. This service can also be used as a preventive one, allowing the business owner to identify any potential areas of concern and take the needed action before any issues occur.

When working with our team, an account manager will make sure that your business is compliant and that it meets the statutory requirements for reports and filing. We know that no two businesses are the same, this is why our accountants in Dublin offer personalized solutions so that your business can benefit from having a clear reflection of its financial status and then prepare and plan accordingly for growth.

Audit procedure in Ireland

Not all companies in Ireland are subject to an audit, as you can read below. However, when this does apply, the auditor is required to observe the International Standard on Auditing and to observe the overall objectives that are common to an independent auditor and the general conduct of the audit process, in accordance with the aforementioned international standards.

For the purpose of an audit, the information used as evidence can be reviewed by the auditor, especially when it was prepared by a management expert. The auditor is allowed to evaluate the competence, the objectivity and the capabilities of the expert who provided the report/work, as well as ask for and obtain additional information, as needed. It is the auditor’s role to evaluate the accuracy of the information presented in the report, as well as its completeness and preciseness.

The information used as audit evidence should satisfy certain criteria for relevance and reliability.

When performing an audit, materials (or the sufficient audit evidence) are required in order to support the final audit report. For this purpose, the auditor may inspect documents, conform, recalculate, analyse and add new data. The new inquiries can uncover certain material misstatements, or lack of effectiveness in terms of past controls. The goal of the auditor is also to reduce the audit risk to an acceptable level.

In all cases, the quality of the audit is of primary importance. In order to satisfy this criterion for quality, the team will engage in work that complies with the professional standards and regulatory requirements, comply with the company’s quality control policies and procedures, as well as raise the needed concerns, if applicable.

Audit exemptions presented by our CPA in Ireland

Qualifying Irish companies, namely small or micro companies, may qualify for an exemption from the requirement to have their annual financial statements audited. In this situation, the documents that are not subject to the audit will include the balance sheet and the notes to the financial statements, if applicable according to the company’s situation.

A certified public accountant, a CPA in Ireland from our team, can help you understand the audit regulations that apply in the country and how, if you have a small or micro business, you can benefit from the exemption.

There are also other situations, apart from the small company audit exemption situation, in which companies may ne exempted. These apply in case of small dormant companies, as well as from filing the full financial statements (known as the size/abridgement exemption), also in case of small companies – the latter was discussed above by our accountants (see the conditions for the balance sheet, turnover and number of employees presented above).

A company can claim both the audit and the abridgement exemptions, and in this case, they will file the following documents, with the help of one of our accountants in Ireland:

the balance sheet, including the audit exemption statement (which shall be included at the end of the sheet);
an extract from the director’s report (which provides information about the director’s interest in shares);
the notes to the financial statements.

A company may request an exemption from having its annual audit, however, in some cases, other third parties may still require it (for example, banks). Moreover, it should also be noted that this exemption can be denied by a company shareholder. For this to be possible, if one of more of the shareholders who have, alone or combined, at least 10% of the voting rights, must vote against the company’s application for the audit exemption.

When the audit exemption is submitted by a format company, the directors must claim it in the financial year for which the exemption is requested. Moreover, this decision is recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

If you have a small company, our team of accountants in Ireland can help you apply for one of the types of exemptions available in this case.

It is important to note that of the company fails to file the annual return on its due date, it loses the right to the audit exemption for the following two financial years.

Irish companies cannot claim the audit exemption within the first 6 months after their incorporation. They can, however, make this claim when they submit the first full annual return or when they make the following submissions for their annual returns.

A certified public accountant, such as those working in our team, observe the relevant ethical requirements for integrity, objectivity, competence and due care as well as confidentiality.

Business services in Ireland

Working with a team of accountants in Ireland is important for businesses that are focused on growth and development. If you would like to know more about the role of an accountant, as well as the standards of professional conduct, or if you should wish to change your current company accountant, you can reach out to us for details.

We work with a team of qualified and experienced accountants in Dublin who are able to provide solutions for businesses regardless of their size or the industry in which they operate.

Contact our team of lawyers in the country to find out about the packages and services that also include solutions provided by a CPA in Ireland.

Our lawyers also offer services for individuals. If you want to get a divorce in Ireland, you need to meet certain criteria. These are based on the fact that the spouses are already not living together anymore, they both continue to live in Ireland or have lived in the country for at least one year before making the application for divorce, and that they will not be getting back together. Our team can help you with more details.