If one or both of you owns a business, it is usually the hardest part of the case. Not because the law is unclear, but because a business is difficult to value, difficult to divide, and often the thing the family income depends on.
The business is part of the assets
Irish law requires that proper provision is made for both spouses and any dependent children. A business owned by either spouse forms part of what the court looks at when deciding what proper provision means, whether it was built before the marriage or during it, and whether the other spouse worked in it or never set foot in it.
That does not mean it gets split down the middle. It means its value is on the table.
Valuing it is the expensive part
A house has a market value that an auctioneer can give you in an afternoon. A business does not.
Where the parties cannot agree a value, a forensic accountant is instructed. The Irish Times, surveying family law practitioners in April 2026, put forensic accountants' fees in High Court cases at €10,000 to €30,000. That is per case, not per party, but each side may want its own.
What makes it expensive is that the disagreement is rarely about arithmetic. It is about whether goodwill has value if the owner leaves, how to treat a company that pays the family's expenses, whether the accounts reflect what the business actually earns, and what a minority shareholding is worth to anyone but the other shareholders.
The court will usually try not to break it up
In practice, courts are reluctant to make orders that destroy a working business, particularly where it is the source of the maintenance being paid.
The common outcomes are that one spouse keeps the business and the other is compensated elsewhere, through the family home, a lump sum, a pension adjustment order, or a longer maintenance term. Ordering a sale is possible but is usually a last resort.
If the business is held through a company or a trust
Where assets sit inside a corporate structure or a trust rather than in a spouse's own name, the case gets harder and longer. The court can look at whether a structure genuinely holds third-party interests or is in substance the spouse's own money.
What to do if a business is involved
Get the accounts in order early. Three years of proper accounts prevent months of argument.
Do not restructure anything once separation is in contemplation. Moving assets, changing shareholdings or altering director's remuneration at that point will be examined, and it damages credibility on everything else.
Expect it to cost more. A divorce involving a business is not a €5,000 divorce. Budget on the contested range at minimum, plus the valuation. Our guide to how much a divorce costs in Ireland sets out the ranges, and when a divorce goes to the High Court explains where complex asset cases are heard.
How the family home and other assets are dealt with is covered in our guide to property and assets. Related reading: inherited wealth, trusts and assets abroad, what proper provision means and pensions in an Irish divorce.
Talk to us
If a business is part of your situation, the first conversation is free and it is worth having before you make any decisions about the company.