For Irish citizens

How tax residency works

Ireland’s tax year is the calendar year. You are resident if you spend 183 days or more in Ireland in a tax year, or 280 days or more across the current and previous tax years combined. A year with 30 days or fewer in Ireland does not count towards the 280 day test, and being in Ireland for any part of a day counts as a day.

Ordinary residence is a second, slower status. You become ordinarily resident after three consecutive tax years of residence, and you stay ordinarily resident for three consecutive tax years after you leave. During those three years you are taxed on worldwide income, except income from a trade or job carried on wholly abroad and other foreign income of up to €3,810 a year; above that limit, all of it is taxable.

A tax treaty between Ireland and your new country may limit that charge. Ireland has treaties with the UAE, Panama and Georgia, but none in force with Paraguay or Uruguay.

Domicile, your permanent home under general law, is separate again. Most Irish citizens keep an Irish domicile of origin unless they settle permanently elsewhere with no intention of returning. It matters most for the wealthy: Irish domiciled people with worldwide income over €1 million, Irish property worth over €5 million and less than €200,000 of Irish income tax can owe the €200,000 a year domicile levy.

Leaving properly

There is no departure form. Revenue, the Irish tax authority, applies the day tests to the facts, so the aim is a planned day count, an updated Revenue record and a final return that claims what you are owed.

1. 01

   Plan your day count

   Stay under 183 days in Ireland in each tax year and under 280 days across any two consecutive years, counting any part of a day.

2. 02

   Update your Revenue record

   Change your address to one outside Ireland in myAccount or ROS (Revenue Online Service), and cease your employment record if your employer has not.

3. 03

   Claim split year treatment

   If you are resident in the year you leave and not resident the next, employment income earned abroad after your departure is ignored. For moves after 31 December 2024 you claim it in your income tax return.

4. 04

   File for the year you leave

   You generally keep a full year of tax credits in your year of departure, which often means a refund. Keep filing while you have Irish rent or other Irish income.

5. 05

   Arrange your Irish property

   Appoint an Irish collection agent to receive the rent and file for you, or make sure your tenant withholds 20% through the NLWT system.

6. 06

   Protect your PRSI record

   If you have 520 paid contributions, apply for voluntary contributions within five years of the end of the last year you paid PRSI, the Irish social insurance.

Exit tax, property and investments

Ireland has no exit tax for people who emigrate. The exit tax in Irish law applies to companies that move their residence abroad, and the same name is used for the tax on investment funds and life policies, which is unrelated to leaving.

There is a temporary non residence rule. If you are Irish domiciled and leave for five years or less, gains on shareholdings of at least 5% of a company, or worth more than €500,000, that you sell while abroad are taxed when you return. Budget 2027 announced a cut in the standard capital gains tax rate from 33% to 31% for disposals from 7 October 2026.

Irish land and buildings stay taxable whoever owns them. Rent is taxed in Ireland: a tenant paying you directly must withhold 20% and pay it to Revenue through the Non Resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT) system, unless an Irish collection agent receives the rent and files for you. On a sale, the buyer must withhold 15% of the price of a house or apartment over €1 million, or of other assets over €500,000, unless you provide a CG50A clearance certificate, which a non resident obtains by paying the tax due.

Principal private residence relief, the exemption for your home, always covers the last 12 months of ownership, but years you spend abroad can become taxable unless you return to live in the property. Your accountant confirms the position before a sale.

Capital Acquisitions Tax, or CAT, is Ireland’s gift and inheritance tax, charged at 33% above lifetime tax free thresholds; Group A, from a parent to a child, rises to €420,000 for gifts and inheritances from 7 October 2026 under Budget 2027. A gift or inheritance is within CAT if the giver or the recipient is resident or ordinarily resident in Ireland, or if the asset is Irish property. Because ordinary residence lasts three years after you leave, your worldwide assets stay within CAT for that time, and gifts to children who still live in Ireland remain taxable for them. People not domiciled in Ireland are only treated as resident for CAT after five consecutive years of residence, a rule that matters for foreign nationals more than for most Irish citizens.

Pensions and social security

Occupational pensions, PRSAs (personal retirement savings accounts) and retirement annuity contracts can stay in Ireland. Irish pension income paid to a non resident is generally taxed in Ireland unless a tax treaty gives the taxing right to your new country, in which case you can apply to have it paid without Irish tax.

The State Pension (Contributory) is paid from age 66, and the Department of Social Protection can pay it into an account in the country you live in. You need at least 520 full rate contributions, and 2,080 for the maximum rate. If you were born on or after 1 January 1958 you can defer it to any age up to 70 for a higher rate.

Voluntary contributions keep your record building while you are abroad and not insured elsewhere. For most former employees they cost 6.6% of your income from the previous year, with a minimum of €500 a year. EU rules and Ireland’s social security agreements, including with the UK, the United States, Canada and Australia, can also count time worked abroad towards your pension.

Dual citizenship

Ireland allows dual citizenship. You do not have to give up Irish citizenship to become a citizen of another country, and citizenship by birth or descent is not affected by living abroad.

Naturalised Irish citizens have one extra step. If you live outside Ireland for more than seven consecutive years, the law expects an annual declaration of your intention to keep Irish citizenship; check this before you move for the long term.

As an Irish citizen you already hold EU citizenship, so a second passport is mainly about diversification rather than travel access. Our citizenship programs in St Kitts and Nevis, Turkey and Vanuatu allow you to keep your Irish citizenship.