To become an influencer in Ireland, treat it as a small business from the first payment or gifted product: tell Revenue when the new source of income starts, register a business name with the CRO if you trade under anything other than your own surname, keep records of every cash and non-cash receipt for six years, check your turnover against the VAT threshold, file your self-assessment return on time, and label every commercial post the way the CCPC and the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland set out in their joint guidance. The checklist below gives each step with its official source, followed by the labelling rules in one section.
How Revenue sees creator income
Revenue published a dedicated manual in July 2025, Taxation of Income from Social Media and Promotional Activities. It says income from social media or promotional activity is chargeable even when the activity is casual and is not your main source of income. Whether it is taxed as a trade or as occasional income depends on the facts, judged against the long-standing badges of trade; an ongoing, frequent activity with a view to profit generally counts as a trade.
The manual is just as clear on goods. Non-monetary receipts for providing a service, such as a spa stay in return for posts, count as income at their fair value, the price the item would fetch in the marketplace, and that applies even without a formal contract. Affiliate commissions, tokens, crypto, free use of products and discounted accommodation all appear on its list of receipts. This guide does not go further into the tax computation; the manual and a tax adviser are the places for that.
Many Irish creators start alongside a job. The manual says you can be an employee and self-employed at the same time, with your salary taxed through PAYE and your creator income taxed through self-assessment, and that employment status is a question of fact and law rather than a choice you make. That is why step 1 below matters even if your employer already deducts your tax.
Irish setup checklist
Work through the rows in order. Figures and deadlines come from the source on the same row as read on 1 October 2026.
| Step | Trigger and action | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Tell Revenue | When a source of income other than PAYE starts, register for income tax self-assessment; you need a PPSN first, PAYE employees register through myAccount, and those already registered for a business tax use ROS | Revenue: registering as a sole trader |
| 2. Business name | If you trade under any name other than your true surname, register it with the Companies Registration Office within one month of adopting it | CRO: registering a business name |
| 3. Records | From the first receipt, log money in and out plus every non-cash item, and keep agreements and proof of each item's value for six years | Revenue manual, section 7 |
| 4. PRSI | As a sole trader you pay Class S PRSI, on top of Class A if you also have a job | Citizens Information: Class S PRSI |
| 5. VAT check | Compare annual turnover with the threshold; for people supplying services only, Revenue lists it as €42,500 | Revenue: VAT thresholds |
| 6. Annual return | File Form 11 and pay the balance plus preliminary tax by 31 October of the following year, or the mid-November date if you pay and file through ROS | Revenue manual, section 5.1.2 |
| 7. Labels | Before the first paid, gifted or affiliate post, set up the labels described in the next section | CCPC: influencer advertising |
On step 6, the manual says an employee is not a chargeable person for self-assessment where their net non-PAYE income does not exceed €5,000 and is coded into their tax credits, and their gross non-PAYE income does not exceed €30,000; PAYE workers can ask through myAccount for side income to be coded. Whether that suits you is a question for your adviser, but it explains why some part-time creators deal with Revenue through myAccount rather than a Form 11. On step 2, the CRO notes that names ending in a domain suffix such as .ie or .com are considered undesirable under the Business Names Act and need proof that you own the domain, and that registering a business name does not protect it against someone else using the same name, so treat registration as disclosure rather than ownership.
Labelling in Ireland: the CCPC and ASAI rules
The CCPC and the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland developed their influencer guidance jointly, and it applies to anyone who promotes or recommends products on social media for a monetary or non-monetary benefit, including virtual and animal personas. The ASAI's social media influencer page sums it up as “If in doubt, label it”.
- Every commercial post needs at least one primary label, #ad, #gifted or a platform-provided label such as Paid partnership, placed at the start of the content and clearly visible.
- Use #ad when you were paid, when a gifting brand influenced any part of the post, or when it asked you to post; #gifted is acceptable only for gifts where neither applies.
- Secondary labels such as #Collaboration, #BrandAmbassador, #Affiliate, #PRstay or #OwnBrand can follow a primary label but never replace it.
- A benefit includes products sent with no expectation of a post, items lent to you, trips, event invitations, discounts, company shares and offers of future work.
- Your own or part-owned brands, discount codes, affiliate links, reposted brand content and sponsored competitions with gifted prizes all count as commercial content.
Two regimes sit behind the labels. The joint guidance explains that the Consumer Protection Act 2007 bans unfair and misleading commercial practices, that influencers may count as traders under it, and that the CCPC can use compliance notices, fixed payment notices, undertakings, prohibition orders and prosecution. It also warns that a labelled post can still breach the law if it is false or misleading overall. Separately, a breach of the ASAI Code can lead to a published adjudication naming you and the brand. For the platform toggles, see the guide to Instagram's paid partnership label, and if you run a brand-funded giveaway, the Instagram giveaway rules template covers the platform side.
The unsolicited parcel: one box, two rulebooks
PR packages that arrive unasked are where Irish creators most often get both the tax and the label wrong, because Revenue and the CCPC look at the same parcel from different angles. Revenue's manual deals with unsolicited goods under voluntary receipts; the joint labelling guidance deals with what you post. Decide which row you are in before you open your camera.
| What you do with the parcel | Revenue manual | Labelling guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Keep it and post about it | Subject to income tax, so log it at fair value | #gifted at the start if the brand had no input and made no request; #ad if it did |
| Keep it and never promote it | Should not be subject to income tax, but may be a taxable gift for Capital Acquisitions Tax | No post, so nothing to label |
| Send it back promptly | No tax implications, according to the manual | Nothing to label |
Whichever row applies, write the parcel into your records with the date, the sender and what you did with it; the manual says records should be kept for all receipts because the tax treatment depends on the facts.
The first commercial post gate
Do not publish your first paid, gifted or affiliate post until each line below is true.
- Revenue knows about the new source of income, through myAccount or ROS.
- The brand's offer is in writing, even an email, covering deliverables, payment or products, posting dates and reuse of your content.
- You know which primary label the post needs and where it will sit in the first line or opening frame.
- The post says nothing about the product that you have not genuinely experienced.
- The payment or the fair value of the item is entered in your records, with the agreement filed beside it.
- Any trading name on your invoice or profile is registered with the CRO, or you trade under your own surname.
A brand deal tracker that stores the agreement, the label used, the value received and the date covers most of what this gate and Revenue's record rules ask for.
Cross-border audiences and platforms
Irish creators often reach UK followers and get paid by US platforms. The UK runs a separate labelling regime, explained in the UK ASA labelling guide, and its setup steps differ too, as the UK influencer checklist shows. When a US platform asks for a tax form before paying you, the W-8BEN guide for non-US creators walks through it.
Revenue's manual also covers situations that come up as you grow: contracts held by a company rather than by you personally, where the company is taxed on that income, and employees whose employer pays them for promotional work, which is taxed under PAYE rather than self-assessment. For the niche, cadence and portfolio side of starting out, use the influencer launch worksheet, and to compare another small market's sequence, see the New Zealand setup checklist.
Limitations of this checklist
This checklist orders the steps and points to the official sources; it does not explain Irish tax, social insurance or consumer law in depth, and it is general information rather than tax, legal or financial advice. It assumes you work as a sole trader resident in Ireland; companies, partnerships and non-residents have different obligations.
Thresholds, deadlines and guidance change, and Revenue's manual states that it is a guide only and may not give a definitive answer in every case. Check each source before acting, ask a chartered accountant or tax adviser how the trade and gift rules apply to you, and use the ASAI's copy advice service or a solicitor for questions about a specific campaign.