Ireland briefings

Salons & barbers

Cafes & coffee shops

All owner-operated businesses

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-08-13

The EU AI Act now applies in Ireland. For most small businesses it is one label and one switch

Nothing here raises your costs this quarter, and that is the useful part. The compliance work that was due on 2 August has been pushed to December 2027, the cheap AI that answers your phone and chases your no-shows stays legal, and the only jobs on your desk are one label to make your supplier prove and one kind of tool to switch off. Here is what binds you, what does not, and what the 16 month gap is worth if you use it.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-08-07

The single-use plastic ban is 2030. Here is what actually lands on your cafe this month

Your cup, lid and sleeve is one of the few costs in a cafe that moves with every single drink you sell, and from this month a new EU rulebook starts deciding who chooses it. Good news first: nothing about your prices or your margin changes on 12 August 2026, and the single-use plastic ban you keep reading about is not 2026, it is 2030. What you get instead is three dated duties, one of which is live in five days, and a rule from February 2027 that pushes cost out of your business rather than into it. Here is each date, in the order it reaches you.

Salons & barbers · 2026-07-29

Two new payroll costs hit your salon this year. The one that will actually catch you is a €552 line nobody mentions.

Two separate costs landed on Irish salon payroll this year, and neither is huge on its own. Together they add about €473 a year to every full-time chair on the minimum wage. That is the easy part. The part that will actually catch you is a single threshold, €552 a week, where one extra hour on a busy Saturday costs you the price of two.

Salons & barbers · 2026-07-19

Ireland just cut hairdressing VAT to 9%. The clever move is to not pass it on

For once the tax news is in your favour. Since 1 July 2026 the VAT on hairdressing services in Ireland is 9%, down from 13.5%, and it is permanent. If you hold your prices, that difference stops going to Revenue and starts staying with you. Here is exactly how much lands on your profit, the two catches that decide whether you actually see it, and why the smartest thing you can do is bank it rather than hand it back to your clients.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-07-11

Ireland just cut hospitality VAT to 9%. Whether it reaches your profit is one decision you make

Most tax news costs you money. This one can hand some back. On 1 July 2026 the VAT on the food and coffee you sell dropped from 13.5% to 9%. But here is the catch almost no owner gets right: the cut does not automatically become profit. Whether a single euro of it reaches your bottom line comes down to one decision, and the government is quietly hoping you make the opposite one.