How much does it cost to set up a limited company in Ireland? The CRO's online incorporation fee is €50, but that is a filing charge—not a complete first-year business budget. Professional formation help, a registered office service, accounting and ongoing compliance can add separate costs. The useful comparison is the total for your setup, not just the cheapest headline on a registration page.
Direct answer
As checked on 2 October 2026, electronic Form A1 incorporation costs €50 at the CRO. Formation-provider packages cost more and cover different services. Budget separately for anything not included: address and secretary support, accounting, banking, tax-compliance work and renewal fees. There is no single all-inclusive price for every Irish company.
The €50 CRO fee versus the cost of setting up the business
The CRO company-fee schedule lists €50 for an electronic A1 new-company application. Paying a professional to prepare and submit the application is a different service. It may include document preparation and help resolving questions; the provider's price should say whether the statutory fee is already included. Do not add €50 twice when comparing an inclusive package.
Doing the filing yourself also means taking responsibility for the information and documents. The lower cash price does not make every company structure straightforward. Where ownership, director circumstances or arrangements between founders are complex, obtain appropriate advice rather than choosing a route on filing cost alone.
Published formation-price examples, not an Irish average
These examples were checked on 2 October 2026. They are a small snapshot of published offers, not a representative survey, recommendation or promise that you qualify. Confirm the current scope and final payable amount directly before ordering.
| Route or example | Published price | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Direct CRO electronic A1 | €50 filing fee | You prepare the application; ongoing services are not included |
| StartCompany.ie Basic | €189 stated total payable | Provider says CRO fees and core documents are included; check your requirements |
| Forti formation starting price | From €250 + VAT | Obtain the applicable package and confirm inclusions, statutory fees and extras |
Sources: StartCompany's published packages and Forti's published pricing. Disclosure: StartCompany.ie advertises on Businesses.ie. Its inclusion here is a disclosed price example, not an independent endorsement or a reason to ignore competing quotes.
What belongs in your one-off formation budget?
Ask for an itemised quote covering the application, constitution and supporting company documents, plus any advice or additional identity steps required for your case. Separate routine administration from legal work such as a bespoke shareholder agreement. A formation package is not automatically a tax-planning engagement or a complete agreement between the founders.
Establish who handles the work after incorporation. Does the package include tax-registration assistance or beneficial-ownership filing support, or simply provide instructions? A provider can charge for assistance even where a particular government filing has no charge. Ask what is being purchased rather than assuming every line item is a statutory fee.
Registered office and company secretary: recurring or included?
If you need an address service, compare the first-year fee, renewal price, mail handling and cancellation terms. An introductory inclusion can expire even though the company continues to need a compliant address. If you can legitimately use your own address, that changes the cash budget; it does not remove the need to understand the address requirements.
Treat company-secretary arrangements separately. Our Irish company-secretary guide explains the role. Ask whether a service actually supplies a secretary, provides administrative support only, or includes selected filings. “Company secretarial services” and “a named company secretary” are not necessarily the same offer.
Accounting is usually a separate budget decision
Incorporation does not prepare your bookkeeping, annual accounts or tax returns. Ask an accountant to quote for your transaction volume, payroll, VAT work and annual compliance. Compare the total annual scope, not a monthly fee with a cheaper year-end-only service. Use our accountant-cost guide for published examples and a quote-comparison method.
A pre-trading or dormant company can still have obligations. Do not set the compliance budget to zero merely because there are no customer invoices. Ask what work is needed for the particular company and period, and whether the package assumes records are already complete. Audit, specialist tax advice and historical cleanup should be identified separately where relevant.
Annual-return filing fees are not accountant fees
The CRO fee schedule lists €20 for a B1 annual return. That does not include preparing financial statements or professional administration. Ask whether the €20 is included in a compliance quote or billed as a separate disbursement. A low filing fee should not be presented as the total cost of an annual accounting service.
The first return and first accounts do not follow an identical timetable. Read our first annual-return and financial-statements guide and confirm the actual schedule with your adviser. A first-year budget must make clear which period and filings the quote covers, especially if the first engagement extends beyond twelve months.
A worked first-year budget
Consider this fictional budget, not a provider quote: formation service €250 including the CRO application fee; accounting €150 per month for twelve months; address service €240; banking €120; and a separate €20 annual-return filing fee. The arithmetic is €250 + €1,800 + €240 + €120 + €20 = €2,430 before any applicable VAT on the taxable services.
Replace every assumed service price with your own quote. If the accountant includes the B1 filing fee, remove that €20. If the formation package includes the address for the period, do not count it again. This example excludes stock, equipment, insurance, premises and business taxes; it illustrates setup and administration budgeting, not the total cash needed to launch every kind of business.
Why VAT and renewal terms change the comparison
Record whether each price is VAT-inclusive, VAT-exclusive or a stated final payable amount. Do not apply VAT to every line indiscriminately: statutory fees and provider services may be treated differently. Ask for the final invoice breakdown. Whether your business can recover input VAT is a separate tax question, not an automatic reduction you should assume in the cash budget.
Also record renewal dates and future rates. A one-off formation fee is different from a first-year subscription that renews. Ask about postage, software, extra filings, cancellation, migration of records and support beyond the included period. A written year-one and year-two comparison can reveal costs a single headline price hides.
Compare the structure and provider before paying
Price is one part of deciding whether a company is right for the business. Our sole-trader versus limited-company guide explains the broader distinction. Obtain advice on your circumstances instead of assuming incorporation is worthwhile because the application fee is inexpensive.
For an Irish incorporated service provider, check the legal entity behind the quote and independently confirm payment details. Search results cannot tell you whether a proposed company name will be accepted by the CRO, and a company report does not constitute formation or tax advice. Use the public record to support provider due diligence, not to replace the actual contract and professional checks.
Sources and editorial review
The cover is an AI-generated editorial illustration, not an official CRO document or a photograph of a named provider.
Prices and sources checked by the Businesses.ie Editorial Team on 2 October 2026: the CRO company-fee schedule and the provider pages linked above. Provider prices may change and apply only to the stated scope. The budget is explicitly fictional, not a market average. This is general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice. See our editorial policy.