Irish year ends,
prepared on the Irish rulebook.
Accounts production for Irish practices. Hand over the client's nominal ledger and the paperwork, and RiQ prepares the full working papers set in your firm's own template: Revenue and the CRO, corporation tax at 12.5% and 25%, the close company surcharge, wear and tear, section 438, VAT3 periods and the CT1, with every figure written in euro and cell-linked back to the sheet it came from.
Not a UK set with the numbers changed.
Set your firm's tax jurisdiction to Ireland and the whole engagement moves: the rates, the allowances, the director's loan charge, the names on every schedule and the currency the papers are written in. An Irish reviewer reads "HMRC" on a VAT control account as a defect on sight, so the Irish set says Revenue, and the CRO, and the CT1.
Revenue, the CRO, the CT1
The right authority and the right documents on every sheet, which is where a UK habit shows first.
- Revenue and ROS, never HMRC
- The Companies Registration Office, never Companies House
- Form CT1 for a company, Form 11 for an individual
- Paid to Revenue and Refunded by Revenue on the control accounts
- Companies Act 2014, FRS 102 Section 1A or the micro-entity regime
12.5% and 25%, no bands
The adjusted profit splits into Case I trading income and non-trading income, and each is charged at its own rate.
- 12.5% on trading, 25% on non-trading income
- No bands and no marginal relief, because Ireland has neither
- No financial-year apportionment to do
- Balance of tax and the CT1 nine months after the year end, on the 23rd
- Preliminary tax on the 23rd of the eleventh month for a small company
The close company surcharge
The charge an owner-managed Irish company most often walks into, worked and shown rather than left for you to spot.
- 20% on undistributed estate and investment income
- 15% on half of a service company's undistributed trading income
- The €2,000 de minimis applied
- Eighteen months to distribute, before the charge bites
Wear and tear, not pools
Straight line on cost rather than the UK's pooled writing-down allowances, so the schedule carries a cost column the UK one does not have.
- 12.5% a year over eight years, on cost
- Industrial buildings at 4%
- Cars capped at the €24,000 specified amount, by CO2 band
- No annual investment allowance to claim
Section 438, not section 455
An overdrawn director's loan carries the Irish charge, at the Irish rate, on the Irish sheet.
- 20/80 of the net loan, which is 25% of it
- Refundable when the loan is repaid, claimed within four years
- Loan to participator, on a Dividends and DLA sheet that says so
- No Irish equivalent of the UK tax-free dividend allowance, so none is assumed
VAT3 periods and Irish payroll
The VAT sheet reconciles the client's actual return periods to the control account, and the payroll labels are Irish.
- 23%, 13.5%, 9%, 4.8% livestock and zero rated
- VAT3 returns, normally bi-monthly, on the basis the client actually files
- Cash receipts basis and postponed accounting both watched for
- PAYE / PRSI / USC control and Employer PRSI on the trial balance
- RCT at 0%, 20% or 35% reconciled where the client is in construction
Rates and thresholds on this page are as at September 2026, including the 9% second reduced rate that applies to hairdressing and to restaurant, catering and hot takeaway food from 1 July 2026. RiQ works from the rulebook as it stands when the job runs, and your review is still the final word on every figure.
A finished set, in your own template.
PrepIQ works inside the working-papers file your practice already uses, so what comes back carries your layout, your schedule order and your labels. The Irish templates are built as Irish sheets rather than the UK ones relabelled, and the set balances: every posted figure is a live cell link back to its working sheet, the tie-out checks run, and nothing is plugged to force a balance.
Extended trial balance
Opening balances, recorded, unrecorded and adjustment columns, all footing and balancing, with the check row nil.
Fixed assets and wear and tear
Additions, disposals and depreciation pro-rated from the acquisition dates, with the tax schedule kept separate and feeding only the computation.
Finance reconciliations
One cell-linked sheet per hire purchase, loan, mortgage or completion statement, with capital and interest split and the liability tied to the trial balance.
The Irish tax computation
Depreciation added back, wear and tear deducted, disallowables handled, the trading and non-trading split made and the surcharge memo worked.
Dividends and directors' loans
Separate loan accounts, never merged, dividends taken against distributable reserves with the queries raised, and section 438 where a loan is overdrawn.
Notes and a query register
Every judgement flagged and every gap raised as a query rather than filled with a guess. Client query emails can be switched off for in-house work.
Clients on both sides of the border.
A practice with Irish and UK clients is the normal case, not the awkward one. Your firm settings carry a default jurisdiction and the job form carries it too, so a single client can be run on the other rulebook without touching the default.
Set once, overridden per client
- The firm default applies to every job unless something overrides it
- The job form shows the jurisdiction, defaulted from that setting
- Change it there and only that client's job moves
- The jurisdiction is stamped on the job when you upload, so changing the setting later cannot disturb a job in flight or a revision of one
- The currency follows the jurisdiction unless you say otherwise, so picking Ireland never leaves the papers in sterling
The rest of the firm profile
- Tax computation prepared and posted, prepared as a memo with no journal, or left out entirely
- Accounting framework: FRS 102 Section 1A, FRS 105 or full FRS 102
- Client query email on, or off for in-house work
- Dividend policy, rounding and a materiality threshold for flagging unexplained differences
- Your firm's name, where the papers name the firm
Northern Ireland is the United Kingdom setting.
Worth stating plainly, because the geography and the tax do not line up. A Northern Ireland company pays UK corporation tax to HMRC, files a CT600, files its accounts at Companies House and reports in sterling. So a Northern Ireland practice sets its jurisdiction to United Kingdom, not Ireland, and gets the UK rulebook: 19% to 25% with marginal relief, AIA and writing-down allowances on pooled assets, section 455 on an overdrawn director's loan, and self-assessment splits for sole traders.
Belfast, Derry, Newry
A practice anywhere in Northern Ireland sets United Kingdom. Choosing Ireland would apply 12.5%, the wrong director's loan charge and the wrong currency to a company that files a CT600.
Cross-border practices
Firms working Donegal and Derry, or Dundalk and Newry, set whichever is the majority as the firm default and switch the others on the job form.
The shared ground
FRS 102 Section 1A applies on both sides of the border, and the extended trial balance, lead schedules, tie-outs and cell linking are the same work either way.
What it does not do.
Stated deliberately, so the edges are not left to inference. PrepIQ prepares working papers for your review. It is not a filing agent and it is not your professional judgement.
No filing to ROS
It does not submit the CT1, the VAT3, the RTD or the Form B1 annual return. Nothing is transmitted to Revenue or the CRO. Filing stays with your practice.
No personal computation
The tax computation stops at the profit chargeable to corporation tax, or at the adjusted profit that feeds a sole trader's Form 11. It does not compute personal credits, income tax, PRSI or USC for an individual.
No audit, and no sign-off
It prepares and flags like a senior; it does not replace review. Nothing is released until you approve it, and no audit opinion or regulated tax advice comes out of it.
If you compute and file tax in your own software, which many Irish practices do, set the tax computation to memo only. The computation is still prepared, so you get the figure and the workings, but no tax journal is posted and the papers say plainly that the firm posts tax elsewhere.
Asked by Irish practices.
Does PrepIQ do Irish company year ends?
Yes. Set the tax jurisdiction to Ireland in your firm settings and every job is prepared on the Irish rulebook: Revenue and the CRO rather than HMRC and Companies House, the CT1 rather than a CT600, corporation tax at 12.5% on trading income and 25% on non-trading income, the close company surcharge, wear and tear capital allowances, and section 438 on a loan to a participator. The papers are written in euro. The Irish templates are separate sheets built for the Irish computation, not the UK ones with the rates swapped.
Is Northern Ireland the Irish jurisdiction or the UK one?
The UK one. A Northern Ireland company pays UK corporation tax to HMRC, files a CT600, files its accounts at Companies House and reports in sterling, so a Northern Ireland practice sets its jurisdiction to United Kingdom. Choosing Ireland would apply the wrong rates, the wrong director's loan charge and the wrong currency. A practice with clients on both sides of the border sets a default and changes it on the job form for the ones that differ.
How does it calculate Irish corporation tax?
The adjusted profit is split into trading income chargeable at 12.5% and non-trading income chargeable at 25%, each charged at its own rate, with no bands and no marginal relief because Ireland has neither, and no financial-year apportionment. The close company surcharge is worked separately on undistributed estate and investment income, at 20%, with the €2,000 de minimis and the eighteen-month distribution window. The balance of tax and the CT1 are due nine months after the year end, on the twenty-third day of that month.
How are Irish capital allowances handled?
Wear and tear is straight line on cost at 12.5% a year over eight years, rather than the UK's pooled writing-down allowances, so the Irish schedule carries a cost column the UK one does not have. Industrial buildings run at 4%. Cars are capped at the €24,000 specified amount by CO2 band, so a car bought for more than that claims on the capped figure.
Can it prepare the CT1 or file to Revenue?
No. PrepIQ prepares the working papers and the tax computation up to the profit chargeable to corporation tax. It does not file anything to ROS, it does not submit the CT1, the VAT3, the RTD or the annual return, and it does not prepare a Form 11 personal computation. Those stay with your practice.
What about practices with both Irish and UK clients?
That is the normal case and it is handled. The firm sets a default jurisdiction and the job form carries it too, so an individual client can be run on the other rulebook without changing the firm default. Each job is stamped with its jurisdiction when you upload, so changing the setting later cannot disturb a job already running or a revision of one.
Does it work for audit-exempt limited companies?
Yes, and that is the common case. It prepares the working papers behind the financial statements under FRS 102 Section 1A or the micro-entity regime. Worth knowing separately: from 16 July 2025, a company that files its annual return late more than once in a five-year period loses audit exemption for the following two years, so where the records suggest a late filing it goes on the query register rather than being passed over.
How is it different from Relate, Bright or Surf Accounts Production?
Traditional accounts production software gives you a template and the schedules to fill in. PrepIQ prepares the working papers themselves from the raw records, reconciles them to the paperwork, and hands the finished set to you to review. It works from any platform's ledger export rather than requiring the books to be kept in a particular package, and it sits before accounts production rather than replacing it.
What does it cost for an Irish practice?
PrepIQ is included on the IQ Suite practice plans, from Practice Essential upward, alongside IQ Books, ReconcileIQ, CodeIQ and LedgerIQ on one subscription. A year-end job draws 5,000 credits on the default RiQ engine or 10,000 on maximum, and Ask RiQ revisions draw 1,250 or 2,500. Subscriptions are billed in pounds sterling wherever your practice is, even though Irish working papers are written in euro.
What records do you need from the client?
The nominal ledger or bookkeeping export from whatever the client is kept on, the trial balance alongside it, and the paperwork: bank statements, hire purchase and loan agreements, the VAT3 returns for the year, payroll year-end documents, invoices behind anything capitalised, and the client's own emails explaining the odd items. There is no special export to produce.
Run an Irish year end and see the set.
Set the jurisdiction, upload a client's records, and review what comes back. PrepIQ is live on the practice plans and there is nothing to request or install.
More detail: the full PrepIQ feature tour, how to run a year end step by step, or the PrepIQ overview.