Irish Company Types: LTD vs DAC and More (2026 Guide)

The usual answer lists six company types, describes each one politely, and refuses to tell you which to pick. Most of it was also written in 2021 or 2023, before anyone asked what a non-resident founder should do. So let us start where they end.

The verdict: you want an LTD

You almost certainly want an LTD, the private company limited by shares under Part 2 of the Companies Act 2014. It is the form built for ordinary trading businesses, and roughly 9 out of 10 new Irish companies use it. Keep reading past the LTD section only if you plan to list debt securities (DAC or PLC), run a nonprofit (CLG), operate in a regulated sector whose regulator demands a DAC, or a lender has told you otherwise.

LTD — the answer

• Private company limited by shares, Part 2 of the Companies Act 2014
• The form built for ordinary trading businesses
• Roughly 9 of 10 new Irish companies use it

Listing debt securities

• A DAC or a PLC, not an LTD
• The one structural restriction that actually bites

Running a nonprofit

• A CLG, company limited by guarantee
• Nonprofits only, and it is not a tax status

A regulator or lender says DAC

• Some regulated sectors require the purpose locked in the constitution
• If nobody has told you this, it does not apply to you

That verdict rarely gets stated, so here is the reasoning behind it, plus the honest tour of the other five forms, a correction to a widely copied error about company secretaries, and the one requirement that follows a non-resident founder into every single form on this list.

The LTD, by what it unlocks for a non-resident

The 2014 Act designed the LTD as the simplified default, and its features map almost perfectly onto a cross-border founder's needs:

• One director is enough. Every Irish company must have at least one director (s128(1)); for an LTD, one is also the maximum required. Most other forms need two.
• No objects clause. An LTD has full, unlimited corporate capacity. You can pivot from SaaS to e-commerce to consulting without amending a single constitutional line. A DAC, by contrast, is legally boxed into its stated objects.
• A one-document constitution. No memorandum-and-articles pair; one short document, filed once.
• 1 to 149 shareholders. Solo founder to a serious cap table, without changing form.
• No AGM theatre. An LTD can dispense with physical general meetings by written resolutions, which matters when the shareholders are in three time zones.
• No minimum capital. Issue one share for €1 and you are capitalised.

1director minimum (s128), and no second director required

149maximum shareholders, from a solo founder up

0objects clause: full and unlimited capacity to trade in anything lawful

For a founder in India or Russia building an EU base, these are not abstract conveniences: the single-director minimum, written resolutions and unlimited capacity are what make a fully remote, one-person Irish company legally clean.

The requirement that applies to every form: one EEA-resident director

Before the type-by-type tour, the line that the type pages never print. Under s137 Companies Act 2014, every Irish company, whatever its form, must have at least one director resident in an EEA state, or hold a bond to the value of €25,000 (the figure in s137(2); market documentation often shows €25,394.76, an inherited amount).

Choosing between LTD and DAC changes nothing about this. The residence test, the bond, the resident director service market and the s140 exemption are a decision of their own, covered in the non-resident director guide. Here, treat it as a constant across the whole table below.

The company secretary rule, and the single-director trap

Every Irish company must have a secretary (s129(1)). Here is where a widely copied comparison table gets the law wrong, so let us cite the actual section. The secretary may be one of the directors; the Act only forbids it in one case: if the company has just one director, that director cannot also be the secretary (s129(6)).

The practical consequences, as of August 2026:

• Two directors? One of them can double as secretary. No extra person, no extra cost.
• Solo founder, single director? You must appoint a separate secretary: a second individual (anywhere in the world, no residency requirement) or a corporate secretarial service, which the market prices at roughly €100 to €500 per year.
• Either way, the directors carry a statutory duty to ensure the secretary has the skills or resources to do the job (s129(4)). A name on a form is not compliance.

This is the second structural cost of going solo into Ireland, after s137, and it belongs in your budget from day one; the full annual bill is itemised in the cost guide.

LTD vs DAC: the differences

The DAC (Designated Activity Company) is the 2014 Act's successor to the old-style private company, introduced on 1 June 2015, and it exists for companies that want to be constitutionally constrained.

Who actually needs a DAC

The test is one question: does anyone with power over your company need its purpose locked in writing? That is true for regulated financial vehicles (some regulators require it), securitisation and debt SPVs (bondholders want the box), joint ventures (partners want the object frozen so neither side can wander), and certain grant-funded or charitable structures. If nobody is demanding an objects clause from you, the DAC's extra director, heavier constitution and AGM obligations buy you nothing. For a SaaS, e-commerce or services founder the answer is simply no.

The other four, in two paragraphs each

PLC (Public Limited Company). The form for listing shares on a stock exchange: minimum share capital of €25,000, two directors, heavier governance. Nobody incorporates a startup as a PLC; you convert into one at IPO, years and several funding rounds after this article stops being relevant to you.

CLG (Company Limited by Guarantee). No share capital: members guarantee a nominal amount instead. This is the vehicle for nonprofits, clubs, management companies and charities. It cannot distribute profits to members, which is the point, and which makes it the wrong tool for any commercial venture.

UC (Unlimited Company). Shareholders have unlimited liability for the company's debts, in exchange for certain filing privileges. It is a niche structure used in some corporate groups for confidentiality and treasury reasons. A founder giving up limited liability, the main reason companies exist, needs advice this article should not pretend to give.

LP (Limited Partnership). Not a company at all: a partnership under the 1907 Act with a general partner carrying unlimited liability. Used in fund structures. If you are not building an investment fund, keep walking.

Branch vs Irish subsidiary

One option the type pages skip entirely: if you already own a company abroad, you can register it in Ireland as an external company (a branch) instead of incorporating a new Irish entity. The branch is not a separate legal person, its filings mirror the parent's, and its liabilities are the parent's liabilities.

The practical test: a branch suits a mature foreign company adding an Irish operational outpost; a subsidiary (an LTD owned by your existing company) suits anyone who wants Irish limited liability, an Irish balance sheet, and clean EU status in its own right. Most founders reading this want the subsidiary, and banks generally prefer it too.

Requirements by type: the non-resident view

The full comparison: every form, crossed with what it demands, and whether it is friendly to a founder with no one in Ireland.

The section 137 EEA-resident director rule applies to every company form above; only the LP, which has partners rather than directors, sits outside it.

Read the s137 column again: it is the one line that never changes. Whatever you pick, the EEA-resident director question is waiting, and the non-resident guide is where it gets answered.

Converting later: LTD to DAC and back

If a regulator or lender surprises you post-incorporation, conversion between LTD and DAC exists under the Act: a members' resolution, a revised constitution and a CRO filing, typically handled by your company secretary or advisor in weeks, not months. It is routine enough that picking the LTD today is not a trap; it is the reversible default.