🇬🇭 Tax Refunds for Ghanaian Workers in Ireland: What You're Owed, GRA Residence and the Treaty Still Waiting

Is there a tax treaty between Ireland and Ghana?

• Where it stands. Revenue's Ghana treaty page and dates of effect table show the agreement as signed and not yet in effect. Kenya is in the same position; South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Zambia, Botswana and Ethiopia have treaties in force.
• What that means now. While you're Irish resident (or elect to be in your arrival year), your Irish salary is taxed in Ireland with the same credits, bands and reliefs as anyone else, and refunds work exactly the same with or without a treaty.
• In a year you're not Irish resident, Revenue gives no personal tax credits to non-residents who aren't EU citizens or citizens of a country with a tax treaty with Ireland (Revenue). Because the Ghana treaty isn't in force, don't count on it to qualify you.
• Income taxed in both countries. With no treaty in force, there's no credit. For rent from Ghana, Revenue lets you deduct the Ghanaian tax from the rent before Irish tax is worked out (Revenue), which isn't a euro-for-euro credit. If Ghana taxes your Irish salary in your move year, any relief would have to come from Ghana. Our Ireland–Nigeria guide works through the same no-treaty rules with figures.

Does Ghana still tax you after you move to Ireland?

• Ghana's tests. You're resident in Ghana for a year if you're a citizen (unless you have a permanent home abroad and live in it all year), if you're present for 183 days or more in a 12-month period starting or ending in the year, or if you're a Ghanaian government employee posted abroad. A citizen temporarily absent for no more than 365 continuous days, with a permanent home in Ghana, also stays resident (PwC Ghana, residence).
• Worldwide versus Ghana-source. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents only on income derived in Ghana, at a flat 25% according to PwC (PwC Ghana, personal income).
• Resident for the whole year. PwC notes that a person resident in Ghana during a year of assessment is treated as resident for the whole of that year, so a move part-way through the year doesn't split it the way Ireland's split-year rules can.
• This is Ghanaian law. Whether the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) expects a return from you, and how it treats an Irish salary in your move year, is a question for a Ghanaian tax adviser on the date you ask.

What about rent from a house in Ghana?

• Domiciled or not. Moving here doesn't by itself make you Irish-domiciled (Revenue, domicile). On the remittance basis you're taxed only on what you bring into Ireland, as money or value (Revenue).
• Which Irish form. If your taxable non-PAYE income is €5,000 or less and your gross non-PAYE income is €30,000 or less, a PAYE worker can declare it on Form 12; otherwise it's Form 11. See rental income tax in Ireland.
• How Ghana taxes the rent itself, and whether a tenant or agent should withhold, is a question for a Ghanaian adviser.

What are Ghanaian nurses and carers most likely owed?

• Uniform allowance. Revenue's flat rate expenses list gives nurses €733, €638, €353 or €258 a year depending on who supplies and launders the uniform, plus €80 for nurses on short-term agency contracts. Healthcare assistants usually look at the Nursing Assistants line (€93 to €526), as long as their duties fit it: see our guide for healthcare assistants.
• Rent Tax Credit. 20% of the rent you paid, capped at €500 for 2022 and 2023 and €1,000 a year from 2024 (double for a jointly assessed couple), never more than your income tax. Renting from a parent or child, with HAP, RAS or Rent Supplement, or from an Approved Housing Body doesn't qualify, and if your tenancy must be registered with the RTB, your landlord must have registered it. See the Rent Tax Credit guide.
• Spouse still in Ghana. Payroll taxes you as single. After the year ends, if your partner had no income, you can claim the married credit and the married standard rate band; if they had some, a proportion. See spouse living abroad.
• Hospital job plus agency shifts. If all your credits and your 20% band sit with the main job, the agency taxes every euro at 40%; if your total income is within your 20% band, that's an overpayment you can reclaim. See tax on a second job.
• Emergency tax when you started. With a PPSN but no Revenue Payroll Notification, you get no tax credits: for the first four weeks, 20% up to the single person's rate band for each pay period and 40% above it, then 40% on everything. Without a PPSN, 40% from the first payslip (Revenue).

Worked example: husband in Accra, three claims in one year

Starting data (assumptions): Abena was Irish resident for all of 2024; her husband was not resident in Ireland and had no income. Her taxable pay was €42,000, all at one hospital, with the single credits (€1,875 personal and €1,875 employee) and the €42,000 single band on her payroll record. She supplies and launders her own uniforms (€733) and paid €1,000 a month rent on an RTB-registered tenancy with an unrelated landlord. She claims nothing during the year.

The refund splits into €1,875 from the married credit through aggregation relief, €146.60 from the uniform allowance (€733 × 20%) and €1,000 of Rent Tax Credit. We've kept the Rent Tax Credit at the single €1,000 cap: aggregation relief isn't joint assessment, and Revenue's guidance gives the €2,000 cap only to a jointly assessed couple. If her husband had earned something in Ghana, the married part would be reduced in proportion to her Irish share of the couple's income.

What about parents and money sent home?

• The relative can live in Ghana. Their own income must not exceed the limit for the year: €18,548 for 2026, €18,028 for 2025, €17,404 for 2024, €16,780 for 2023 and €16,156 for 2022. Revenue can ask for proof of your payments and of their income. See the Dependent Relative Tax Credit.
• Keep the transfer receipts. Mobile money and bank transfer records that show who received the money are your evidence if Revenue asks.

What Revenue actually asks for

1. Sign in to myAccount with your PPSN and add your IBAN to your Revenue profile.
2. Under PAYE Services, choose Review your tax for the previous 4 years and request a Statement of Liability for the year.
3. Complete the Income Tax Return: add flat rate expenses (your nursing category) and the Rent Tax Credit with the tenancy's RTB number where it has one and your landlord's details.
4. For aggregation relief, record that you're married, state that you're electing for aggregation because your spouse isn't resident, and declare your spouse's income for the year: none, or the amount in euro. Keep your marriage certificate and evidence of their income ready.
5. Repeat for each year from 2022 to 2025, and keep your records for six years.

If you'd rather not file four years yourself, our Tax Back service does it for you. No refund, no fee.

Where do you start?

If you were working in Ireland in 2022, start with 2022: it closes for good on 31 December 2026. If your spouse was still in Ghana that year, the married credit alone may be worth more than everything else on the return.

Related reading

• Spouse living abroad: the married tax credit
• Flat rate expenses for nurses
• Tax on a second job in Ireland
• Dependent Relative Tax Credit for parents abroad
• Tax refunds for Kenyan workers: the other signed treaty not yet in force
• Tax guides by nationality

Questions we get asked