Tax for German Workers in Ireland: Refunds, Your Depot and What Germany Still Takes

What being an EU citizen changes — and what it doesn't

You need no permit and no immigration stamp, and you can start work as soon as you have a PPSN.

For tax, that changes little. Irish residence is decided by days: 183 or more in a tax year, or 280 across the current and previous year provided you were here more than 30 days in the current one. Citizenship isn't part of the test. Same credits, same rate bands, same reliefs as an Irish citizen — and the same obligation to claim them, because none apply automatically. Revenue's rules are on its tax residence page.

Two structural differences worth naming early.

There are no Steuerklassen. Ireland taxes individuals. Married couples and civil partners can elect joint assessment, which lets unused credits and part of a rate band transfer from a lower earner to a higher earner — but it's an election you make, not a class you're assigned. If your spouse earns significantly less and you haven't elected it, you're probably overpaying.

There's no annual reconciliation by default. No Lohnsteuerjahresausgleich, no equivalent of the Steuererklärung that most German employees file as a matter of course. Ireland deducts PAYE in real time and then stops. If you're owed a refund, nobody calculates it and nobody sends it. You have four years to claim it yourself, and most people never do.

Your German Depot is probably still over-withholding

This is the most common and most quantifiable problem German professionals have in Ireland, and almost nobody notices it.

If you kept a securities account with a German bank or broker, that institution has been applying Abgeltungsteuer at 25%, plus Solidaritätszuschlag — an effective 26.375% — to your dividends and interest. That's the correct domestic rate for a German tax resident. You aren't one any more.

Under the Ireland–Germany agreement signed in Dublin on 30 March 2011 (amended by protocols in 2014 and 2021), German withholding tax on dividends paid to an Irish resident individual is capped at 15%.

Here's why the difference costs you twice.

Say your German Depot pays €5,000 in dividends over the year, and you're a higher-rate taxpayer in Ireland.

Total tax actually borne: €2,568.75. What you should have paid: €2,000.

The trap is in the second half of that table. Ireland gives you a credit for the treaty rate, not for whatever the German bank happened to deduct. The extra €568.75 is not creditable here — it has to be reclaimed from the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern in Germany. Most people never do it, and simply absorb the loss year after year.

There's a deadline, and it's in the treaty itself. Refund applications must be submitted by the end of the fourth calendar year following the year in which the withholding tax was applied.

Two practical steps: tell your German institution you're now Irish tax resident so it applies the correct rate going forward, and check your last four years of dividend statements against the 15% cap.

When German tax residence actually ends

Germany's residence rules turn on where you have a Wohnsitz or your habitual abode — not on a day count in the way Ireland's do. Keeping a flat available to you in Germany can matter.

The formal step is Abmeldung, deregistering your German residence with the local authority. It's an administrative act rather than a tax ruling, but it's usually the anchor document for when your unlimited German tax liability ended, and it's what German institutions and authorities will look for.

Two things follow from doing it properly. Kirchensteuer stops — if you were paying church tax, that ends with your German tax residence rather than continuing indefinitely. And your German bank has a documented basis for applying the treaty rate rather than the domestic one.

Whether you remain within German tax scope in any particular year is a question of German law and one for a German Steuerberater. What we can say is that assuming the move settled it, without the paperwork, is where problems start.

Your first year in Ireland is usually your biggest refund

Irish payroll spreads your credits and rate band across twelve months on the assumption you'll work all twelve. Arrive in April and you've earned in nine — but your liability is computed on your actual annual income against a full year's credits. That gap is your refund, and the higher your salary the larger it tends to be.

Split Year Treatment is what protects it. If you worked in Germany before arriving, that German employment income would otherwise enter the Irish computation as worldwide income. Split Year Treatment excludes pre-arrival employment income while leaving you the full year's credits. Since the Finance Act 2024, for arrivals from 1 January 2025 you self-assess and claim it in your Income Tax Return rather than writing to Revenue in advance.

Note the word employment: it doesn't cover German rental income, investment income or directorship income.

What's worth claiming at 40%

Pension and AVCs are the biggest lever for a higher earner. Relief runs at your marginal rate on contributions up to an age-related percentage of earnings — 15% under 30, then 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40% from 60 — subject to an earnings cap of €115,000. A €5,000 contribution at the higher rate costs you €3,000. Relief applies to income tax only, not USC or PRSI. See AVC and pension tax relief.

The Rent Tax Credit — up to €1,000 a year from 2024, €500 for 2022 and 2023, doubled for jointly assessed couples. See the Rent Tax Credit guide.

Medical expenses at 20%, remote working relief as a deduction worth 40% to you, and joint assessment as above.

The full list is in the top Irish tax deductions you could be missing.

If your package includes shares

RSUs are taxed twice, under two regimes. At vesting, market value is employment income taxed through payroll at your marginal rate with USC and PRSI. That value becomes your base cost, and growth after vesting is a capital gain at 33% when you sell.

Paying and filing are separate obligations. CGT on disposals from January to November is payable by 15 December of the same year; December disposals by 31 January. But the return — Form CG1 for a PAYE employee — isn't due until 31 October of the following year, and you must file it even when no tax is due, including years where the €1,270 annual exemption covered everything or you made a loss. Late filing carries a surcharge of 5% up to two months, 10% beyond.

Share options changed in 2024. Gains realised from 1 January 2024 are taxed through payroll. For exercises before that date, a Form RTSO1 and payment were due within 30 days of exercise, with interest at 0.0219% per day on late payment. 2022 and 2023 remain open years.

The CGT mechanics are the same for shares as anything else — see crypto tax in Ireland.

German pensions: what stays and what doesn't

Your contributions to the gesetzliche Rentenversicherung are not lost by leaving. Under EU social security coordination, contribution periods completed in different member states can be taken into account together when you eventually claim a pension, rather than each country looking only at its own record. Your German years and your Irish PRSI years both count towards the eventual picture.

Riester and Rürup are a different question. These are creatures of German tax law, built around German subsidies and deductions. Moving within the EU is generally a better position than moving outside it, but what happens to contributions, subsidies and future taxation of the payout is governed by German rules and needs a German adviser's view. Don't assume the arrangement continues to make sense unchanged simply because you can keep paying into it.

One Irish-side point that grows over time: after three consecutive years of Irish residence you become ordinarily resident from the start of year four, which brings disposals of assets wherever located within Irish CGT — including German property or securities. That status continues for three years after you stop being resident. See moving to Ireland: how cross-border taxes work.

If you have Irish employment income, a German Depot and German property in the same year, that's what our VIP Premium service is for.

What you need before you claim

Gather these first:

• Your PPSN and myAccount access.
• Your IBAN entered in your Revenue profile — refunds are paid by transfer only.
• Your Employment Detail Summary for each year, from myAccount.
• Your German employment records for your arrival year, if claiming Split Year Treatment.
• Four years of Depot statements showing gross dividends and tax withheld — this is what you'll need both for your Irish return and for any German reclaim.
• Your Abmeldung confirmation, if you have one.
• Your full share scheme history — vest dates, quantities, value at vest, sale dates and prices.
• Your RT number and landlord details if you rent here.

If you'd rather have four years reviewed properly, our Tax Back service handles the return. No refund, no fee.

Four years, and one deadline

You can claim back four Irish years. As of 2026 that's 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 — and 2022 closes permanently on 31 December 2026.

Note that the German reclaim window runs on its own clock, to the end of the fourth year following the year of withholding. Two four-year windows, two different starting points — worth checking both at the same time rather than discovering one after the other has closed.

If you're moving on, do the review before you go, while you still have an Irish bank account and myAccount access. See leaving Ireland and the refund you might be owed.

Questions we get asked

My German bank still deducts 26.375%. Can Ireland just credit all of it?

No, and this is the central point. Your Irish credit is limited to the treaty rate of 15%. The excess isn't creditable here — it has to be reclaimed from the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, within the treaty's own four-year window. Tell your institution you're Irish tax resident so it stops happening, then look back at the years still open.

We're married and my spouse earns much less. Is there a Steuerklasse equivalent?

Not as such. Ireland taxes individuals, but you can elect joint assessment, which allows a transfer of unused credits and part of a rate band to the higher earner. It's an election, it isn't automatic, and it can be backdated within the four-year window.

Do I still have to file a German return?

That depends on your German position — whether you have German-source income, and when your unlimited liability ended. It's a German question for a German Steuerberater. What's certain is that being Irish tax resident doesn't by itself close every German obligation.

Does my Riester contract still make sense now that I'm in Ireland?

The contract doesn't disappear, but the German tax logic it was built on may no longer apply to your situation in the same way. This is a German-side question worth putting to an adviser rather than leaving on standing order for four years.

I sold RSUs but the gain was under €1,270. Do I still file?

Yes. The filing obligation is separate from the payment obligation and applies even when the exemption covers the whole gain — and in loss-making years, where filing is what preserves the loss.

If you have a German securities account, do one thing this week: pull your last dividend statement and check the withholding rate. If it says 26.375%, there's money sitting in Germany with a deadline on it.

Related reading

• Moving to Ireland: how cross-border taxes work
• AVC and pension tax relief
• Crypto tax in Ireland