You move home, adopt a new surname or discover that your personal details no longer match the records used for your Irish company. The business itself may be unchanged, but leaving the officer information untouched until the next annual return is not a reliable plan.
This guide concerns an existing director who remains in office. It is not a guide to changing the company's legal name, appointing a replacement director or transferring shares. It explains the filing choices, identity checks and handover evidence to organise with your presenter. Official guidance was checked on 22 October 2026; unusual identity, safety or disputed-record cases need individual advice.
Tell the company promptly, not at annual-return time
Section 150(3) of the Companies Act 2014 requires officers to give the company the necessary information in writing as soon as may be. The company's notification obligation under section 149(8) runs for 14 days after the relevant event. Tell the secretary or responsible administrator promptly, even if the accountant is already aware of your move.
Make the notification useful: identify the affected company, the old and new particulars and the date the change occurred. Ask who is preparing the filing, who will review it and where confirmation will be kept. A message saying please update everything leaves too much room for different people to assume someone else is responsible.
Do not wait for the annual return to correct a separately notifiable change. If the change happened some time ago, give the presenter the true history and ask for a corrective plan. A recent invoice or the date you remembered the problem is not a reason to invent a later event date.
B10 or B10a: identify the change and every company
CRO uses B10 for officer appointments, cessations and changed particulars. A personal-details update does not mean the existing director must resign and be appointed again. Keep the same underlying event clear throughout the instructions and filing.
Section 149(9) provides a specific route for a person who is a director of more than one company to notify their own name or usual residential-address change. Where the prescribed notification lists the relevant companies, the relief from separate company notifications is limited to those particular changes. CRO describes this as the B10a route. Confirm the current CORE requirements with the presenter rather than assuming one edit updates every company associated with your name.
| What changed? | Route to check |
|---|---|
| Director's details | B10 |
| Own name or home address across multiple directorships | B10a eligibility and listed companies |
| Company's registered office | B2 |
| Beneficial owner's details | Internal register and RBO |
| Personal tax contact address | Revenue profile |
Prepare a short, controlled change brief
Start with an inventory rather than sending documents to several advisers independently. For each company, record its legal name and CRO number, your role, the responsible presenter and the filing status. Distinguish a directorship from a secretary appointment or a shareholding: the same person may have several capacities, but they are not interchangeable.
Keep identity evidence in the secure channel agreed with the provider. Do not put a passport, PPSN or complete residential history into a public contact-form message or a shared spreadsheet with broad access. Ask which evidence is required before uploading more than necessary. A clear brief can explain the work without exposing the underlying identity documents to everyone involved.
- List each affected company and the precise role held.
- Record the current registered particulars and the proposed replacement particulars.
- Explain the actual event and its date, including any uncertainty.
- Identify who holds the company's statutory books and submission access.
- Flag any existing identity mismatch, privacy concern or filing deadline.
- Agree who will confirm registration and check the final record.
A new surname can expose a PPSN or IPN mismatch
CRO's B10 error guidance specifically identifies incorrect officer names that do not match PPSN records or VIF declarations. A new passport, professional profile or email signature does not prove that every underlying identity record has already been updated. Check the data used for the relevant validation, not just the name displayed in your inbox.
For someone who holds a Public Services Card, the Department of Social Protection publishes a separate name-change process, including an in-person visit because a new signature is required. Its evidence requirements vary with the reason for the change. That is guidance for the PSC process, not a statement that every director needs a PSC or that changing a card automatically updates CRO filings.
If your director identity was established through a VIF and IPN rather than a PPSN, explain that to the presenter before attempting the update. Ask how the existing identity record should be amended or reconciled. Do not create a second identity or guess a different birth date to get past a rejection.
Example: a surname changes but the director stays
Consider a fictional founder who uses a new surname following marriage. She remains the same director, with the same shares and management responsibilities. Her bank already displays the new name, but her company records and identity-validation record still show the earlier one. Treating this as a new appointment would describe the wrong event.
A useful instruction is: I remain in office; this is a personal-name change, these are the affected companies, and these records have not yet been reconciled. The presenter can then check the filing route and any evidence needed to connect the records. Keep the correspondence showing the agreed approach rather than asking different advisers to file competing versions.
If a rejected filing has already occurred, preserve the rejection and exact submission reference. Ask what field failed and which authority controls it. Repeatedly changing spelling, name order or other identity fields without a reason can obscure the original issue and make the next review harder. This example is a workflow illustration, not advice on what legal name a particular person must use.
A home-address change is not a registered-office change
The company can keep its existing registered office while a director moves home. Conversely, moving the company office does not automatically update the officer's residential particulars. CRO's directors' duties guidance distinguishes B2 for the registered office from B10 for officer details. Check both only if both actually changed.
Do not replace your home address with a purchased office address just to avoid disclosure. CRO has an exceptional T1 non-disclosure process with specific supporting requirements. Its guidance says this is not retrospective: documents already registered containing the residential address are not redacted through T1. Raise a genuine safety concern before filing rather than uploading the address and expecting routine removal afterwards.
A move to another country also deserves a separate residence-compliance review. The address edit alone does not settle the EEA-resident director requirement or tax consequences. Use the linked moving-abroad guide for that wider question instead of treating this checklist as a residence opinion.
Check beneficial ownership separately from directorship
An officer filing is not an RBO update. If the director is also a beneficial owner, assess the company's internal beneficial-ownership record and the central RBO filing separately. RBO guidance includes existing owners' name and address changes and requires notification within 14 days of the change to the internal register. This is a separate clock from the CRO officer-change obligation, not a combined extension.
Do not assume every director is a beneficial owner solely because of the office held. Equally, do not overlook a beneficial owner's update just because the shares have not moved. Identify the person's actual capacity, then ask who is responsible for each record and submission.
The RBO also validates identity against Department of Social Protection information. A CRO acceptance is therefore not proof that an RBO amendment was submitted or accepted. Keep separate confirmations and resolve any identity rejection through the appropriate official process.
Update Revenue and commercial records on their own terms
Revenue publishes separate address-update instructions for myAccount and ROS. In ROS, official and business addresses are distinct fields. Check which account and address type needs attention; changing a personal contact profile should not be mistaken for changing every company tax record or registration.
Build a practical notification list for the accountant, payroll administrator, bank, insurer and any regulated or licensed activity. Ask each organisation for its own requirements and confirmation. Avoid sending the same unprotected identity pack to a long mailing list merely because each recipient needs some information.
For contracts or mandates using the earlier name, ask the relevant counterparty what evidence of continuity it needs. Do not assume a personal-details update changes the contracting company or transfers its liabilities. Preserve the old-to-new connection so a later reviewer can understand why records from two dates look different.
Example: one director, three companies and a separate secretary role
Suppose a fictional founder is a director of three companies and secretary of a fourth. After a home move, her administrator finds only two companies in the draft multi-company change. Checking the list matters more than assuming that a single personal profile controls all four appointments.
Have the presenter confirm the appropriate route for the directorships and identify any separate secretary-particulars notification. B10a is not a universal update for every role. Record each company's inclusion, filing reference and outcome, and check the company books as well as the public officer record.
This inventory also prevents duplicate work. If one adviser has already submitted a notification, tell the next adviser before authorising another. A short status table showing prepared, submitted, returned or registered is more useful than a folder full of unsigned drafts whose relationship to the final submission is unclear.
Review the date, signatures and completion evidence
CRO says a B10 must be signed by a current company officer, not someone who has resigned. Agree the signatory and follow the current submission's instructions. An adviser preparing the form does not mean the director should sign whatever version happens to be attached to the latest email.
CRO's error guidance warns about wrong effective dates, incomplete residential addresses and signature pages attached to the wrong submission. It says there is no mechanism to amend an incorrect effective date. Review the final particulars before signing, and do not alter a generated certification page by cutting and pasting sections.
Keep the final filed version, submission reference and correspondence together. A payment receipt or order confirmation is not evidence that the CRO has registered the change. If returned, agree who will correct and resubmit it, and check the outcome rather than treating the initial upload as the end of the task.
Confirm the support required before buying a service
StartCompany.ie's director-change page includes help with personal details on the CRO register. The standard service description focuses on appointment or resignation documents and Form B10 support. For a details-only case, several directorships or a B10a request, confirm the scope before buying rather than assuming a single order covers unlimited companies or every connected record.
Explain whether you need filing preparation, statutory-book updates, identity-mismatch assistance or separate RBO work. Ask what evidence, signatures and completion checks are included, who will deal with any returned submission and the total payable. A privacy application, disputed historical entry or identity-authority correction may require a different process or adviser; ordering routine director-change support does not complete those tasks.
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Change of Directors
Official information and next steps
Official guidance and legislation checked on 22 October 2026. This is a practical information checklist, not individual legal advice or a determination of a person's identity, residence or filing requirements.
- Companies Act 2014, section 149: officer register and notifications
- Companies Act 2014, section 150: information duty and exceptional disclosure rules
- CRO: changing company officer information
- CRO: directors' and secretaries' duties, including B10a
- CRO: statutory filing periods
- CRO: common B10 errors
- CRO: residential-address non-disclosure
- Department of Social Protection: PSC name changes
- RBO: amendments and identity-validation FAQs
- Revenue: personal address updates