Tax for Spanish Workers in Ireland: Refunds, Shares and Dual Residence

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

You need no employment permit and no immigration stamp. You can start work as soon as you have a PPSN and change employer freely.

For Irish tax, that changes almost nothing. Residence here 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. You get the same credits, rate bands and reliefs as an Irish citizen — and the same obligation to claim them yourself, because none of them apply automatically. Revenue's rules are on its tax residence page.

Your arrival year is your biggest refund

Ireland's PAYE system spreads your tax credits and rate band evenly across twelve months, assuming you'll work all of them. If you arrive in September, you've earned in four — but your liability is calculated on your real annual income against the full year's credits.

The higher your salary, the bigger the gap. Here's why.

Say you started on 1 September on €70,000 — €5,833.33 a month — and earned €23,333.33 in Ireland that year.

Refund: €4,400.

Nobody made an error. Two things produced it: you received a full year's credits against a part year's earnings, and the higher-rate tax deducted month by month turned out to be unnecessary once your real annual income was known.

Split Year Treatment is what keeps it that way. If you worked in Spain from January to August, that Spanish employment income would otherwise come into the Irish computation as worldwide income. Split Year Treatment excludes pre-arrival employment income while still giving you the full year's credits — which is exactly what makes the arithmetic above work. Since the Finance Act 2024, for arrivals from 1 January 2024 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 rental income, investment income or directorship income from Spain — those stay in scope.

What's worth claiming at 40%

Reliefs are worth your marginal rate, so at the higher rate everything below is worth double what it would be to a standard-rate taxpayer.

Pension and AVCs are the largest lever available to you. 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. There's also a timing rule that lets you elect a contribution against the previous tax year, covered in 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. Dublin rents mean almost everyone is at the cap. See the Rent Tax Credit guide.

Medical expenses at 20%, and remote working relief, which is a deduction and therefore worth 40% of the allowable cost to you.

Joint assessment, if your partner earns significantly less or isn't working — part of their rate band and unused credits can transfer. It must be elected.

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

If your package includes shares

Most Dublin multinationals grant RSUs, options or an ESPP, and the treatment surprises people.

RSUs are taxed twice, under two regimes. At vesting, the market value is employment income — taxed through payroll at your marginal rate with USC and PRSI, around 52% for a higher-rate taxpayer. That value then becomes your base cost, and any growth after vesting is a capital gain taxed at 33% when you sell.

Paying CGT and filing a CGT return are separate obligations. Tax 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 if 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.

That gap catches out a lot of well-paid, otherwise organised people: they pay in December, assume they're finished, and pick up a surcharge ten months later.

Share options changed in 2024. Gains realised from 1 January 2024 are taxed through payroll by your employer — no RTSO1, no RTSO registration. For exercises before that date, you were required to pay Relevant Tax on Share Options and file a Form RTSO1 within 30 days of exercise, with interest running at 0.0219% per day on late payment. 2022 and 2023 are still open years, so if you exercised then and nobody mentioned the 30-day rule, that's worth addressing proactively.

Also: dividends must be declared in Ireland even where foreign withholding tax was deducted at source.

The CGT mechanics are set out in more detail in crypto tax in Ireland — the rules are the same for shares.

The Spanish side: residence doesn't end when you leave

This is where the real risk sits, and it isn't Irish.

Spain treats you as tax resident if you spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year — and temporary absences count towards that total unless you can prove tax residence in another country. Short trips back don't stop the clock by themselves.

There are two further tests: whether Spain is your main base or centre of economic interests, and a family presumption — if your spouse and minor children habitually reside in Spain, Spain presumes you are resident too. That presumption can be rebutted, but the burden of proof is on you.

So the classic problem case is someone who takes a Dublin job while their family stays in Madrid or Valencia, flies home most weekends, and assumes the move settled the question. It didn't.

The practical answer is a certificate of tax residence. Revenue issues these on request, and it's the document that evidences your Irish residence to the Spanish authorities. If there's any prospect of Spain looking at your position — family still there, property still there, frequent returns — get one for each relevant year while the year is fresh.

Where both countries claim you, the 1994 Ireland–Spain double taxation convention contains tie-breaker rules that assign residence to one state. That's the mechanism, but it's a resolution process, not something that happens automatically.

And if you go back: Spanish tax residents holding foreign assets above certain thresholds must file Modelo 720, declaring overseas bank accounts, securities and property, in a window that runs from 1 January to 31 March. Someone returning to Spain after several years in Dublin, holding an Irish bank account, vested shares and a pension, can walk straight into that obligation without realising. Whether and how it applies to you is a matter of Spanish law and a question for a Spanish asesor fiscal — but knowing it exists before you move is worth a great deal more than discovering it afterwards.

One Irish-side point that becomes relevant the longer you stay: 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 a property in Spain. That status continues for three years after you stop being resident. The framework is in moving to Ireland: how cross-border taxes work.

If you have Irish employment income, share proceeds and Spanish assets in the same year, that's what our VIP Premium service is for.

What you need before you claim

• 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 Spanish employment records for your arrival year, if claiming Split Year Treatment.
• Your full share scheme history — vest dates, quantities, market value at vest, sale dates and prices, broker fees. Export it before you change jobs and lose platform access.
• Your RT number and landlord details if you rent.
• Pension contribution certificates for anything paid outside payroll.
• Documentation of Spanish tax paid, for any foreign tax credit.

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

Four years, and one deadline

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

If you're planning to move on, do the review before you go, while you still have an Irish bank account, myAccount access and your equity platform. The departure year is usually the second-largest refund after your arrival year, for the same reason. See leaving Ireland and the refund you might be owed.

Questions we get asked

I arrived in the middle of the year. Do I have to do anything, or does it correct itself?

It doesn't correct itself unless your employer received a cumulative instruction from Revenue during the year. For most people the arrival-year overpayment sits there until they file a return for that year — and it's often the largest single refund they'll ever have.

My family is still in Spain and I fly back most weekends. Am I Irish tax resident?

Your Irish residence is decided by days spent in Ireland. The harder question is whether Spain also considers you resident, given the family presumption and the fact that temporary absences count in the Spanish day count. Get an Irish certificate of tax residence from Revenue for each relevant year, and take Spanish advice on your specific position — this is exactly the situation the treaty tie-breaker exists for.

I sold RSUs but the gain was under €1,270, so no tax. 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 too.

I'm moving back to Spain next year. What should I sort out first?

Export your share scheme history, check whether a CG1 was filed for every year you sold shares, update your bank details in myAccount, and claim all open Irish years before you go. Then take Spanish advice on Modelo 720 before your first Spanish filing season, not during it.

Does Ireland tax my Spanish rental income?

If you're Irish tax resident, foreign rental income can be within scope here as well as in Spain. Split Year Treatment won't shelter it — that covers employment income only. The treaty and a foreign tax credit prevent double taxation on the same profit, but the credit has to be claimed and evidenced.

If you arrived in Ireland part-way through any year since 2022, that arrival year is where your money is. Start there.

Related reading

• Moving to Ireland: how cross-border taxes work
• AVC and pension tax relief
• Rent Tax Credit guide