The network covers Ireland within the Western Europe region. Payslips there are drawn up in EUR, and dealings with a local firm are conducted in English and Irish.
The business centres where the network is looking for a correspondent as a priority are Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway.
The country is a member of the European Union. An employee posted from another member state remains attached to the scheme of origin under the conditions set by the European coordination regulations, and the A1 certificate issued by the institution of the sending country is the proof of this. That document is called for during on-site inspections: it is applied for before departure, never afterwards.
The answer to this question changes everything: it determines to whom you may entrust your payslips locally, and what you must ask for before signing. It has been verified country by country with the local authorities.
In Ireland, running payroll on behalf of third parties is reserved by law to no registered profession: any company may take it on. The absence of a legal barrier shifts the checking onto you, and that is why the network itself verifies the registration, the tax and social security standing and the insurance cover of every firm before listing it.
Nul besoin d'agrément pour établir la paie d'un tiers en Irlande : l'activité est libre. Seuls l'audit légal et l'usage des titres protégés (Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant) sont encadrés. En revanche, la supervision anti-blanchiment est, elle, obligatoire pour les prestataires comptables et fiscaux.
Ireland offers a French employer an unusual combination: an EU member state, inside the euro area, whose working language is English. Contracts, payslips and dealings with the administration are conducted in English, Irish retaining official status with limited administrative use. EU social security coordination applies in the usual way, which makes posting workable without any special arrangement.
The Irish peculiarity is unified collection. The Office of the Revenue Commissioners, commonly called Revenue, collects both income tax withheld through PAYE and PRSI social insurance contributions. There is therefore no separate social body issuing a compliance certificate: the Tax Clearance Certificate covers both strands on its own, which simplifies matters for employer and provider alike.
Running payroll for a client is an unrestricted activity in Ireland, and no licence of any kind is required. What is regulated is statutory audit, the use of protected accountancy titles, and anti-money-laundering supervision, which is mandatory for accountancy and tax service providers.
Reporting is real time. Since PAYE modernisation, the employer transmits payroll data to Revenue at each payment rather than in periodic summaries. Your provider must be equipped for that, with connected software; it is a concrete selection criterion. Payslips must set out the deductions made.
The entity comes next. A foreign company may register with Revenue as an employer without incorporating a subsidiary; if you do choose an Irish company instead, the requirement for a director resident in the European Economic Area must be settled before anything else.
Employer registration goes through the eRegistration service. The employee needs a PPS Number, without which deductions cannot be applied on their own parameters. The employer retrieves from Revenue the notification setting out, for each individual, the amounts to be withheld.
A written contract is required, in English, and written information on the core terms must be provided very early in the relationship. Check next whether an Employment Regulation Order or a Sectoral Employment Order covers your activity: these sector instruments impose binding minima in several industries, regardless of membership.
Statutory notice, accrued holiday entitlement and the Irish unfair dismissal regime call, finally, for a documented procedure before any decision: a termination decided first and justified afterwards is hard to defend.
The network asks 9 documents of any firm wishing to represent it in Ireland. The table gives, for each of them, the exact wording in use locally, the body that issues it and the period during which it remains admissible. These are the terms to use in an application to the local administration.
Of these 9 documents, 7 are required of every applicant and 5 have a limited period of validity, the shortest being 3 months. 2 of these documents exist only in Ireland and have no equivalent in the common core of the network.
| Local wording | Issuing body | Validity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of IncorporationCertificate of Incorporation Pièce non périmable, délivrée une seule fois à la constitution. Exigez en complément un « CRO Company Printout » récent (moins de trois mois), qui donne l'état actuel : dirigeants, siège, statut actif et dépôt des comptes annuels. | Companies Registration Office (CRO) — An Oifig um Chlárú Cuideachtaí | No expiry Required | Official website |
| CRO Company Printout / Certified Company ExtractCRO company printout Se commande sur le portail CORE. Vérifiez que le statut est « Normal » et non « Strike-off listed » : une radiation en cours est le signal d'alarme le plus courant en Irlande. | Companies Registration Office (CRO) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Tax Reference Number / VAT registration number (IE) — Revenue eRegistrationTax Reference Number and VAT registration number Le numéro de TVA irlandais est vérifiable sur VIES. La société doit aussi être enregistrée comme employeur (PAYE/PRSI) auprès de Revenue si elle a du personnel. | Office of the Revenue Commissioners | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Tax Clearance Certificate (electronic Tax Clearance, eTC)Tax Clearance Certificate Depuis le passage à l'eTC, le certificat n'est plus un papier figé : Revenue délivre un Tax Clearance Access Number (TCAN) que le tiers vérifie en ligne en temps réel avec le numéro fiscal. Demandez le TCAN plutôt qu'un PDF. Le certificat couvre l'ensemble des impôts, TVA incluse, ainsi que le PAYE/PRSI employeur. | Office of the Revenue Commissioners | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) certificateProfessional indemnity insurance certificate Obligatoire pour tout cabinet titulaire d'un practising certificate délivré par un Prescribed Accountancy Body supervisé par l'IAASA. Un prestataire de paie non affilié à un ordre n'y est pas légalement tenu : dans ce cas exigez-la contractuellement. | Assureur du cabinet ; niveau minimal imposé par l'ordre professionnel (Chartered Accountants Ireland, ACCA, CPA Ireland) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Practising Certificate issued by a Prescribed Accountancy Body (Chartered Accountants Ireland, ACCA, CPA Ireland) ; à défaut, IPASS Certified Payroll TechnicianPractising certificate from a Prescribed Accountancy Body, or IPASS payroll certification La paie n'est pas une activité réservée en Irlande. Le practising certificate n'est exigé que pour l'exercice public de la comptabilité ; la certification IPASS (CPT / Certified Payroll Technician) est le repère de compétence du marché irlandais de la paie. | Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) pour la supervision des ordres ; Irish Payroll Association (IPASS) pour la certification paie | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| Anti-Money Laundering supervision — registration as a Tax Adviser / Trust or Company Service ProviderAML supervision registration Le Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 impose à tout prestataire de services comptables ou fiscaux d'être supervisé : soit par son ordre, soit, s'il n'est affilié à aucun, par l'AMLCU du ministère de la Justice. Un cabinet irlandais qui ne sait pas répondre à cette question doit être écarté. | Ordre professionnel désigné, ou Department of Justice — Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Unit (AMLCU) pour les cabinets non affiliés | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Copy of passport or driving licence of a director, plus proof of addressDirector's identity document and proof of address À compléter par un extrait du Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO). Toute société irlandaise doit par ailleurs avoir au moins un administrateur résident de l'EEE, ou une caution (Section 137 bond) — point à vérifier. | Cabinet candidat (vigilance client, CJA 2010) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Record of processing activities (Article 30 GDPR) / DPO notification to the Data Protection CommissionRecord of processing activities / DPO notification L'ancien registre obligatoire des responsables de traitement tenu par le Data Protection Commissioner a disparu avec le RGPD en 2018. Il ne reste que la notification du DPO à la DPC lorsqu'une désignation est requise. | Data Protection Commission (DPC) — An Coimisiún um Chosaint Sonraí | No expiry Where applicable | Official website |
Dealings with Revenue are entirely electronic: tax compliance is evidenced by an access number, the TCAN, which the partner supplies for online verification. An old paper certificate signals a counterparty who has not kept up with the system.
No separate social security certificate is issued in Ireland. Because PRSI is collected alongside PAYE, asking for a document from the Department of Social Protection means asking for something that does not exist for this purpose. Many partnership files stall on that very confusion.
The companies register holds one final trap. The Companies Registration Office starts strike-off proceedings against companies that have not filed accounts, and the strike-off listed status is common. It does not mean immediate dissolution, but it leaves the entity legally fragile and must be cleared before any contractual commitment.
L'Irlande n'a pas d'attestation de régularité sociale distincte : le PRSI (cotisations de sécurité sociale) est collecté par Revenue avec le PAYE, si bien que le Tax Clearance Certificate couvre à lui seul le volet fiscal et le volet social — ne réclamez pas un document du Department of Social Protection, il n'existe pas pour cet usage. Deuxième particularité : le Tax Clearance est devenu purement électronique, un candidat qui vous envoie un vieux certificat papier n'a pas compris le système, demandez le TCAN. Enfin, attention aux sociétés « strike-off listed » au CRO pour comptes non déposés : c'est fréquent et cela rend la société juridiquement fragile.
The network opens 3 partner slots in Ireland, not one more. No firm is listed there yet: all 3 slots therefore remain open to applications.
No listed partner in Ireland has asked to appear in the public directory. The contact details of a firm are passed on to the client only when an assignment is awarded.
Filing an application does not amount to admission: every request is reviewed one by one. There is no minimum turnover requirement, and the partner selected invoices its fees directly.
Submit an application: we review your file, we check the documents required on the ground and we give you an answer, whether it is positive or not.
In Ireland no payroll title opens the market, so we look at other signals. A Practising Certificate from one of the recognised bodies, Chartered Accountants Ireland, ACCA or CPA Ireland, and, for payroll itself, the Certified Payroll Technician credential from the Irish Payroll Association (IPASS) are our reference points. Two items are mandatory: a valid electronic Tax Clearance and evidence of anti-money-laundering supervision, either through the candidate's professional body or the relevant unit of the Department of Justice. A recent CRO extract and proof of insurance complete the file.
Describe your requirement. No firm is listed in Ireland yet: we review the request, then entrust it to a local firm that the network identifies and vets, or to the partner of a neighbouring country covering this territory. Your contact details are passed on to the selected firm alone.
Request a provider in IrelandMobility is rarely arranged one country at a time. The neighbouring profiles follow the same outline.
These countries account for most of the requests received: each one has, in addition to its profile, six pages devoted to a single aspect of local payroll.
The information gathered on this page comes from the registers, administrations and bodies listed below, consulted when the reference base was compiled. It is given for guidance and does not replace the advice of a professional established in Ireland.