Top 5 Reasons to Establish Your Business in Ireland

Ireland offers a flexible and competitive regime to companies who are looking for a location to structure European operations. Countless international groups use Irish holding companies to hold other subsidiaries and conduct M&A activities. With Brexit now looming, Ireland is set to thrive as the only English speaking full member of the EU. In this article we explore the top 5 reasons to establish your business in Ireland. 

Skilled Workforce Ireland has one of the most educated workforces in the world with one million people in full-time education. As an English speaking country with direct access to the EU labour force of approximately 250 million people, over half a million Irish residents now speak a foreign language fluently. Ireland is also number one in the world for the availability of senior management talent, many of whom gain employment with the multi-national companies based in Ireland. 

Tax Benefits There are many tax benefits for companies investing in Ireland, either with fully fledged trading operations or global holding company structures. We outline some of those benefits here. Ireland’s low rate of corporation tax (12.5%) is half the OECD average. Knowledge Development Box (KDB) 6.25% tax rate is available on development activities carried out by an Irish Company. Research and Development (R&D) benefits from 25% tax credit, tax depreciation on acquired or capitalised Intellectual Property (IP) and a competitive holding company regime combine to offer your company an unrivalled location of choice for inward investment. 

Connectivity Extensive transport links between Ireland to Europe and the rest of the world and US pre-clearance facilities at Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport, the only ones of their kind in Europe, make Ireland one of the most connected countries to establish a business. 

Quality of Life With 33% of Irish citizens under the age of 25 and almost half under the age of 34, Ireland has the youngest population in Europe. Ireland has unrivalled heritage, culture and impressive natural landscapes, all within close proximity to the busy cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. This is ideal for escaping the city noise after a busy week at the office. 

Government Programmes Additional to the generous tax benefits on offer, government programmes are available to companies looking to establish a base in Ireland. The Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) provides Income tax relief, of up to 30%, to employees who are assigned to work in Ireland from abroad. This programme was designed to help companies provide key employees with incentives to relocate to Ireland. The Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP) offers further benefits to employers who wish to award employees the opportunity to earn a bonus based on the share price performance of the company, without them necessarily becoming long-term shareholders in the company. Ireland is home to many of the world’s leading high-performance companies including Amazon, Intel, Pfizer, Citi, Fujitsu, Apple, Dell, Twitter, Facebook and Google. The country is positioning itself to become a world leader in Health Innovation, Cloud Computing, SAAS, Big Data, ICT Skill, Sports Tech, Energy Efficiency and Internet of Things. 

Over 1,200 overseas companies call Ireland home

• 1 in the world for investment incentives and inward investment jobs per capita.
• 1 for flexibility and adaptability of people.
• 1 for European investment from US.
• 7 of the top 10 global software companies based in Ireland.
• 10 of the top 10 pharma companies based in Ireland.
• 8 of the top 10 industrial automation companies based in Ireland.
• 14 of the top 15 global aviation lessors have operations in Ireland.
• 19 of the top 25 financial services companies are in Ireland.
• 14 of the top 15 medtech companies based in Ireland.

Figures provided by IDA Ireland 

Our Areas of International Expertise

• International Company Structuring
• International Strategic Planning
• Company Formation & Maintaining
• Annual Statutory Financial Statements
• Preparation and Submission of Annual Returns
• Provision of Corporation Tax Returns
• Provision of Registered Office
• Provision of Company Secretary
• Maintaining EEA Directorships
• Assistance with opening a company (Euro) bank account
• Payroll Solutions
• VAT Compliance

• Other Business Advice

   

If you are considering locations for structuring your company’s European operations, Ireland has a lot to offer in this regard. Please get in touch with one of our International Business experts to discover how we can best assist you in this process.