A company qualifies if incorporated in the State, another EEA State or the United Kingdom and it complies with this section and section 491. At the issue of eligible shares the RICT group must be an SME and not an undertaking in difficulty; each group company must be unlisted with no arrangements to become listed and not subject to an outstanding recovery order; and the company must hold a tax clearance certificate. Throughout the relevant period the company must be resident in the State, the UK or another EEA State and carry on, or intend to carry on, relevant trading activities from a fixed place of business in the State; it must not control, or be controlled by, another company other than a qualifying subsidiary except where control is exercised by the National Asset Management Agency or by a company referred to in section 616(1)(g); and no RICT group company may have partly paid issued shares.

The company must either exist wholly to carry on relevant trading activities or consist wholly of holding shares in, or making loans to, one or more qualifying subsidiaries, or both (where trading is carried on from a fixed place of business in the State). Amounts raised by issuing eligible shares to fund relevant trading by a qualifying subsidiary must be used solely to acquire eligible shares in that subsidiary. A company is regarded as ceasing to comply if a winding up resolution or order is made or it is dissolved without winding up, except where the winding up or dissolution is for bona fide commercial reasons and not part of a tax-avoidance scheme and the company's net assets are distributed to its members before the end of the relevant period or, in the case of a winding up, within three years of commencement.