Information Required To Register An Irish Limited Company

In short, the details required for setting up a Limited Company in Ireland are:

• A company name
• Details of Directors, Company Secretary, and Shareholders
• Details of authorised and issued share capital
• Details of your registered and business address
• Valid ID and proof of address

We go through each of these items in detail below.

Who will be the Director, Company Secretary and Shareholders in your company?

The Director is responsible for managing the company. Irish Limited Companies need to have at least one EEA-Resident Director. If you don’t have a Director who lives in the EEA, you can purchase a non-resident bond on our website. This is a type of insurance that covers the company over certain claims, up to €25,000, for two years. After two years, you’ll need to renew this.

If you only have one Director, you will need to appoint a separate Company Secretary, (or outsource to a company secretary service in Ireland). If you have two Directors, one of these people can also act as the Company Secretary. As a Company Secretary, there are certain responsibilities. Many startups choose to outsource this role because they don’t have the skillset to look after their company’s compliance. Without a reliable Company Secretary, your company could face serious fines and penalties.

A Shareholder is a person who has shares in the business. Having shares in a business basically means that you own part of it. In Startups and small businesses, it is very common for Shareholders and Directors and/or Company Secretary to be the same people.

Authorised and issued share capital

Think of shares as pieces of the company that you can give away. Authorised shares are the number of shares that you can to give, both now and in the future. Issued shares are the number of shares that are actually given out and paid for. Shareholders are individuals who pay for shares. These are the people who own your company.

We recommend 100,000 authorised shares and 100 issued shares at €1 each. If you’re setting up a company on your own, you will most likely give yourself the 100 shares, meaning you have 100% ownership of the company. When there are two shareholders in a company who have 50 shares each, they both have 50% ownership of the company.

When you’re setting up a Limited Company in Ireland, you need a Registered Office Address and a Business Address.

• The Registered Address is where the Company Registration Office send the business’s legal notices. For this reason, it is one of the most important pieces of information required to register an Irish Limited Company
• The Registered Address must be in the Republic of Ireland
• Information about this address will be publicly available to anyone who looks up your company on the Companies’ Registration Office
• If you don’t want to use your private address as your Registered Address, we offer a Registered Office Address. This allows you to use Accountant Online’s address as your Registered Office Address.
• Your official registered company address does not have to be the same as your business address (the place where you actually conduct your business)

When you’re setting up a new Limited Company with Accountant Online, you will need to provide us with certified copies of your ID (e.g. passport, identity card or drivers licence) and proof of address (e.g. utility bill, mobile phone bill, letters from Revenue). As members of Chartered Accountants Ireland, we need to “Know Our Customer” and this is a reasonable step for us to build a relationship with our clients.

How Do I Get A Document Certifed?

Getting your documents verified can be a simple and quick process.

• Take your ID and proof of address document (no older than 3 months old) to a member of your local Police, Bank, Town Hall, Solicitor, Chartered Accountant or Public Notary. Post offices in the UK can also do this.
• The authorised body will take a photocopy of your documents and sign and stamp the copy to say that they certify it to be a true copy of the originals.