How to Start a US LLC From Ireland

Ireland and the US have had a comprehensive income tax treaty in force since 1997, replacing an earlier 1949 convention, covering dividends, interest, royalties, and residency tie-breaker rules for people both countries might otherwise claim as tax residents. In practice, the treaty and Ireland's domestic foreign tax credit matter less for a typical single-member LLC than their existence might suggest, since a non-resident-alien-owned LLC earning non-US-source income usually owes $0 US federal tax to begin with. The treaty's practical relevance grows once the LLC scales into US-source income, or once Section 806 or the CGT attribution rule actually brings a portion of the LLC's activity into the Irish tax net.

On the funding side, Ireland's EU membership means the euro moves freely with no capital controls, no remittance caps, and no central-bank registration requirement for investing in a foreign company. Funding a US LLC from Ireland is a standard international bank transfer with no special approval process, a straightforward starting point compared to several countries covered elsewhere in this series that impose formal registration or quota systems on outbound investment.

Putting it together: form the LLC (Wyoming and Delaware remain the two most common choices), get the EIN using the international applicant line above, open a Mercury or Relay account without either restricting Ireland, and get an Irish accountant's specific read on Section 806 rather than assuming Ireland's famous CFC regime settles the question, since that regime by design doesn't reach an individually-owned LLC. Document the genuine commercial reasons behind forming the LLC as you go, since that documentation is exactly what a bona fide commercial purpose defense would rely on if it's ever needed.

Section 806 does include a defense worth understanding: the charge is aimed specifically at structures put in place to avoid Irish tax, and a transfer made for genuine, bona fide commercial reasons, with no tax-avoidance purpose behind it, has a real argument for falling outside the section's intent. Forming a US LLC to access Stripe, US clients, and USD banking is a legitimate commercial reason that exists independently of any Irish tax consequence, which gives founders a genuine starting point for that argument. This is a motive-based, facts-and-circumstances test rather than a bright-line numeric threshold like the ownership percentages and passive-income tests used in most other countries covered in this series, so it's worth a specific conversation with an Irish accountant about how your LLC's purpose and operations are documented, rather than assuming the commercial-purpose defense applies automatically.

Ireland's reputation as Europe's tech hub, home to the European headquarters of Google, Meta, and countless other US companies, means Irish founders are unusually comfortable with US corporate structures before they ever form one themselves. For Irish founders building SaaS products, e-commerce stores, or consulting practices aimed at global clients, a US LLC offers direct Stripe and PayPal access as a genuine US entity, USD invoicing that removes euro conversion friction, and a formation process considerably simpler than an Irish company built specifically to serve international clients. Ireland's own 12.5% corporate tax rate is famous enough that many Irish founders assume their home country's controlled foreign company rules will be straightforward too, but the actual answer is more layered than the CFC headline suggests, and getting it right means understanding a completely different, older piece of Irish tax law most guides never mention.

That's not the end of the story, though. Ireland has a much older individual-level anti-avoidance rule, Section 806 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, sometimes called the 'transfer of assets abroad' provision, which was designed to counter Irish-resident individuals avoiding income tax by structuring assets so that income becomes payable to a person outside Ireland. Under case law interpreting this section, an individual can transfer assets abroad without triggering the charge only if neither they nor their spouse retains the 'power to enjoy' the income arising from that transfer. A founder who owns 100% of a US LLC and can draw its profit whenever they choose clearly retains that power to enjoy, which means Section 806 is the actual mechanism most likely to apply to a solo Irish founder's LLC, not the ATAD-based CFC regime that gets all the attention.

Getting an EIN as an Irish founder works exactly like it does for any other non-US resident. Without a US Social Security Number or ITIN, you can't use the IRS's online EIN application — you'll file Form SS-4 and either call the IRS's international applicant line (267-941-1099, staffed 6am-11pm ET, for international applicants only) to receive the EIN over the phone, or fax the SS-4 (855-215-1627 from within the US, 304-707-9471 from outside) for a roughly 4-business-day official turnaround that often takes 1-2 weeks in practice. Mailing to Cincinnati, OH takes 4-5 weeks and should be a last resort. On Line 7b, write 'Foreign' or 'N/A' rather than leaving it blank. The responsible party listed must be the actual Irish owner, not EasyBrise or any formation agent. If you lose your CP 575 confirmation notice, request Form 147C, a letter, not a duplicate, instead. Don't skip Form 5472 plus a pro forma 1120 each year; the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000.

On the banking side, Ireland is not on Mercury's or Relay's prohibited-country list, and Irish founders go through the same standard non-resident application process, passport, LLC formation documents, and EIN, as founders from most other countries in this series. There's no distinct Ireland-specific hurdle at the account-opening stage; the genuine complexity for Irish founders sits in understanding which of Ireland's several anti-avoidance mechanisms actually applies to a solo-owned LLC, not in getting a US bank account.

Ireland's formal Controlled Foreign Company rules, introduced in Finance Act 2018 to comply with the EU's Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive and effective for accounting periods from January 1, 2019, only apply where the controlling entity is itself an Irish-resident company. The legislation defines a CFC as a non-Irish-resident company controlled by 'a company or companies' that are Irish tax resident, an individual founder personally holding shares in a US LLC simply isn't the kind of controlling party this regime was built to catch. If you own your LLC directly as an individual, rather than through an Irish holding company, Ireland's headline CFC regime, the one referenced in most general guides to Irish tax, genuinely does not apply to you. This is meaningfully different from every other country covered in this series, where CFC-style rules apply directly to individual owners.

Separate from the ongoing income question, Ireland also has a capital gains tax attribution rule covering gains accruing to a private company resident outside Ireland, which can be attributed to Irish-resident shareholders in certain circumstances. This becomes relevant specifically if you ever sell or wind down the LLC at a gain rather than during ordinary operations. A 'bona fide commercial reasons' exemption was added to this rule in 2015, similarly protecting disposals that aren't primarily structured to avoid Irish tax. Like Section 806, this is a distinct legal mechanism from the CFC regime, worth flagging to your accountant specifically if a future sale or restructuring of the LLC is on the table. It doesn't apply to the LLC's ordinary operating income, only to a capital gain realized on the entity itself.