A commission only exists once the money is in your account. In Ireland in 2026 that last step is where people lose it: the programme approves the sale, the dashboard shows a balance, and the transfer never arrives because the name on the payout profile does not match the name on the account. Since 9 October 2025, every payment provider in Ireland has to let you check that a beneficiary name matches its IBAN before a transfer goes through, and that check now runs against you as often as it runs for you.
This checklist is written for someone living in Ireland who recommends products, services or work to people here and to family abroad. It is not a list of programmes to join. It is the set of questions that separates a programme you can actually be paid by, in euro, into an Irish account, from one that will keep you chasing support tickets for six months.
Money takes time to build, and the first commissions rarely cover a month. In 2026, apps like I am Beezy let you earn 5-15 euro a day from your phone: you view content, each view generates a small amount, and the total is paid out to the payment method you already use. It is a way of covering the gap while a referral pipeline warms up.
What does an affiliate programme in Ireland actually pay you for?
Three different arrangements get called the same thing, and they are not paid the same way, taxed the same way, or terminated the same way. Sort out which one you are being offered before you read a single commission rate.
Introduction fee, commission, or a share of the revenue
An introduction fee is a one-off payment for handing over a named contact who then becomes a customer. A commission is a percentage of a transaction you caused, usually tracked by a link or a code. A revenue share pays you for as long as the customer keeps paying, which sounds best and is the arrangement most often withdrawn without notice. The paperwork you sign should say which of the three applies, what event triggers payment, and how long the attribution window lasts.
Why living in Ireland changes the arithmetic
Two things shift the calculation here. Ireland is in the euro, so a euro-denominated programme reaches you with no conversion at all, while a programme that pays in sterling costs you a conversion on every payment even though Belfast is an hour up the road. And Ireland has no small-earnings exemption of any kind, so the first euro of commission is already inside the tax system. Both points are dealt with below.
Can the programme actually pay a euro account in Ireland?
This is check one, and it is the one that fails most often. The Irish rail is SEPA: an account here is identified by an IBAN that starts with IE, not by a sort code and account number. There is no Faster Payments, no CHAPS, no domestic card scheme.
The name on the account has to match the name on the profile
Since 9 October 2025, instant payments are available at every bank and payment provider in Ireland, executed in just under ten seconds, at any hour and on any day. The Verification of Payee check became mandatory on the same date, which means the payer can see whether the beneficiary name matches the IBAN before releasing the money. If your affiliate account is in a trading name and the bank account is in your own name, or the account belongs to a partner or a parent, expect a mismatch warning and a held payment. Register the programme in the exact name that holds the account.
Speed has a price: an instant payment does not come back
The counterpart of a ten-second transfer is that it cannot be cancelled. A recall can be requested when there is fraud, a technical error or a wrong IBAN, and a recall is not guaranteed. That matters when a programme asks you to pay a joining fee, a verification deposit or a training package up front. Money sent that way is gone the moment it leaves.
| What to check | Where the answer is | What a bad answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Currency of payment | Programme terms, payments section | Sterling or dollars with no euro option |
| Account name required | Payout settings in your account | A field you cannot edit after signup |
| Minimum payout balance | Terms, often a footnote | A threshold you would reach once a year |
| Payment frequency | Terms, payments section | Discretionary, or on request only |
| Identity documents | Verification step | Requested only after you earn, never before |
| Who they contract with | Legal entity named in the terms | No entity name and no registered address |
Check two: in this sector, is someone else deciding who may introduce a customer?
In several Irish markets the right to be paid for bringing a customer is not the seller's to give. The gatekeeper is a regulator, and no contract overrides it. Establish which side of that line your sector sits on before you build an audience on it.
Financial services: the register is public, so use it
The Central Bank of Ireland is a single, integrated regulator: banks, insurers, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, investment firms, credit unions, and the category that matters most here, retail intermediaries. It publishes a public register of regulated firms at registers.centralbank.ie, with an explicit invitation to check whether a firm is regulated. Do exactly that with the entity named in your contract, and if introducing customers in that sector requires an authorisation, assume the requirement applies to you and not only to them.
Energy: the regulator itself accredits the comparison sites
Energy switching is one of the highest-paying affiliate verticals anywhere, and Ireland handles it unusually. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities publishes the list of licensed suppliers and accredits price comparison sites, currently bonkers.ie, Switcher.ie, PowerToSwitch.ie and EnergySwitch.ie, auditing them on an ongoing basis. If you plan to compare energy prices for a commission, you are entering a space where the regulator already sets the standard for the incumbents. Note also that there is no retail energy price cap in Ireland, so nothing stops two suppliers charging very different prices for the same usage.
Transport: a status that does not exist here
Referral schemes aimed at drivers are the classic import error. There is no private-hire driver status in Ireland in the French or British sense. Carrying people for reward means a Small Public Service Vehicle licence from the National Transport Authority, granted separately for the vehicle and for the driver, with an entry test for the driver. FREE NOW, Uber and Bolt operate here as apps that dispatch licensed taxis. A recruitment bonus that assumes anyone can sign up and drive tomorrow is describing another country.
Bridging the first quiet months with I am Beezy
Affiliate income arrives late and unevenly. The attribution window closes, the payment threshold is not met, the monthly run is on the fifteenth. Something predictable alongside it makes the difference between persevering and quitting in week six.
How the earnings are generated
With I am Beezy you view content, videos, articles and ads, and each view generates earnings that accumulate in your balance. Active users report a range of 5 to 15 euro per day, paid out to the payment method they already use. In a country where the statutory minimum for anyone aged 20 or more has stood at 14.15 euro an hour since 1 January 2026, that is a meaningful floor under a month with no commission in it.
Keeping the two streams separate in your records
Track the two income lines separately from day one, with the date and the source of every credit. It costs nothing while the amounts are small and saves an evening of reconstruction when you fill in a return. The reason is in the next section: Ireland asks you to declare both, whatever they add up to.
Check three: what Revenue expects once the first payment lands
The single most expensive mistake made by people who read British sources is assuming a small-earnings allowance exists here. It does not. In Ireland there is no exemption threshold below which non-employment income goes unreported. What the thresholds decide is which form you file.
Form 11 or Form 12: the two thresholds that sort you
You become a chargeable person, and therefore file a Form 11 through ROS, if your net non-PAYE income reaches 5,000 euro a year after losses and reliefs, or if your gross non-PAYE income reaches 30,000 euro even where no tax is due. Below both, you are not a chargeable person, but you still have to inform Revenue of the income, through a Form 12, the simplified Form 12S for PAYE workers, or the online form in myAccount.
PRSI class S, and the 5,000 euro line again
Self-employed contributions are class S PRSI, charged at 4.2 per cent of total taxable income or 650 euro, whichever is greater, since 1 October 2025. If you earn less than 5,000 euro from self-employment in a year you are exempt from PRSI, and you may pay a voluntary contribution of 650 euro to protect your pension record. Note that this is an exemption from a social contribution, not from income tax, and remember the Universal Social Charge sits on top, assessed on gross income and not reduced by tax credits.
The two VAT thresholds, and the date in the diary
Ireland has two registration thresholds, not one: 42,500 euro of turnover over twelve rolling months for services, and 85,000 euro for goods. Commission is a service. Pay and File falls on 31 October, the single date for filing and paying, and for online filers through ROS the 2026 deadline is pushed to 19 November. It is not the 31 January many programmes' help pages will tell you.
| Your situation | What applies | Where it happens |
|---|---|---|
| Net non-PAYE income under 5,000 euro and gross under 30,000 euro | Not a chargeable person, but the income is still declared | Form 12, Form 12S or myAccount |
| Net non-PAYE income of 5,000 euro or more | Chargeable person, self-assessment | Form 11 on ROS |
| Gross non-PAYE income of 30,000 euro or more | Chargeable person even if no tax is due | Form 11 on ROS |
| Self-employment income under 5,000 euro | Exempt from PRSI, voluntary contribution of 650 euro possible | Department of Social Protection |
| Self-employment income at or above 5,000 euro | Class S PRSI at 4.2 per cent or 650 euro, whichever is greater | With the return |
| Services turnover above 42,500 euro over twelve months | VAT registration | Revenue |
What else should you settle before you sign?
Does a programme have to disclose that a link is paid?
Yes, and the obligation is yours as much as the advertiser's. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission enforces the rules on misleading commercial practices in Ireland, and an undisclosed paid recommendation is exactly the behaviour those rules exist to catch. Say plainly that the link earns you something.
Can you be paid into a foreign account?
Within the euro area, a SEPA transfer to a euro IBAN in another member state works the same way as a domestic one, so a diaspora reader keeping an account in another euro country is not blocked. Outside the euro area you take a conversion, and the beneficiary name check still applies. A sterling account is a currency decision, not a convenience one.
The short version, and where to start this week
Pick programmes on three things in this order: whether they can pay a euro account held in your own name, whether the sector lets you be paid at all, and whether the terms name a real legal entity you could pursue. Commission rates come fourth, and the difference between a good rate and an excellent one is worth less than the difference between paid and unpaid. Open your account in the exact name on your bank account, keep a dated record from the first euro, and put 19 November in your calendar now rather than in October. And while the pipeline fills, a predictable daily amount takes the pressure off the decision: you can start with I am Beezy and have something arriving on your own payment method from the first week.
