The Expat's Guide to Irish Tax

Residence is a day count. Spend 183 days or more in Ireland in a calendar year, or 280 days across two consecutive years with at least 30 days in each, and you are Irish tax resident for that year. Residence is what gives Revenue the right to tax your worldwide employment income.

Domicile is where your permanent home is in the long term — normally the country you were born into and intend to return to. Most expats are Irish resident but not Irish domiciled, which means foreign income and gains are taxed on the remittance basis: taxed only to the extent you bring the money into Ireland.

Your first and last years in Ireland are the awkward ones. Split Year Treatment can make your employment income taxable in Ireland only from the date you arrive (or up to the date you leave), which is where most arrival and departure refunds come from.

• Moving to Ireland & cross-border taxes
• Leaving Ireland: how to claim your refund

Income tax is charged at 20% up to your standard rate cut-off point and 40% above it. Your tax credits (personal credit, PAYE employee credit, and any credits you claim) are then subtracted from the tax due — they reduce the tax, not the income.

USC is a separate charge with its own bands, and PRSI is a flat 4.1% class A contribution for most employees. Neither is affected by your tax credits, which is why your net pay can look low even when your credits are right.

The most common expat problem is emergency tax: 40% deducted because Revenue has not issued a Revenue Payroll Notification for your employment. Register the job in myAccount and the overpayment is refunded automatically through payroll.

• How to read your Irish payslip
• Emergency tax in Ireland and how to fix it
• Claiming PAYE tax back for the first time

The Rent Tax Credit is worth up to €1,000 for a single renter and €2,000 for a jointly assessed couple, and it can be backdated to 2022 if you never claimed it. Rent paid for accommodation provided by the State or under HAP does not qualify.

Medical expenses attract relief at 20% (nursing home costs at 40%), and there is no minimum spend — GP visits, prescriptions, consultants, physio on referral and non-routine dental all count. Remote working relief covers 30% of your electricity, heating and broadband for the days you worked from home.

Flat rate expenses are the ones nobody tells you about: a fixed annual deduction agreed with Revenue for your occupation — nurses, engineers, shop assistants, hospitality staff and dozens of others — which you can also backdate four years.

• Rent Tax Credit: full guide
• Medical expenses tax relief
• Remote working relief
• Flat rate expenses by occupation
• Top Irish tax deductions for 2026

The four-year rule is the one that costs people money. A claim for 2022 must reach Revenue by 31 December 2026 — after that the refund is gone, no matter how valid it was.

If you are a chargeable person (rental income, self-employment, significant non-PAYE income) your Form 11 for 2025 is due by 31 October 2026, extended into mid-November if you both file and pay through ROS.

CGT has its own calendar: gains made between January and November are paid by 15 December of the same year, gains in December by 31 January of the following year, and the CG1 return is filed by 31 October afterwards.

• Irish tax calendar 2026
• AVC & pension tax relief deadlines

Capital gains are taxed at a flat 33% after the first €1,270 of gains each year, which is a personal exemption you cannot transfer to a spouse or carry forward. Losses can be offset against gains in the same year and carried forward indefinitely.

Crypto is treated as an asset, not a currency: every disposal — selling for euro, swapping one coin for another, or spending it — is a chargeable event, and disposals are matched on a FIFO basis.

Selling shares or crypto at a gain means you must file a CG1 even if the tax is nil after the exemption, and pay by the December or January deadline. Revenue matches broker and exchange data, so unfiled disposals surface later.

• Capital Gains Tax in Ireland
• Crypto tax in Ireland
• Inheritance tax (CAT) explained

Ireland has double-tax treaties with over 70 countries, so income taxed abroad is generally not taxed twice — but relief has to be claimed, it is never automatic.

If you leave part-way through the year you have usually paid tax as though you would earn a full year's salary, so a refund is normally due. Claim it after your final payslip and give Revenue a non-Irish bank account or an Irish one that stays open.

Redundancy payments have their own reliefs — the statutory element is tax-free, plus basic exemption, increased exemption or SCSB, whichever is best for you.

• Redundancy in Ireland: what's tax-free
• Non-EU workers: tax refunds
• Tax guides by nationality