Ireland · Tax regime
Non-domiciled remittance basis of assessment
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open and, as of July 2026, unreformed. Ireland has made no move to follow the UK. It applies automatically — there is nothing to elect and no charge to pay.
This is now the sharpest contrast in Europe. The UK gives a new arrival 4 years and then taxes worldwide income; Ireland taxes only what you remit, indefinitely, with no charge — the regime the UK ran until April 2025 and then destroyed. For a family whose wealth is offshore and whose spending needs are modest relative to that wealth, Ireland has quietly become the better English-speaking EU answer. The catch is entry: with the IIP closed, there is no way to buy your way in.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Nothing. No remittance basis charge, no minimum stay, no application. The cost is structural: you must fund Irish living costs from clean capital and keep the tracing intact
- Physical presence
- Irish tax residence: 183 days in the year, or 280 days across two consecutive years with at least 31 days in each
- Family
- applies individually; each spouse is assessed on their own domicile
- Permanent residency
- n/a — a tax regime; you need an independent immigration permission (EU citizen, Stamp 0, employment permit, or Irish descent)
- Citizenship
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Irish tax resident but not Irish domiciledforeign income and gains kept outside Irelandclean-capital segregation and contemporaneous tracing records
What can go wrong
- Domicile is a common-law concept and it is sticky. Long residence, buying a home, schooling children and burial intentions all erode a claim to foreign domicile — and Revenue can challenge it retrospectively, with the burden on you. This is not a status you register; it is a position you defend.
- Foreign employment income for duties performed in Ireland is outside the remittance basis and taxed in full. The regime shelters investment income and gains, not your salary.
- Remittance is broadly defined. Foreign credit cards used in Ireland, loans secured on offshore assets and funds routed through third countries can all be remittances. Mixed funds must be traced meticulously from day one — retrofitting the analysis later is expensive and often fails.
- Capital Acquisitions Tax is not escaped by non-domicile. CAT bites on the residence of the disponer or the beneficiary, so a non-dom resident in Ireland can still expose gifts and inheritances to 33%.
- Ireland has no exit tax on individuals, but the top marginal rate of ~52% on Irish-source and remitted income is punishing. Ireland is a shelter for offshore capital, not a low-tax country for people who earn.
- The regime survives at political discretion. It is periodically raised in Irish budget debates, and the UK's abolition has strengthened the argument for reform. There is no grandfathering commitment.