Orlaith Brennan is a tax director who advises owner-managed businesses across Ireland. We asked her what most business owners miss when a strong trading year produces a surplus.
What is the most common mistake?
Treating the surplus as a post-year problem. By the time most directors realise they have a significant surplus, the tax exposure is already fixed. The planning window closed months earlier.
When should surplus planning actually begin?
At the six-month mark of the financial year, if trading is ahead of forecast. That is when you still have options — pension contributions, capital expenditure timing, research and development relief claims, restructuring of director remuneration. After year-end, most of those levers are gone.
Orlaith Brennan — I have seen businesses hand over more in corporation tax than they spent on staff development that year, simply because nobody modelled the surplus in time.
Is aggressive tax planning around surplus ethical?
That framing is the wrong one. Using legislated reliefs as intended is not aggressive — it is competent. The controversy is that many accountants only flag this after the fact, which protects their relationship with the client but does not serve the business.
A surplus without a tax plan attached to it is an incomplete financial result, regardless of how good the trading numbers look.