A company is required to have an Irish legal entity established in order to process a payroll in Ireland.

Company

In order to set up as a company, the client must first register with the CRO and receive a CRO number. For multinationals, registering as a Limited Company with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) typically takes 2-4 weeks.

If the client uses a tax agent, then the agent must register with Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revenue) online through Revenue Online Services (ROS). If no tax agent will be used, then the client must register through mail using Form TR2 for Irish resident companies or Form TR2 (FT) for foreign companies; Revenue will then send the client instructions to complete registration using ROS.

Revenue will provide the client with a Tax Reference Number (TRN), which it will use when trading and filing tax returns. Tax filings and payments must be done using ROS.

Setting up an in-country bank account is not necessary as it is not mandatory to make payments to employees from an in-country bank account.

Sole trader

In order to set up as a sole trader, the client must first register for a Personal Public Service (PPS) number by going in person to the nearest PPS Number Allocation Centre (in Ireland only). It is also possible to register for the PPS number from overseas by submitting a general enquiry through this link.

The client then registers with Ireland’s revenue department and pays all of taxes using their personal PPS number. This link can be used to register. Then, all payments and returns can be filed on myAccount.

If the client wants to use a business name rather than their own name or surname, then they can register with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) using Form RBN1.

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Overview

By law, employers in Ireland must keep certain records on file relating to their employees for specific minimum periods. These records must be kept at the place of employment. The Workplace Relations Commission, Office of the Revenue Commissioners, and other bodies may request these records during an inspection. In addition, it is recommended that the employer keep certain documentation for support in the event of a dispute.

Various minimum retention periods flow from numerous separate statutes, and lack any obvious consistency or underpinning logic. While the most important of the current retention periods are set out below, these retention periods are not exhaustive and are subject to change. We would strongly advise that employers seek out specific and specialist legal advice to confirm how the various periods may apply to their given situation.

Where employee records are not required to be held by law or to defend future proceedings, employers may retain the relevant data for so long as is necessary for the purpose or purposes for which they were collected or legitimately further processed. This needs to be ascertained on the facts of each specific case; there are no concrete periods of time on which data controllers can rely to comply with this requirement. The Data Protection Commissioner’s (‘DPC’) approach to this issue is best seen in his published Audit Report into the activities of Facebook Ireland Limited. On page 74 of this report, the DPC noted that “all periods chosen for the retention of personal data must be fully evidence based, and the period chosen cannot seek to cover all possible eventualities where personal data may be useful to the company.”

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