Business, Accounting & Tax Glossary

Irish Tax & Revenue

myAccount

Revenue's online portal for individuals, mainly used to manage PAYE tax affairs — reviewing tax credits, accessing your Employment Detail Summary, and claiming certain reliefs. Self-assessed returns such as Form 11 are filed through ROS.

Preliminary Tax

An advance payment of your current year's income tax liability, due by 31 October. To avoid interest, it must generally be at least 90% of the final liability for that year, or 100% of the prior year's liability, whichever is lower.

PRSI

Social insurance contributions paid by employers, employees, and self-employed people, which build entitlement to certain state benefits and pensions.

Revenue

Ireland's tax and customs authority, responsible for taxes including PAYE, VAT, Corporation Tax, Income Tax, and PRSI administration. See revenue.ie.

ROS

Revenue's Online Service, used for filing tax returns such as CT1, VAT and Form 11, and for business and tax agent administration generally.

USC

Universal Social Charge — a separate tax on gross income, charged at increasing rates above certain thresholds, collected alongside PAYE and PRSI.

VAT

Value Added Tax — a tax charged on the supply of most goods and services in Ireland. VAT-registered businesses charge it to customers and account for it to Revenue, typically through bi-monthly returns.

VAT RTD

The annual Return of Trading Details, summarising a business's VATable sales and purchases for the year.

Companies & Corporate Compliance

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

A formal annual meeting of a company's members dealing with specified matters such as approving accounts. A DAC with two or more members must hold an AGM, whereas an LTD may dispense with this requirement where the statutory conditions are met.

Annual Return

A required filing to the CRO confirming a company's details, made up to its Annual Return Date and usually accompanied by its financial statements.

Annual Return Date (ARD)

The date by which a company must file its annual return with the CRO each year. A company's first ARD falls 6 months after incorporation, with each subsequent ARD generally falling on the same date each year.

Beneficial Owner

An individual who ultimately owns or controls a company, whether through shareholding, voting rights, or other means, even where they are not a named director or shareholder.

Company Secretary

An officer responsible for a company's compliance with company law, including statutory filings and company records. An Irish private limited company must have at least one company secretary, who cannot be the sole director in a single-director company.

Constitution

The document governing a company, replacing the old Memorandum and Articles of Association for an LTD. A DAC's constitution still takes the form of a memorandum and articles of association, with the memorandum setting out its stated objects.

Corporation Tax

The tax charged on an Irish company's profits, generally due for payment 9 months after the financial year-end and declared through the CT1 return.

CRO

The Companies Registration Office, the government body that registers Irish companies and administers their compliance filings. See cro.ie.

Designated Activity Company (DAC)

An Irish private company whose activities are limited to the objects set out in its constitution, rather than having the unlimited capacity of an LTD. A DAC may be limited by shares or, less commonly, limited by guarantee with a share capital, and generally requires at least two directors.

Director

A person appointed to manage a company on behalf of its shareholders, with duties and responsibilities set out in company law. Irish companies generally require at least one director resident in the EEA, unless an alternative arrangement applies.

Dividends

Profit distributions paid to a company's shareholders out of after-tax profits.

Financial Statements

A company's formal annual accounts, including the balance sheet and profit and loss account, prepared under applicable accounting standards and filed with its annual return where required.

Form 46G

An annual return to Revenue listing certain payments over €6,000 made to contractors or other third parties during the year.

Objects Clause

The part of a DAC's constitution setting out the specific activities and purposes for which it is established. An LTD has no objects clause, since it has unlimited capacity to carry on any lawful business.

RBO

The Central Register of Beneficial Ownership. Irish companies and certain other entities must file details of their beneficial owners with the RBO.

Registered Office

A company's official address on the public register, where legal documents and notices are served. It must be a physical address in Ireland and doesn't need to be where the company trades.

Voluntary Strike-Off

A process for formally closing a company that has ceased trading, removing it from the CRO register once its outstanding tax and filing obligations have been addressed.

Accounting & Financial Terms

Assets

Items your business owns with value, such as cash, equipment, or amounts owed to it by customers.

Bank Reconciliation

Matching your bank account transactions against your bookkeeping records to confirm they agree.

Bookkeeping

Recording all business income, expenses, and financial activity.

Break-Even Point

The point at which total income equals total expenses: no profit, no loss.

Cash Basis

Recognising income and expenses only when money actually changes hands, rather than when it's earned or incurred.

Creditors

Businesses or individuals your company owes money to.

Debtors

Customers who owe you money.

Equity

The value of ownership in a business after its liabilities are subtracted from its assets.

Expenses

The costs of doing business, such as subscriptions, rent, and tools.

Gross Income

Income before deductions. What's deducted to reach a net figure depends on context — for a business this typically means before operating expenses and tax; for an individual, before tax and other statutory deductions.

Invoice

A document requesting payment from a client for goods or services provided.

Liabilities

What a business owes, including loans, unpaid bills, and taxes.

Net Profit

What remains from income after deducting business expenses. Depending on the measure used, this may be stated before or after tax, often labelled accordingly as net profit before tax or net profit after tax.

Operating Expenses

The day-to-day costs of running a business.

Overheads

The ongoing costs of running a business that aren't tied directly to producing a specific product or service, such as rent, insurance, and administrative costs.

Retained Earnings

Profits kept in the business rather than distributed to shareholders.

Turnover

A business's total sales revenue before expenses.

Working Capital

The difference between a business's current assets and its current liabilities.

Payroll & Employment

Director's Salary

A PAYE salary paid to a company director, subject to income tax, PRSI, and USC in the same way as any employee's salary.

Employment Detail Summary (EDS)

A record of an employee's pay and tax deductions for the year, replacing the old P60. Available to view or download through myAccount.

PAYE

Pay As You Earn — the system through which income tax, USC, and PRSI are deducted from employee and director salaries and remitted to Revenue.

Sole Traders & Self-Assessment

Flat Rate Expenses

Fixed amounts Revenue allows certain trades and professions to claim as expenses, without the need to retain receipts.

Form 11

The annual self-assessment tax return used by self-employed people and certain others to declare income, expenses, and tax due, filed through ROS.

Home Working Costs

A deduction for a proportion of household expenses, such as light, heat, and broadband, apportioned for business use where you work from home. The treatment and amount that can be claimed depend on your circumstances.

Mileage Claim

Reimbursement or a deduction for business-related travel. Employees and directors are generally reimbursed using Revenue's civil service mileage rates, while sole traders typically claim a proportion of actual motor expenses instead.

Software & Systems

Accounting Software

Digital tools that help a business manage financial tasks such as tracking income and expenses, VAT, and generating financial reports.

Bank Feed

A secure integration that imports bank transactions directly into an accounting system.

Cloud Accounting

Accounting software hosted online rather than installed locally, allowing real-time access to financial records from anywhere and easier collaboration with your accountant.

Payroll Software

A payroll tool used to process salaries, generate payslips, and submit payroll information to Revenue.