Irish transfer pricing under Part 35A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA), as substituted by Finance Act 2019 and amended since. It covers who is associated (s.835B), the arm's length rule and the 2022 OECD Guidelines (s.835C, s.835D), Pillar One Amount B (s.835DA, from 2025), the domestic…
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Accountant-authored. Written and published by Ryan Duguid, an accountant approved on OpenAccountants. Their licence number is not on file. Their registration is in Australia; this skill covers Ireland. General reference material, not advice on your specific facts; don't file, pay, or take a position on it without a professional reviewing your situation.
If you are an AI assistant using this skill for Ireland transfer pricing (Part 35A TCA 1997), 2026 (Ireland): treat it as general reference material for drafting and review support. Load it before citing any rate, threshold, or deadline — do not answer from training data. Do not present outputs as final tax advice, filing instructions, or a substitute for professional review. Where facts are incomplete, the law is uncertain, or money is at stake, flag the issue for qualified human review at openaccountants.com.
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| Item | Rate or amount | Tax year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation tax on trading income (where a TP adjustment hits a trade) | 12.5% | 2026 | https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/corporation-tax-for-companies/corporation-tax/basis-of-charge.aspx |
| Corporation tax on non-trading income and excepted trades | 25% | 2026 | same page |
| Master file: MNE group total revenue in the relevant period | EUR 250 million or more | 2026 | s.835G(1), (3)(a); https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2019/act/45/section/27/enacted/en/html |
| Local file: MNE group total revenue in the relevant period | EUR 50 million or more | 2026 | s.835G(1), (3)(b); same |
| SME exclusion: group staff / turnover / balance sheet | under 250; EUR 50m or less and/or EUR 43m or less | 2026 | s.835EA; TDM 35A-01-01 section 7 |
| Capital allowances: TP applies to the acquirer's allowances only if capital expenditure on the asset exceeds, and to the supplier's balancing allowance or charge only if the asset's market value exceeds | EUR 25 million | 2026 | s.835HA(1)(a), (c) |
| Chargeable gains: TP applies only if market value of the asset exceeds | EUR 25 million | 2026 | s.835HB(2)(a), (3)(a) |
| Low-value-adding intra-group services, simplified approach mark-up | 5% on relevant costs, no benchmarking needed | 2026 | TDM 35A-01-01 section 8.7 (2022 OECD Guidelines Ch. VII D) |
| Pillar One Amount B: tested party operating expenses must be within | 3% to 30% of net revenues | chargeable periods from 1 Jan 2025 | s.835DA(2)(b)(iii); Finance Act 2024 s.45 |
| Documentation produced on request | within 30 days of a written request | 2026 | s.835G(5)(b) |
| Fixed penalty, failure to produce documentation | EUR 4,000 | 2026 | s.835G(6)(a) |
| Fixed penalty if the local file threshold is met | EUR 25,000 plus EUR 100 a day while the failure continues | 2026 | s.835G(6)(b) |
| Country-by-country report: group revenue in the preceding fiscal year | EUR 750 million or more | 2026 | TDM 38-03-21 paragraphs 2 and 8 (s.891H) |
| CbC report penalty | EUR 19,045 plus EUR 2,535 a day; EUR 19,045 for an incorrect or incomplete report | 2026 | TDM 38-03-21 paragraph 30 (s.891H(7)) |
| Late payment interest on corporation tax | 0.0219% per day | 2026 | https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/corporation-tax-for-companies/corporation-tax-payment-and-filing/payment-and-filing.aspx |
This skill sets out how Irish transfer pricing works for chargeable periods in 2026: who is in scope, what must be documented and by when, what happens if Revenue adjusts a price, and how double taxation is removed. The law is Part 35A TCA 1997 (sections 835A to 835HB), substituted by section 27 of Finance Act 2019 for chargeable periods starting on or after 1 January 2020, and amended since: Finance Act 2021 substituted s.835E (the domestic non-trading exclusion), Finance Act 2022 moved s.835D to the 2022 OECD Guidelines, and Finance Act 2024 s.45 inserted s.835DA (Amount B). Finance Act 2025 made no change to Part 35A, and the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026, as initiated in October 2026, does not amend it. Country-by-country reporting sits in s.891H TCA, which Finance Act 2025 s.50 amended for accounting periods ending on or after 1 January 2026.
Revenue's main guidance is Tax and Duty Manual (TDM) Part 35A-01-01, last reviewed June 2024, and the Notes for Guidance on Part 35A, Finance Act 2025 edition (December 2025). Where the two differ, the Notes for Guidance are newer.
See also: ie-corporation-tax (rates, CT1, preliminary tax, interest limitation), ie-cross-border (treaties, withholding, non-residents) and the method skill transfer-pricing-workflow-base (functional analysis, method choice, benchmarking).
Associated persons (s.835B). Two persons are associated if one participates in the management, control or capital of the other, or the same person participates in both. The controlled person must be a company. A company controlled by an individual together with relatives (spouse, civil partner, ancestor, lineal descendant, brother or sister, s.433(3)(a)) counts as controlled by that individual. "Control" follows s.11 TCA.
Arrangements in scope (s.835C(1)). Any arrangement for the supply and acquisition of goods, services, money, assets (including intangibles) or anything else of commercial value, where supplier and acquirer are associated at the time, and the profits, gains or losses of either side are within the charge to Irish income tax, corporation tax or capital gains tax. Since 2020 this covers trading, non-trading and capital transactions, domestic and cross-border.
Pre-July 2010 arrangements. The old grandfathering for terms agreed before 1 July 2010 ended for chargeable periods starting on or after 1 January 2020 (Finance Act 2019 s.27(5)). Those arrangements must now be priced at arm's length.
Out of scope:
Irish branches of non-resident companies. A non-resident company chargeable to corporation tax on an Irish branch trade is within the charge, so its arrangements with associated persons that feed into the branch profits are in scope, and it can be a qualifying person for s.835E on arrangements relating to the branch (TDM 35A-01-01, section 6.4.4). Attribution of profit between head office and branch is a separate question, not covered here.
| Item | Rate or amount | Tax year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation tax on trading income (where a TP adjustment hits a trade) | 12.5% | 2026 | https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/corporation-tax-for-companies/corporation-tax/basis-of-charge.aspx |
| Corporation tax on non-trading income and excepted trades | 25% | 2026 | same page |
| Master file: MNE group total revenue in the relevant period | EUR 250 million or more | 2026 | s.835G(1), (3)(a); https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2019/act/45/section/27/enacted/en/html |
| Local file: MNE group total revenue in the relevant period | EUR 50 million or more | 2026 | s.835G(1), (3)(b); same |
| SME exclusion: group staff / turnover / balance sheet | under 250; EUR 50m or less and/or EUR 43m or less | 2026 | s.835EA; TDM 35A-01-01 section 7 |
| Capital allowances: TP applies to the acquirer's allowances only if capital expenditure on the asset exceeds, and to the supplier's balancing allowance or charge only if the asset's market value exceeds | EUR 25 million | 2026 | s.835HA(1)(a), (c) |
| Chargeable gains: TP applies only if market value of the asset exceeds | EUR 25 million | 2026 | s.835HB(2)(a), (3)(a) |
| Low-value-adding intra-group services, simplified approach mark-up | 5% on relevant costs, no benchmarking needed | 2026 | TDM 35A-01-01 section 8.7 (2022 OECD Guidelines Ch. VII D) |
| Pillar One Amount B: tested party operating expenses must be within | 3% to 30% of net revenues | chargeable periods from 1 Jan 2025 | s.835DA(2)(b)(iii); Finance Act 2024 s.45 |
| Documentation produced on request | within 30 days of a written request | 2026 | s.835G(5)(b) |
| Fixed penalty, failure to produce documentation | EUR 4,000 | 2026 | s.835G(6)(a) |
| Fixed penalty if the local file threshold is met | EUR 25,000 plus EUR 100 a day while the failure continues | 2026 | s.835G(6)(b) |
| Country-by-country report: group revenue in the preceding fiscal year | EUR 750 million or more | 2026 | TDM 38-03-21 paragraphs 2 and 8 (s.891H) |
| CbC report penalty | EUR 19,045 plus EUR 2,535 a day; EUR 19,045 for an incorrect or incomplete report | 2026 | TDM 38-03-21 paragraph 30 (s.891H(7)) |
| Late payment interest on corporation tax | 0.0219% per day | 2026 | https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/corporation-tax-for-companies/corporation-tax-payment-and-filing/payment-and-filing.aspx |
Pillar Two: in-scope groups also pay the 15% minimum tax; see ie-corporation-tax. A transfer pricing adjustment changes the Irish profit that feeds into that computation.
The two rules (s.835C(2)). If the consideration an acquirer pays is more than the arm's length amount, the acquirer's taxable profits are computed as if the arm's length amount were paid. If the consideration a supplier receives is less than the arm's length amount (including nothing at all), the supplier's taxable profits are computed as if the arm's length amount were received. The rules only increase Irish profits or reduce Irish losses. They never reduce Irish taxable profit on their own initiative.
Finding the arm's length amount (s.835C(3) to (5)). First identify the actual commercial and financial relations (the "identified arrangement"), based on substance where it differs from the written form. Then apply the most appropriate method from the OECD Guidelines. An arrangement that independent parties acting rationally would not have entered into can be disregarded or replaced (Chapter I, D.2). For loans, this includes testing the amount of debt, not only the interest rate (TDM 35A-01-01, section 4.4.2).
OECD Guidelines (s.835D). Part 35A is construed, as far as practicable, consistently with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. Since chargeable periods starting on or after 1 January 2023 that means the January 2022 edition (Finance Act 2022). The Minister can designate later OECD guidance by order.
Pillar One Amount B (s.835DA). For chargeable periods from 1 January 2025, where an Irish company sells goods to a related wholesale distributor (or uses a related sales agent or commissionaire) resident in a "covered jurisdiction" that has a tax treaty with Ireland, and that jurisdiction prices the distributor under Amount B, Ireland accepts that outcome. Commodities, services and digital goods are excluded, and the distributor's operating expenses must sit between 3% and 30% of net revenue. The local file must hold extra Amount B information, and the Irish party must notify Revenue that the section applied.
Amounts treated as distributions (s.835C(7)). If part of an excess payment is already treated as a distribution (for example, interest recharacterised under s.130), the TP comparison uses the payment net of that amount, so the same excess is not hit twice.
Low-value-adding services. A taxpayer can apply the OECD simplified approach (2022 Guidelines, Chapter VII, D) without an election: cost plus 5%, no benchmarking study, but the Chapter VII D.3 documentation must exist. Financial transactions are not low-value services; Senior management services, R&D, sales and marketing and the group's core business are also excluded (2022 Guidelines para 7.47). Revenue's own example denies penalty protection to a company that priced a loan this way (TDM 35A-01-01, example 8.14.2.1).
Capital transactions. TP applies to the acquirer's capital allowances only where the capital expenditure on the asset exceeds EUR 25 million, and to the supplier's balancing allowance or charge only where the asset's market value exceeds EUR 25 million (s.835HA), and to chargeable gains only where the asset's market value exceeds EUR 25 million (s.835HB). Assets split to stay under EUR 25 million are added back together. Several no-gain no-loss reliefs (group transfers, reconstructions) take priority over TP. TP cannot reduce a gain, increase a loss, or raise an acquirer's base cost above what the gains rules give.
Corresponding adjustment, domestic only (s.835H). If one Irish taxpayer's profits are adjusted up, the Irish counterparty (the "affected person") can claim the matching downward adjustment, once the tax on the upward adjustment has been paid. Closing trading stock values are not changed. Foreign tax credit is reduced to match. For a cross-border adjustment, relief comes through the treaty (see Cross-border points).
Documentation (s.835G). Every relevant person in scope must have records reasonably required to show its profits follow Part 35A. On top of that, a constituent entity of an MNE group must hold:
The "relevant period" is the group's fiscal year that corresponds to (or substantially coincides with) the Irish company's chargeable period, not the preceding year. For this test an "MNE group" has entities in two or more jurisdictions, or a foreign permanent establishment, with no CbC-style exclusion for small groups. A purely domestic group is not an MNE group, so the master and local file duties do not apply to it, but the general records duty in s.835G(2) does.
Revenue accepts a single Irish "country file" for all Irish group entities if entity-level data is readily accessible, counterparty documentation if complete from the Irish side, and documentation held abroad if it can be produced in 30 days (TDM 35A-01-01, section 8.8). Revenue expects a full TNMM benchmarking search every 3 years with comparables' financials refreshed every year (section 8.9).
Arrangements agreed before 1 July 2010, unchanged since, between two qualifying persons are excluded from the documentation duty (s.835G(4)).
| What | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| TP documentation (records, master file, local file) prepared | No later than the CT1 return filing date for the period (s.835G(5)(a)); for ROS filers, the 23rd of the ninth month after the period ends | Held by the company, not filed |
| Documentation provided to Revenue | Within 30 days of a written request from a Revenue officer (s.835G(5)(b)) | As the request directs |
| Amount B notification | No later than the CT1 return filing date for the period (s.835G(3A), as read with s.835DA(5)(b)) | Revenue, in the form Revenue prescribes |
| CbC notification (who files the report) | By the last day of the group's fiscal year, every year (TDM 38-03-21 paragraph 32) | ROS |
| CbC report | Within 12 months after the end of the fiscal year (TDM 38-03-21 paragraph 27) | ROS, in XML |
| Domestic corresponding adjustment claim (s.835H) | After the tax on the upward adjustment is paid; amend the CT1 within the normal time limits | ROS |
| Correlative adjustment claim for a foreign adjustment (treaty Article 9) | After the foreign tax is paid | Form CA1 |
| MAP request under a treaty | Within the time limit in the treaty. Treaties that follow Article 25 of the OECD Model allow 3 years from the first notification of the action; a few set a different period, so read the treaty and any MLI change. Revenue counts from the date the first assessment notice (or equivalent) is received (TDM 35-02-08 section 2.1.1) | Revenue competent authority |
| EU dispute complaint (S.I. No. 306 of 2019, amended by S.I. No. 673 of 2020) | Within 3 years of receipt of the first notification of the action; competent authorities then accept or reject within 6 months (TDM 35-02-10 sections 2 and 2.1) | Competent authority of each Member State concerned (an Irish individual or smaller company files with Revenue only) |
Revenue works TP compliance through two programmes: the Transfer Pricing Compliance Review, a self-review that is a Level 1 intervention (an unprompted disclosure is still possible), and risk-driven audits by the Large Corporates Division, which are Level 2 (TDM 35A-01-01, section 12).
Failure to produce documentation (s.835G(6)). EUR 4,000 if the records are not provided within 30 days of a written request. If the company meets the local file threshold (group revenue EUR 50 million or more), the penalty is EUR 25,000 plus EUR 100 for each day the failure continues. The higher penalty applies to a failure to produce any required TP documentation, not only the local file (TDM 35A-01-01, section 8.14.1).
Penalty protection (s.835G(7)). A TP adjustment is ignored when deciding whether a careless-behaviour tax-geared penalty applies (s.1077E(5), or s.1077F(2)(d) where relevant) if all three conditions are met:
Protection does not cover deliberate behaviour. Revenue gives two examples where protection fails: pricing a loan as a low-value service, and ignoring an internal comparable such as a third-party loan on similar terms (TDM 35A-01-01, section 8.14.2).
Tax and interest. The adjustment itself brings the extra tax plus late payment interest at 0.0219% a day from the original due date.
CbC reporting (s.891H(7)). Failure to file: EUR 19,045 plus EUR 2,535 a day while the failure continues. Incorrect or incomplete report: EUR 19,045. An Irish constituent entity that fails to ask its parent for the information needed for the report is treated as having failed to file (TDM 38-03-21 paragraph 14).
Treaty relief. Ireland's treaties follow Article 9 of the OECD Model. Where a foreign tax authority adjusts the price and the Irish company accepts and pays, the Irish company can claim a correlative adjustment on Form CA1 (Revenue Article 9 guidance, TDM 35-02-09). Where the adjustment is disputed, the Mutual Agreement Procedure applies (TDM 35-02-08). Revenue's competent authority function is independent of audit.
EU disputes. Two routes exist: the EU Arbitration Convention (90/436/EEC), limited to TP and profit attribution, and Council Directive (EU) 2017/1852, given effect by the European Union (Tax Dispute Resolution Mechanisms) Regulations 2019 (S.I. No. 306 of 2019, amended by S.I. No. 673 of 2020) for tax years starting on or after 1 January 2018. A complaint under the Directive ends any MAP or Arbitration Convention case on the same dispute. The competent authorities then have 2 years (extendable by 1) to agree, after which an advisory commission can be set up (TDM 35-02-10).
Bilateral APAs. Revenue has run a formal bilateral APA programme since 1 July 2016 (TDM 35-02-07, reviewed October 2026). Key points: no Revenue application fee; no unilateral APAs; a typical term of 5 years plus roll-back in suitable cases; never more than 5 years beyond the date the APA is agreed; target completion 24 months; pre-filing meeting, then application, then annual reports.
Country-by-country reporting (s.891H). Groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more in the preceding fiscal year file a CbC report. For accounting periods ending on or after 1 January 2026, Finance Act 2025 s.50 requires the report to follow the OECD's May 2024 CbCR implementation guidance and sets three threshold rules in s.891H(13): the EUR 750 million is reduced pro rata where the parent's preceding fiscal year was shorter than 12 months; a group in its first year after leaving another group is treated as below the threshold; and extraordinary investment income and gains shown in the consolidated accounts count as revenue (unless the parent's jurisdiction excludes them for its own filing test). An Irish ultimate parent files in Ireland. An Irish subsidiary or branch files under secondary reporting only in the cases the regulations list (no filing obligation in the parent's country, no exchange agreement, or a systemic failure). Every Irish constituent entity must notify Revenue each year who the reporting entity is, by the last day of the fiscal year, though one entity can notify for all.
Domestic and cross-border both count. Irish transfer pricing is not limited to cross-border deals. A trading arrangement between two Irish companies is in scope, but the s.835H corresponding adjustment usually makes it neutral overall.
Shannon Components Ltd is an Irish trading company, 100% owned by a German parent. The group has 1,400 staff and revenue of EUR 300 million. With 250 staff or more the group fails the SME test (s.835EA), whatever its balance sheet. Revenue of EUR 300 million is above both documentation thresholds, so Shannon needs a master file and a local file. Year ended 31 December 2026.
Total extra corporation tax: EUR 103,125. No corresponding adjustment is available in Ireland, because the counterparties are not Irish taxpayers. Relief in Germany or the Netherlands depends on those countries and the treaties. If the loan were to an Irish resident sister company within the Schedule D charge on its activities, both parties would be qualifying persons and s.835E would switch off the Case III imputation.
name: Shannon Components Ltd, 2026, back-office service charge and interest-free loan
inputs:
fee_paid: 2000000
service_cost: 1500000
lvs_markup: 0.05
loan: 4000000
arm_length_rate: 0.05
trading_rate: 0.125
non_trading_rate: 0.25
steps:
- arm_length_fee: service_cost * (1 + lvs_markup)
- fee_disallowed: max(fee_paid - arm_length_fee, 0)
- ct_on_fee: fee_disallowed * trading_rate
- imputed_interest: loan * arm_length_rate
- ct_on_interest: imputed_interest * non_trading_rate
- total_extra_ct: ct_on_fee + ct_on_interest
expected:
arm_length_fee: 1575000
fee_disallowed: 425000
ct_on_fee: 53125
imputed_interest: 200000
ct_on_interest: 50000
total_extra_ct: 103125
Liffey Distribution Ltd is an Irish distributor in a US-parented group. The group's revenue in the fiscal year matching Liffey's 2026 chargeable period is EUR 80 million, with 600 staff, so the group is not an SME. EUR 80 million is above the EUR 50 million local file threshold but below the EUR 250 million master file threshold: Liffey needs a local file, not a master file. It is also below the EUR 750 million CbC threshold.
A Revenue officer asks in writing for Liffey's TP documentation. Liffey does not produce it within 30 days, and the failure continues for 45 days after the deadline. Because Liffey meets the local file threshold, the s.835G(6)(b) penalty applies: EUR 25,000 plus EUR 100 for each of the 45 days, EUR 29,500. A company below the local file threshold would face the EUR 4,000 fixed penalty instead. Liffey also loses s.835G(7) penalty protection for any later adjustment, because it did not provide the records within 30 days.
name: Liffey Distribution Ltd, 2026, local file threshold and s.835G(6) penalty
inputs:
group_revenue: 80000000
local_file_threshold: 50000000
master_file_threshold: 250000000
base_penalty_local_file: 25000
daily_penalty: 100
days_continuing: 45
base_penalty_other: 4000
steps:
- headroom_over_local_file: group_revenue - local_file_threshold
- shortfall_to_master_file: master_file_threshold - group_revenue
- penalty_local_file_size: base_penalty_local_file + daily_penalty * days_continuing
- extra_vs_smaller_company: penalty_local_file_size - base_penalty_other
expected:
headroom_over_local_file: 30000000
shortfall_to_master_file: 170000000
penalty_local_file_size: 29500
extra_vs_smaller_company: 25500
Not yet confirmed: the percentages of the s.1077E tax-geared penalties (not stated here); what TP questions the 2026 CT1 asks; whether the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026 is amended at later stages to touch Part 35A or s.891H (as initiated it does not); how profit is attributed between an Irish branch and its foreign head office (not part of Part 35A, not covered here).
Contributed by Ryan Duguid.
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