A supplier offers you a slice of every customer you send their way. A software company hands you a tracking link. Someone you know in business says they will look after you if you introduce a buyer. In Irish law these are the same transaction wearing three different coats: you are being paid for work you did, and the payment belongs in your tax affairs. What stops most people is not whether commission is permitted — it is, and it underpins whole sectors — but the question of status. Under what heading do you invoice it, when does a casual introduction become a trade you were supposed to register, and what has to exist on paper before the money moves. This guide takes those questions in the order they actually arise. The same reasoning covers any income earned outside a payslip, including an app such as I am Beezy, where consulting content generates a small daily top-up paid to your usual payment method: the money is real, so the status question is real too.
What are you actually being paid for?
Before touching status, get precise about the nature of the payment. Three arrangements that look identical from the outside behave very differently once a dispute or a tax return appears.
An introduction fee is a one-off service
You put two parties in contact, they transact, you are paid once. Nothing recurring, no ongoing obligation, no responsibility for what happens afterwards. This is the simplest form and the one most likely to be handled informally — which is exactly why it generates arguments about whether the introduction was really yours. An introduction fee is only enforceable if the parties agreed the trigger and the amount before the introduction happened.
An affiliate commission is a continuing arrangement
You promote a product under the terms of a programme, a link or a code attributes the sale to you, and payment is calculated by the merchant's own system. You are not negotiating each deal. You are accepting standard terms, which the merchant can change and which usually let them void a commission for returns, fraud or a breach of promotional rules.
An agency or reseller relationship is something heavier
If you negotiate on behalf of a supplier, hold their stock, or present yourself as speaking for them, you have moved beyond introducing. That carries obligations towards the customer and, in some sectors, licensing. Financial products, insurance and credit are the clearest examples: introducing customers to regulated products is itself regulated activity, so check with the Central Bank of Ireland before you accept a cut in those sectors.
Do you need to register a business to be paid a commission?
This is where people freeze, usually because they imagine a company formation is required. It is not. Ireland gives you a ladder, and most people should stand on the lowest rung that fits.
Occasional payments handled through your tax return
If commission is incidental and you already pay tax through payroll, the income still has to be declared, but declaring it does not automatically make you a registered business. Revenue distinguishes between a taxpayer with an untaxed extra and a person carrying on a trade. The tests turn on organisation, repetition and intent to profit, not on any single amount.
Sole trader: the standard route
Once the activity is deliberate and repeated, you register for income tax as a self-employed person with Revenue, which is done online through the Revenue Online Service. From that point you file a self-assessment return, pay income tax, the Universal Social Charge and self-employed social insurance on your profit, and you can deduct genuine business costs. There is no minimum capital and no accounts to publish. If you trade under any name other than your own, that business name has to be registered with the Companies Registration Office.
Limited company: only when the reason is real
A company separates your personal assets from the business and can be sensible if you carry liability, take on staff, or need a structure a large client will contract with. It also brings annual returns to the Companies Registration Office, statutory accounts, directors' duties and a payroll for yourself. Do not incorporate because it sounds more professional. Incorporate because a specific risk or a specific contract requires it.
Which status fits which situation
Match the arrangement to the lightest structure that survives scrutiny. The table below is a starting grid, not a substitute for advice on your own numbers.
Read the table against your own activity
Two questions decide almost every case: is this repeated and organised, and does anyone have a claim against you if the deal goes wrong. Answer both honestly before choosing.
| Your situation | Usual status | Main obligation |
|---|---|---|
| One introduction, no plan to repeat | Individual declaring extra income | Declare it on your annual return |
| Regular affiliate links alongside a job | Sole trader registered for income tax | Self-assessment, preliminary tax |
| Introducing business as your main activity | Sole trader, business name registered | Registration with the Companies Registration Office |
| Contracting with large corporate clients | Limited company | Annual return and statutory accounts |
| Introducing regulated financial products | Depends on authorisation | Check the Central Bank of Ireland first |
The three rulebooks sitting on top of the money
Tax status is only one layer. Three other regimes apply the moment you promote something publicly, and none of them care how small your operation is.
Disclosure: say that you are paid
Advertising in Ireland is self-regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, whose code requires marketing communications to be recognisable as such. Consumer protection law, enforced by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, treats a paid recommendation presented as a personal opinion as a misleading practice. A label such as "ad" or "paid partnership" placed where the audience sees it before engaging is the cheapest legal protection available to you.
Data: a mailing list is a regulated asset
If you collect email addresses or phone numbers to promote offers, the General Data Protection Regulation and the Irish electronic communications rules apply, under the supervision of the Data Protection Commission. Consent must be freely given and evidenced, every message needs a working unsubscribe, and a bought list is a liability rather than a shortcut.
Claims: promise only what you can prove
Repeating a merchant's marketing does not transfer responsibility for it. If you state that a product delivers a result, you need to stand behind that statement. Keep the merchant's own written material as your evidence trail, and drop any claim you cannot support with something in writing.
Funding the setup phase with I am Beezy
The awkward part of any commission-based activity is the delay. You do the work now and the merchant validates the sale later, often after a returns window closes. That gap has to be covered by something.
Keep a separate flow for the fixed costs
Domain names, an accounting subscription, a business name registration, a first invoice from an accountant: none of these wait for your first commission to clear. A small, predictable daily inflow is more useful here than a large uncertain one, because it covers the recurring costs without forcing you to accept bad terms out of impatience.
How the app fits the pattern
I am Beezy pays for consulting content — videos, articles, advertising — with the amount credited to your usual payment method. It is a complementary daily income, not a business model, and it will not replace a commission strategy. Its usefulness here is narrower and real: it removes the pressure to sign the first affiliate agreement you are offered simply because you need something to arrive this month.
What has to exist on paper before you promote anything?
Most unpaid commissions trace back to a missing document rather than bad faith. Build the file before the first click, not after the first dispute.
The agreement, in writing, however short
Name the parties, the triggering event, the rate, the payment timing, the attribution rule and how either side ends the arrangement. An email exchange confirming those six points is worth more than a handshake and a promise.
Invoices and records that match the tax return
Issue an invoice even when the merchant self-bills, keep the statements the platform generates, and record costs as you incur them rather than reconstructing them in October. Keep the records for the period Revenue requires, and store them somewhere that survives a lost laptop.
Value Added Tax, watched rather than ignored
Commission is a service, and services have registration thresholds. The thresholds change, and cross-border supplies to businesses in other member states follow separate rules. Check the current position on the Revenue website each year rather than assuming last year's answer still holds.
| Document | Why it matters | When to create it |
|---|---|---|
| Written commission terms | Defines the trigger and the rate | Before promoting |
| Screenshot of programme terms | Terms change without notice | Day one, then each change |
| Invoice or self-billing statement | Supports the declared income | Each payment |
| Expense records | Reduces taxable profit | As costs arise |
| Disclosure wording used | Evidence for advertising rules | With each campaign |
Your next steps, in order
Decide the nature of the arrangement, then the status, then the paperwork. Doing it in that order avoids registering for something you do not need.
This week
Write down the arrangement in plain language and identify which of the three types it is. Ask the other party for their terms in writing. If the activity is deliberate and repeating, open the tax registration process rather than waiting for a threshold you have not verified.
Before the first payment
Confirm how you will be paid and into which account, set your disclosure wording, and open a separate record for the income and its costs. If the sector is regulated, resolve that question before you promote anything at all.
Commission income is not exotic and it is not a grey area. It becomes a problem only when the status, the paperwork and the promotion rules are handled after the money arrives instead of before. Sort the three in advance and the activity is simply a small business, run properly, with obligations you already understand. While the first commissions work their way through validation windows, a complementary daily income from I am Beezy can cover the fixed costs of getting set up, so that the terms you accept are the ones you actually wanted.
