Leaving Ireland? The Tax Refund You Might Be Owed
If you're packing up and leaving Ireland — for a new job abroad, to go home, or just for a change — there's a good chance Revenue owes you money, and it's easy to leave without ever claiming it.
How much? On a €60,000 salary, leaving at the end of August, the refund works out at roughly €3,467 before you add a single relief on top. The full arithmetic is below.
This is also the one refund with a practical deadline that isn't Revenue's: once your Irish bank account closes and your paperwork is in a box somewhere, claiming gets much harder. Most of this guide is about doing it in the right order.
Why leaving mid-year means an overpayment
- PAYE spreads your credits and €44,000 standard rate band over twelve months, so working part of the year you're taxed as if on a full year's salary.
- On €60,000, leaving at the end of August, you paid €7,466.67 but owed €4,000: a refund of about €3,467 before any other relief.
- Run your own figures in the Tax Refund calculator.
Ireland's PAYE system assumes you'll work the entire calendar year. It spreads your tax credits and your standard rate band evenly across twelve months, giving you one-twelfth of each with every payslip. If you only work eight of those months, you've had eight-twelfths of the credits — but your actual liability is calculated on your real annual income, against the full year's credits.
That gap is the refund.
Say you were on €60,000 — €5,000 a month — and you left at the end of August, having earned €40,000 in Ireland with no further Irish income for the rest of the year.
What was deducted while you were working. Each month, your monthly slice of the rate band is €3,666.67 (€44,000 ÷ 12). Your €5,000 pay exceeds it, so part of every month was taxed at the higher rate:
| Per month | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Taxed at 20% (within monthly band) | €3,666.67 × 20% | €733.33 |
| Taxed at 40% (above monthly band) | €1,333.33 × 40% | €533.33 |
| Gross tax | €1,266.66 | |
| Less one month's credits (€4,000 ÷ 12) | −€333.33 | |
| PAYE deducted per month | €933.33 | |
| Over eight months | €933.33 × 8 | €7,466.67 |
What you actually owed for the year. Your total Irish income was €40,000, which sits entirely inside the €44,000 standard rate band. So none of it should have been taxed at 40% at all:
| Calculation | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax at 20% on €40,000 | €8,000.00 | |
| Less full-year credits (€2,000 personal + €2,000 employee) | −€4,000.00 | |
| Correct liability for the year | €4,000.00 |
You paid €7,466.67. You owed €4,000. Refund: €3,466.67.
Two things drive that number: you got the full year's credits despite working eight months, and the higher-rate tax deducted month by month turned out to be unnecessary once your real annual income was known.
A note on the other deductions: USC works on its own bands and can also produce an overpayment on a part-year, so it's reviewed in the same return. PRSI is not refundable this way — it's charged per pay period and stays charged.
Split Year Treatment on the way out
- Split Year Treatment covers employment income only: salary earned abroad after you leave is ignored for Irish tax, and you keep the full year's credits.
- Rental, investment and other Irish-source income stay taxable in Ireland.
- A departure refund can be due without it.
Here's where a lot of online advice goes wrong, so read this carefully: Split Year Treatment applies to employment income only.
If you qualify, your employment income up to your departure date is taxed in Ireland as normal, you generally receive the full year's tax credits, and employment income you earn abroad after leaving is ignored for Irish tax purposes. That last part is the point of the relief — it stops the same salary being taxed twice.
What it does not cover is everything else. Rental income, income from a directorship, investment income and Irish-source income generally stay within the Irish net regardless of Split Year Treatment.
If you're keeping the apartment in Dublin and renting it out, you remain an Irish taxpayer on that rental profit and you're now a non-resident landlord, which brings its own withholding regime: either your tenant deducts 20% of the rent and remits it to Revenue directly, or you appoint a collection agent to handle it. Either way there's an Irish return to file. That's a separate conversation from your departure refund, and worth having before you leave rather than after.
It's also worth separating two things the internet routinely merges. A departure refund — the €3,467 above — arises from the ordinary mismatch between what payroll deducted and what you owed. Split Year Treatment is a distinct relief about what foreign employment income Ireland can tax after you go. Many people are due the first without ever needing the second. We cover how residence actually works in the complete guide.
Revenue's own page is here: split-year treatment in your year of departure.
What you need to qualify
- You were Irish tax resident in the year you leave, and you intend not to be resident the following year.
- That intention is evidenced by a contract or letter from a new employer abroad.
- For departures from 1 January 2025 you can self-assess and claim it on the Income Tax Return instead of applying in advance.
For Split Year Treatment on departure, two conditions:
- You were resident in Ireland for tax purposes in the year you leave.
- You intend not to be resident in Ireland in the following tax year.
Intention has to be evidenced — an employment contract abroad, a letter from a new employer, or comparable proof of your plans.
One important change worth knowing about. The relief used to be requested from Revenue in advance, and you can still apply that way through MyEnquiries. But for departures from 1 January 2025 onwards you can also self-assess your eligibility and claim it in your Income Tax Return for the year of departure. So if you left in 2025 or 2026, you don't have to wait on Revenue's answer before you go — you can claim it on the return.
If you come back to Ireland and become resident again in the following year, you no longer meet the second condition, and the relief can be revisited. Coming back after a full tax year abroad is fine; coming back early enough in the following year to be Irish resident for it is not.
What to do before you leave
- Keep an Irish bank account open and update your IBAN in myAccount: most stalled refunds come down to a closed account, not the deadline.
- Download the Employment Detail Summary for every open year and keep myAccount or MyGovID access.
- Save rent and medical receipts, and note your exact departure date.
This is the part that actually determines whether you get the money. Do these while you're still here:
- Keep an Irish bank account open if you possibly can, at least until the refund lands. A closed account is an easy way for a refund to stall.
- Update your IBAN in myAccount under "My Profile" before you go. Refunds go to the account on your record; without one, Revenue posts a cheque, which is slow to reach you abroad.
- Download your Employment Detail Summary for every open year — 2022 onwards. It's in myAccount and it's the record of what each employer reported.
- Keep myAccount access. MyGovID works from abroad, but if you'd otherwise need a password posted to you, sort out access before your address changes.
- Your PPSN stays yours permanently. You don't lose it by leaving, and you'll need it if you ever return.
- Save your rent records, medical receipts and Med 2 forms. Once they're in storage in another country, they may as well not exist.
- Note your exact departure date. It goes on the return.
Where you're going matters as much as the fact you're leaving. Some countries have their own rules about when you become tax resident again, and in a few cases the timing of your return is itself a tax decision — we cover that for people heading back to Portugal and Poland.
If you've never filed anything with Revenue before, the mechanics are the same as any other claim — walked through in claiming your PAYE tax back for the first time.
How to claim it
- Before the year ends, use "Claim unemployment repayment" in PAYE Services.
- Once it has ended, request the Preliminary End of Year Statement and file that year's Income Tax Return with your departure date, Split Year Treatment if it applies and reliefs.
- It can all be done from abroad in myAccount; the Statement of Liability normally appears about five days after you submit.
If you've left and the year hasn't ended yet, you don't have to wait. Sign in to myAccount, go to PAYE Services and select "Claim unemployment repayment". You'll need to confirm that you're going to live abroad permanently, or that you won't be Irish resident for at least the following tax year.
Once the year has ended, and for earlier open years, go to PAYE Services, select "Review your tax for the previous 4 years", request the Preliminary End of Year Statement, then complete the Income Tax Return for that year.
On the return you'll confirm your employment details, your date of departure, and claim Split Year Treatment if it applies. You add any reliefs for that year in the same place — the Rent Tax Credit, medical expenses, remote working relief.
You can do all of this after you've left. myAccount works from anywhere in the world. What you can't do from abroad is easily open a new Irish bank account, which is why the account matters more than the timing.
On timing: after you submit a return, your Statement of Liability normally appears in myAccount about five days later. The payment follows once the return is processed, and depends on your bank details being current. If your Irish account has closed, update the details before you file rather than after.
If you'd rather hand this over — particularly if you've got a part-year, a foreign job starting, and a rental property all in the same tax year — our Leaving Ireland Tax Refund service handles the full review and files it. No refund, no fee.
Don't forget previous years
- Claim all four open years, not just the departure year: in 2026 that's 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
- The 2022 year closes permanently on 31 December 2026.
- The Rent Tax Credit for your final part-year is the one most people leave behind.
If this isn't your first year in Ireland, don't just claim the departure year. You can go back four years in total, so in 2026 that's 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 — and the 2022 year closes permanently on 31 December 2026.
Leaving is genuinely the best moment to do this, and not for sentimental reasons: it's the last point at which you still have an Irish bank account, an active myAccount, your receipts in one place, and your former employer's details fresh. Six months into a new country, chasing a 2023 electricity bill for a remote working claim stops feeling worth it.
The one people most often leave behind is the Rent Tax Credit for their final part-year — they assume a partial year doesn't count. It does, subject to the tax you actually paid. See the Rent Tax Credit guide for what you'll need from your landlord before you hand back the keys.
Where to start
If you know your departure date, do one thing this week: log into myAccount and check that your bank details are current. Everything else can be done from your new country. That can't, easily.
Related reading
Questions we get asked
I left Ireland two years ago. Is it too late?
No. The four-year rule applies from the end of each tax year, so if you left in 2024, that year is open until the end of 2028. You can file from abroad through myAccount. The practical obstacles are usually your bank account and your records, not the deadline.
I've already closed my Irish bank account. Can I still be paid?
You need to give Revenue payable bank details before the refund can issue. Options vary depending on your circumstances and where you now live, so this is worth resolving directly rather than filing and hoping — a refund approved against a dead account sits in limbo.
I'm renting out my Irish home after I leave. Does that change things?
Yes, in two ways. Split Year Treatment won't shelter the rental income — it only covers employment income — so you'll have Irish rental profit to declare. And as a non-resident landlord you fall under the withholding regime, where either your tenant deducts 20% and remits it to Revenue, or you appoint a collection agent. Get this set up before you go.
I'm going abroad for eight months and then coming back. Do I get Split Year Treatment?
Probably not, because you'd be resident again in the following tax year, which fails the second condition. You may still be due an ordinary refund for the part-year if your income and deductions worked out that way — the two are separate.
Will I get my PRSI back?
No. PRSI is charged per pay period and isn't refunded because you left partway through the year. Income tax and USC are the ones under review. Your PRSI contributions do stay on your record, which matters if you ever return or claim under an EU social security agreement.