Welcome to TaxBytes for Expats, the top tax tips you want to know as an expat. The podcast is here to help answer the common queries and concerns expats have when moving to

or from Ireland. Complex taxes explained simply. We'll focus on the Irish and international tax

issues to be aware of to ensure you save time, money and stress. Hi everyone, thanks for joining

us today for this episode of TaxBytes for Expats. Today we're talking with Matt Bliss,

whose podcast is From My Home to Yours. Some of our listeners might be familiar with it.

This is an expat repat podcast and it's about his experience as an Australian with his Irish wife

and their move from Ireland, or move to Ireland rather, from Melbourne in Australia. They've been here since June of this year and

today Matt is joining us to tell us all about their experience with their move so far. Thank you very much for joining us, Matt. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

Yeah, great to have you on. So I suppose before we kind of kick off with the story, tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe how you and your wife met. An Irish girl in Melbourne

meets an Aussie boy. The rest is history. But yeah, tell us the story as to how you met and now Ireland, how it all happened.

Fairly common story. Even before we started recording here, we were talking about the idea that Irish person goes to Australia, meets Australian person, and then the decision

ensues about whether you stay in Australia or you go back to Ireland at some point. For us, I met my wife in the same place that we were working. So she was over in Australia doing her

working holiday visa and then a series of sponsorship visas after that. She is a teacher, which is not the unfortunate bit. The unfortunate bit is that she's a teacher, but she's also a student. The unfortunate bit is in Australia, often there will be only term-long contracts,

which means you might get a few months for any one visa that you undertake. So she could have done

three to four visas in any one year. And because of the way the Australian government works, you have to have a burden of proof that you intend to leave the country,

which means that a lot of your money goes into plane tickets that you're buying to go back, just in case. You cannot renew your visa again. And then you end up going back anyway, because you

spent two grand on a ticket. Anyway, not a story about me, but a very convenient thing for having met me in the school that we were working in. She was on the sponsorship visas

at the time and I was just doing my regular work and we kind of met each other and then got together. And unfortunately, three months into that time, she was unable to

renew her sponsorship visa because there was no work going. So we had to make a very difficult decision, which turned out to be very simple in retrospect and very thankful that we did,

to move to London. So we moved to London for a year back in 2013 and having met four or five months prior and only getting together three months. And we spent a year there. We weren't fans.

So I came back to Australia. She went back to Ireland because we applied for a partnership visa outside of that. And she had to be out of the country until it was approved, which took nine months. Mm-hmm .

So we were actually apart for another seven or eight months after that as well. And then she finally managed to arrive in Australia and we stayed there for eight, nine years.

During that time, we had spent a lot of that time living life. We were reflecting on the London experience a lot because our time in London wasn't great. We were working too far away from each

other. The travel to work for both of us was like three hours round trip, which was pretty crazy. Wow. Yeah. And-

And we actually found that going to work meant that we both got on a train in separate directions. So we weren't spending a lot of time together because of the amount of money we had to spend.

There wasn't a lot of stuff we could do for leisure stuff. Anyway, point is London wasn't great. So it wasn't really something we were considering moving back to Ireland, uh, for a

long time. But there was always a niggle at, uh, at my wife's heel saying, yeah, we should, we should you go back? We need to go back and give it a go again. Because unfortunately, my wife had lost her

job in the recession. She is a teacher, but she was working in TV production at the time. Oh,

actually, no. She works in TV production. She had a teaching job at the time. Very interesting history. If you do want to hear some of that history, you can listen to the podcast From My

Home to Yours with us and get a bit of that background. But the point is, the itch was finally too strong to ignore. Unfortunately, that itch came about in 2019. And just as we

were making plans to think about moving, something global happened to the entire world and prevented

travel, which was great fun for everyone. For us, it was both unfortunate and fortunate because it meant that we had about three years to think about how we were going to approach the move back to

do. Back in Australia, we had bought a property in that time. And we were living in that for the most part. And yeah, so we were set up knowing that we were going to be coming back to Ireland

anyway. So we always kept it at the back of our minds in terms of the planning. And then in probably May of this year, March, April, May, was when all of the work kicked off to really start

getting that move underway. And in June, we arrived in Ireland. And it's been five months now. So at the time of recording, 2023, it's all kind of coalesced. And

it is actually the thing that we're reflecting on the most now is that at this time, like maybe the last couple of weeks, we're in that settled in phase and kind of waiting for life to happen.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The boxes have been unpacked and you can't think of any forms you have to fill out urgently. And yeah, just, you know, your utility bills have come in,

they're in your own name. And yeah, you're just kind of in the routine. Wow. So it was actually a few years coming really, wasn't it? It took, obviously, COVID delayed the ability to come. And you, am I right, you guys have got kids, is that right?

No, no, we don't have kids.

Okay. That often is a reason when we talk to clients that they decide to come back, they have kids. Okay. So it was really just a pull for her to go, want to go back to Ireland.

And I suppose, yeah, the thing is with Irish people is we always view Ireland as home, generally. And it's so common for people to go to Australia, be there like the wife was for a period of time

and decide that they're coming back to Ireland. So in terms of the move, what have you found difficult about it? What have you found challenging? You'd already lived in the UK.

So I suppose it wasn't a complete culture shock to move to this side of the world. No. And to be fair for me, like in terms of culture shock, it's not a big deal for me

because I prefer colder weather. You're probably thinking Australia, amazing, weather, you know, it's great. It's warm. It's sunny a lot of the time.

Melbourne's a bit.

Yeah. Melbourne's a bit variable, but in terms of the weather and stuff for me coming here, I had far less of a culture shock than at the time when we moved to London. But to be fair,

it was fairly minimal there too. I think maybe I just have a very resilient sort of attitude to things. But in terms of the move itself, we had a lot of time and the main,

the thing that we're always thankful for is that we were financially secure. So not having kids, not having pets, keeping things relatively simple. This is a tax podcast. So simplicity also means

no long-term investments, no bonds, no weird money living in places that might impact our financial experience in Ireland. You know, I might not be making as much as I probably could be,

but in terms of making the move, it kept things fairly simple for us. It was, was the financial security that really helped. We had enough money that we knew we'd be able to

sustain our mortgage in Australia for a long time. We knew that we didn't need to take a lot of things. So when we got on the plane, we were fortunate to fly with Qatar and be gold members

for the amount of times we've traveled to Ireland and back. Oh, wow. That was good. Yeah. It meant around 50 something kilos of luggage each.

Wow. Was that a challenge to bring 50? Oh, that's a lot of luggage, but then you are moving countries. So arguably you have a lot of stuff.

Yeah. So for me, because I'm a technology person, I make my own podcasts or I edit other people's podcasts for a living. For me, it was the technology and making sure those suitcases

were filled enough that there was enough padding that the tech, the microphones and stands and things weren't going to get damaged during the flight. For my wife, it was preparing for both

a summer and winter wear kind of thing. But also she's very thoughtful. About her family as well. So she wanted to make sure that anything that we could bring from

Australia back to Ireland for them, that they can't get over here, that she'd done as much of that as possible as well. So it was kind of gifts and extra stuff that you wouldn't normally think

about when you travel, but they're things that we wanted to make sure we had. And that's one of the things as well, that particularly for me, I knew I wanted to build out a similar experience in

Ireland that I had at home because I'd been remote working for a long time. I built out my, my technology setup, my computer setup to be almost very similar to what it was when I was

back in Australia. So some of that had to travel in the suitcases. So very fortunate, but when you're packing the suitcases, you always anticipate to pack more than you need. And look, I had to

follow my wife's lead on this one. Usually I, I pack an hour before I have to go, whereas she prepares to pack. You're a normal man then. Yeah. But we had several iterations to

prepare for packing as well. So because we owned a property over there, we rented it. We made sure we were out of that property and stayed with my parents at least a week before

we flew out of the country. That meant we did the initial culling down of materials from the house. So selling stuff, giving stuff away. Then we packed, put things in storage. So we have things

in storage over there as well. An additional cost that we could bear, which was very fortunate. And we had the stuff that we were bringing to my parents. But then we did a repack over there as well, which meant the suitcases were even more efficient.

And perhaps my parents, unfortunately, we left some stuff there and perhaps I have decades of video game paraphernalia sitting in one of their cupboards somewhere, which.

Well, actually funny you say that. When we went to Australia many, many years ago, we packed into my husband's parents' attic boxes and boxes of things that we were going for a year.

And we ended up being there for nearly eight. But we, this summer just gone nearly 13 years after we packed them, we went and unpacked the boxes and basically just decluttered Brian's parents'

attic. And it was amazing. We didn't actually need any of the stuff that we had packed originally. And it made me realize that like, I think when you're leaving a country and you're trying to

maybe, like you mentioned, you have things in storage in your head, you're thinking there's always the, but what if we come back? Or what if this happens? And you, you naturally try and kind of cover every eventuality. And the

reality is you can't guess what's going to happen and what you think is going to happen probably won't anyway. I think what you said at the start is really good advice. Try and keep things as

simple. In hindsight, I wish we'd just gotten rid of all that stuff 13 years ago, because it just sat in the attic and did nothing other than take up space. But it's difficult to make those

decisions. And I think you take for granted how little you actually need apart from maybe sentimental things. You know, I know a lot of people coming from Australia, they ask questions like, you know,

should we bring our furniture across? You know, we didn't because it costs a lot, takes a long time to get here. And there's nothing to say the house you buy in Ireland, you're going to want the

furniture that you had in your Aussie house. There's all these little decisions. It's hard, isn't it? You know, but it sounds like you guys kept things simple and that's really worked for you.

Yes. Yeah. Well, look, we have a kind of pay it forward mentality with the way that we dealt with things and getting rid of things. So,

and admittedly, the comfort level reduced over time, the more we did that, because we gave away the couch set, the lounge set we had in our living room. We knew that we weren't going to be able to

sell it as easily. So it was a decision to give it away to someone that would need it just to make sure we could get rid of it, but also knowing we wouldn't get as much back as would justify the

time to get rid of it. You know, I had an expensive computer that I gave to someone to hold onto for a while, didn't charge them for it. And I was like, well, I'm going to have to get rid of it. And I was like, well, I'm going to have to get rid of it. And I was like, well, I'm going to have to get rid of it.

it or anything. They can just use it while I'm away. It means it reduces the hassle of selling things. We did a lot of reduction of stuff and giving things away that we knew we didn't want to

keep for sentimental reasons. So it's a good mentality to have if you are thinking about getting rid of that stuff, less so thinking about what you might need or might not need on the other

side of coming back, but more so the things you know you can replace. And again, not everybody is in the financially secure position that we were in. We knew that if we came back, we'd get a

new lounge set, we'd buy a new bed, you know, do all those things if we needed to.

You could pick those things up so cheaply in Australia. You know, there's such a great secondhand market. That was one thing we couldn't believe when we moved there. It was so easy to go on. What are the names of the websites? I can't remember them, but the ones that you can go on and

you can buy secondhand things. It's a fantastic secondhand market there. It's so easy to pick up decent things compared to here. Did you find when you got here, did you have to buy everything new? Did you, like, I suppose if you're renting, most places are furnished here. There's a

disconnect between Australia and Ireland in that sense. You don't need a lot of stuff if you rent

in Ireland. Yeah, that's one of the biggest things as part of the culture shock that we were talking about before for Australians. When you're renting over there, the house is empty. You don't have

anything in it. But when you're renting in Ireland, well, you may be left with some things in the house that you don't necessarily need or might be in a very poor condition. They generally have the things that you want.

There'll be a lounge set in there, a bed, stuff like that. But a really interesting thing about people wanting to ship things over here, because we're doing our podcast and we connected with a

lot of Facebook groups, the expat groups that share information about people asking questions or just sharing their experiences, there are some things that don't fit over here.

Like the beds are interesting, apparently, where the bed sizes in Australia are different to the ones here. So if you want to buy a sheet set for a bed that you've had shipped from Australia,

it's going to be the wrong size. You'll have to work a little bit harder to find the right size for your bed. And there is talk of people bringing over outdoor sets and barbecue sets because,

you know, it doesn't in Australia, but over here, they're quite expensive, probably because of the low demand considering the weather. Yes, of course. Variable weather. The biggest one that we've seen, though,

is cars. A lot of people are buying cars. They're buying cars. They're buying cars. They're buying cars. A lot of people are looking to ship their cars from Australia over to Ireland because the secondhand car market here is awful. We were very fortunate having my wife's family here

to look out for a car for us before we landed. But yeah, I think that's the biggest one that

we see a lot of people looking to ship. And I think actually to add a tax component to that, there's a tax on vehicles that are registered in Ireland,

and that really inflates the car market in Ireland and specifically post-Brexit because now, you know, we can't move cars as easily from the UK to Ireland. It's constricted the market

for new cars or for new secondhand cars in Ireland. So yes, to buy a secondhand car in Ireland is expensive. And, you know, we get the question. It's not a space we kind of work in, but people

often say to us, you know, what's the situation if I bring my car? Broadly, if you're bringing a car that you've owned for a period of time before you move and you keep it for a period of time

after you move, that vehicle registration tax doesn't apply. Whereas if you were to import a car from, let's say, the UK, you would have to pay vehicle registration tax and VAT on the value

of the car, which is a value that the revenue decide, not necessarily one that is in your head as being reasonable, let's say. So it is something worth thinking about. You know, I have clients,

there's a couple that come to mind who have maybe cars that are worth quite a lot. You know, if they were to buy them in Ireland, they love them. The cost of transporting is expensive,

but it can be worth it if you want the replacement value of the car in Ireland is very high. It's worth importing. And we actually did that. We brought back a car from

Australia on a container ship. And for us, it was an opportunity to bring back personal things as

well. Yeah. Because that car's full of empty space, isn't it? You can pack it to the brim with

the stuff you want to bring. I remember my husband shoving duvets into the back of this car because every inch of space. And it did get here. It took time. And you have that period where you're on the

You said it. There's like this limbo bit where you have to leave if you're renting in Australia or vacating a property. You need to leave and you need to go to the airport. And that little bit

in between physically leaving the property and getting in the taxi to go to the airport is really hard because there's always these little things that you need to do. You need to clean the house

that you're vacating and it needs to be completely free of everything, which are also packing because you're about to emigrate and leave the country. Doing those two things simultaneously is really hard. I think having somewhere to go,

like you said, like, you know, you said your parents' house, I think. It just gives you a few days to go, okay, now let's focus on packing our bag. We stayed with

friends and it was hugely helpful. Of course, not everyone can do that. But if I was doing it again or someone asked me, I'd definitely say to them, try and give yourself a few days just to catch

your breath before you go to the airport. Yeah. And it's hard to make that plan too.

Even booking the flights is an optimization. Problem that people have these days because of the exorbitant cost, at least in Australia

to travel halfway across the world. So you're thinking, well, if I've got a job, I need to finish that job in time, but that job gives me money. And that money could support a

ticket that I have to book, you know, on a Tuesday at 10 PM, because that's going to be a hundred dollars less or $200 less than if I booked it for Friday morning. And this flight

airline will do it this way. And this airline will do it that way. There's a lot of decisions to make that you have to project three or four months forward before planning to that stage. So as you said, planning ahead that

far for you having a tough time putting the bags together and potentially not having room for things that you plan to have room for and having a place to get rid of them. Or if you're in a

position, not being able to pack things that you do want to keep, being able to put them somewhere to ensure that you can get them. And that's a big part of it. And that's a big part of it.

100%. I remember we, you know what? It's so funny you say that. I vividly remember Brian standing in our friend's living room, like just holding up things going, you can't bring this.

We haven't got room. And it, we, we had two young children. It was, it was so stressful. It really was. Um, I look back now and it's funny, but at the time it wasn't. Um, but then we ended up at

the 11th hour having to like pack a box and give it to our friend who was a postman. And he posted it back to Ireland for us because we just left it there. And he was like, I don't know, I don't know

Yeah. He just went and paid postage. It was really kind of him, but yeah, you, you don't, because you're doing a lot. Yeah. You know, you're looking forward, you're planning for

where are we going to stay? You know, who's collecting us from the airport? You're getting to the airport. You're there's just so many things. I mean, I think if you don't like making lists or you're not able to make a list, emigrating is very hard. Like you need to be list focused.

I think, don't you've got to have a plan whether you like it or not, because there's just so many different things, particularly when you're going from Australia, to Ireland, because, you know, I deal with clients who maybe they come from the UK. Well,

they can just jump on the ferry and go back and get another box in a few weeks time. If it's that important, you don't really make a return trip to Australia to pick up things you left behind.

Do you, you know, it's that far you do it once. It's a forward planning thing. You're like, okay,

when do I go back a year and a half for Christmas to visit people and friends that I know? And if you're happy to pick it up then, then it's fine. It's not urgent. Yeah. It can't be, you know, every day. It's not urgent. It's not urgent. It's not urgent. It's not urgent. It's not urgent.

Two months going back and getting a thing from your parents that you left over there. It's just, it's logistically and financially, it just doesn't work.

What are the things about living in Ireland that you as an Aussie, because I know coffee in Melbourne is so good. And when we came back from Australia, we spent this time trying to find really good

coffee. Maybe actually, maybe let's start with that. What do you think of the coffee in Ireland? What else do you like or not like?

So we're living in the West of Ireland, which you're probably wondering, why would you choose to live there? Dublin's where it's at for work and it's the financial center of Ireland. But

for us, we wanted to make sure we lived somewhere that is somewhere neither of us have been or lived before. So my wife has lived in Dublin. She's lived with her family. We wanted to make sure

it was somewhere different. So we went clear on the other side of Ireland. Now, the reason I lead off with that is that the West of Ireland, the towns there, you know, you've got Galway, you've

got Cork, they are the untouched gems of Ireland, I think. Now, bringing it back to the coffee,

the coffee situation here is not ideal. If you're a Melbourneite who enjoys going for coffee in one

place for a coffee meeting and then doing a bit of work and then going out for coffee again, you're probably not going to do that because coffee generally tends to be the same here.

You know, you're not going for a macchiato in one place and going for, you know, a flat white in another place. It has gotten better over the 10 years of me coming over to Ireland since we got together. It has improved. But the quality of that coffee is not ideal. It's not ideal.

Coffee isn't necessarily ideal. So one of the things that was a non-negotiable for me is having a coffee machine, which I had in Australia as well. Can I ask what one it is? Because I love

coffee. It's a Breville Barista Max. I think it's a better version than the one I had in Australia, which I think I got in 2016, I think. But having a coffee machine like that, it's not a capsule

machine. It's like uses actual coffee with a grinder on it and everything. So, you know, it does the full job. So if you can get a coffee machine like that, it's not a capsule machine. If you can get good beans, then it's really good. And that's the fortunate thing of living

on this side of Ireland. I mean, Tesco and Lidl and all those, Aldi, they tend to have really good beans at the moment and generally for pretty cheap. But we've got a few very boutique coffee

shops around us, which means that if we want a really good, well, I say we, my wife doesn't drink coffee. If I want to get a really good coffee somewhere, then I will go to one of those places.

Or if I want some really boutique beans, like I tend to cycle through them to make sure my palate doesn't get too sensitized to a particular bean. It's kind of like a punishment and pleasure kind of thing.

Okay. So I'm going to try this bean, don't really like it, need to finish the bag, but I know I like, I don't like it.

Well, more like I'll get 250 grams of a bean that I really enjoy. And I'll tell myself, I don't want to get used to this, not only because it will be very expensive, but also I know that I really enjoy it.

So I'll go to, you know, little and get a 500 gram bag of slumber Jack.

And your palate's like, what is going on? Like what? It's like drinking fine wine or blue nun. You're like, okay, don't get used to this.

Exactly. It's like a, it's a palate cleanser that lasts over a month and then go back to the other coffee. And you're like, Oh man, it's like, it's like drinking it for the first time.

I'm going to have to ask you, I'm sorry. And I know this is probably totally off topic, but you're going to have to give us some coffee recommendations. We love, this is the problem as well. So there's this, I'll tell you an Irish thing, right?

Probably lots of Irish people think that Irish people who go to Australia come back with notions, right? So notions is an inverted commas, right? You've notions. We came back definitely with

notions about coffee and I can't apologize because I have a cup here in front of me and it's brilliant. And we drink blue butterfly, which is I think a local, a local company. And we've been

through a lot, but we're always on the lookout for something. And we've been through a lot of good beans. So if you drop a few recommendations in, I'll definitely make sure we go out and get them because anybody from Melbourne knows good coffee. That's a rule. Like if I had you to my

house for a cup of coffee, I'd be terrified making it for you because your standards, outside Rome, Melbourne consumes the most coffee. It's like the biggest coffee capital outside of Rome. Isn't that like the statistic? It's an unbelievable place for coffee.

Yeah, it's crazy. And Melbourne is a very kind of hipster entrepreneurial place. There's coffee roasters popping up all over the place. So one in particular that I really enjoyed

in, in Melbourne was St. Ali, which has, is now available in supermarkets over there. I don't think they ship out here, but if they do, I would highly recommend that one from Australia. Over

here, I don't actually have any recommendations yet. I need to spend a bit more time. Also, I haven't been financially stable here just yet. So I know that I don't want to go exploring because yeah. Well, I think I'd,

I'd like to thank you for the interview. I'll have to post you a bag of blue butterfly so you can try it and then tell me what you think of it. Perfect. It's, it's, it's really good. And also,

I know you may be in this neck of the woods yourself for other reasons. At some point in the future, there's a great little coffee shop in Waterford called Trade, which they're ex-Australian

Irish people. Oh yeah. You need to look that up when you're here. It's amazing coffee. You'll be very, very impressed. So, I don't know how we got onto that, but apart from our watery,

bland, and I say that, you haven't, coffee. Oh, before we move on from the coffee as well,

one tip for people who are looking for the good coffee here, don't order the Americano. Okay. Because I find that that's not a good way to gauge the coffee because like the Irish are

very generous. The mugs here are massive. It's like a bucket. Yeah, it literally is. But one shot. Yeah. Which is brilliant for the tea, but for the coffee,

like you might have one shot in it, maybe even two. And the mug is so massive, they fill it to the brim with hot water and it's not going to give you the true taste of the coffee. So, whenever I

go out now, I get a double espresso. Okay. And maybe hot water on the

side, make your own if you really want. Yeah. It's funny. I've become a fan of

the espresso, like a nice short shot to just sip on, but I like the taste of coffee. Some people don't like it as much in that form. So yeah. But anyway.

So aside from coffee, like inverted commas, first world problems.

Look, caffeine, I think is a non-negotiable drug these days. It's the only acceptable one.

Yes. What else is there? Likes, dislikes?

So I do like the weather. I enjoy rain. Having rain helps me work better when I'm in a certain type of work state. I do enjoy the cold weather, which is good for me. I've never seen

snow before, which people are probably saying, oh, it's not snowing. It's not snowing. It's not snowing is unusual to themselves right now because of the snow game in Australia being quite good. So eventually I'll see that around Christmas time, but the rain is getting at me

a little bit just because I need to make sure that I'm going out and doing things and not just deferring them to a time when the weather will be better, which is something subconsciously that I

found from Australia because it will reliably not rain for large portions of the year. Whereas over here, it will reliably rain for significant portions of the year.

So I need to change my mindset there and make sure I'm doing things. One of the worst things that I'm sure that a lot of people have mentioned on this podcast already is the pace of processing,

of administrative, not just for- Bureaucracy. I mean, there is- Yeah. But look, we arrived in June. My wife came over here with a job, which was great.

She managed to get her teaching position sorted out very quickly before we came over. For me, I've been looking for a job. June,

summertime, that's when no one's doing anything. So I've been trying to find a job for the last five months. Some people have gotten back to me within two weeks. Some I applied for at the start

of July and I'm only hearing back now because everyone has been on holidays because that's the time when the kids are on holidays too. And it's warm weather. It's the good times. It's when

everybody starts to drop out. That kind of pace is something to get used to too. Whereas in Australia, it's just snappy. Everybody's- It's doing what they need to do. They're responsive to emails like 24 hours. Make sure

you jump on that email response as quick as you can. Whereas over here, it is a bit, I don't want to say slow in a pejorative way. It's just a different pace to what I was expecting. And the

bureaucracy of it, some of getting things done like the PPS number, like the residency cards,

trying to get anything done that requires forms through revenue or through government or some of the other things that are required. But generally, you never have 90% of the picture

until you get to the very end. Even the car situation for us, my wife is from here. She didn't 100% understand the process of going through buying the car either. So knowing that we had to

get insurance first and then contacting insurance before we even looked or bought the car and then

buying the car and getting the NCT sorted, but the insurance before that. And then all those things, it takes time and it's in a different order.

The way you do them, it's slower. Whereas in Australia, you might find a car on Facebook marketplace. If it's got a roadworthy certificate, you can buy it that day. You don't have to be

insured. The car can be from the 80s. Doesn't even matter. Emissions, who cares? Just get it on the

road, start buying fuel and contributing to the economy kind of thing. So yeah, just the pace and the obscurity of getting things done here. It was a tough one to get used to.

Do you feel you're kind of used to it now? It's an expectations thing. It's an expectations thing. So coming to the country

with nothing, starting from scratch, knowing that you have to begin somewhere, but not having

anything to occupy your time. Fortunately, I did because I started my podcast editing side hustle

before I left Australia. So I edit podcasts for other people for money, which is great because that's sustained me financially. But if I didn't have that to occupy my time,

I would have spent a lot of that time worrying and thinking and doing all to no avail at all. So it was the expectations. It was making sure that I knew that it was going to take a long time.

They set you up well for the visa process. In Australia, they'll tell you it'll take 18 months for you to get this visa approved. Sometimes it'll happen in 10. Sometimes it'll happen in 17,

but you know it'll happen in 18. Whereas to get a PPS number here, I had to do online research. I had some forms I could submit, being self-employed, but the forms referred to things I didn't have to be added to the form to

be able to get the number. And then the circular thing where it's like, you need a bank account to

get a PPS and you go to the bank and they're like, well, you need a PPS to get a bank account.

And you're like, well, this is, which is first, the chicken or the egg. We've had clients say that to us before. It can be frustrating, I think. You need a residential address to be able to

apply for a bank account. And if you're not living in Ireland yet, and you're at a bank that doesn't recognize international residential addresses to be able to open them, kind of stuck. You have to find where you live first before you can have money here to then

apply for a PPS to have a job. And then you get into the whole employment stage of things where if you're fortunate enough to remote work for a job you already have in your origin country,

that's where you have been very helpful for a lot of people. I'm sure the tax situation and payment and employment management there is complicated anyway,

but you know, whether they sought out an address for you or get an address here, that's, that's another thing that, that was quite slow as well, uh, was getting a place to, to live.

It's such a problem at the moment.

Getting a rental is very hard. Uh, I think for us where, you know, professional couple, no kids, no pets, very easy to put up somewhere. We talked to a real estate agent for where we're

living and they managed to pull up a bunch of places that weren't on online to find like daft.ie looks great, but the properties aren't up there post COVID. They won't don't want

international people registering to live in. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's a lot of people that are, you know, the the city people are really comfortable with There's lots of other places. There's lots of other places that we could build our home. Uh, and then not be able to come over to, to Ireland because of lockdowns in whatever country,

you know, they're not going to happen now because you know, of the position we're in with regards to lockdowns and COVID and stuff, but yeah, all that is to say, not complaining about it, but if me now

was talking to Matt from five months ago, I probably would have said, Hey buddy, slow down, just find some fun stuff to do, do a little bit on the stuff that you need, and then go for a run, or

Or, you know, eat a bag of taters or, you know, find the next best TV show you've got on RTE and just watch that, you know, chill out.

Yeah, because I think that's the other thing as well. Like, and this is me talking personally, but I found it, it's a sad thing when you emigrate because you say goodbye to your friends. You would have said goodbye to your family.

You talked about maybe you wouldn't see them for a year and a half. It's like nobody can kind of help you with that. You've got to get on with it. And like the only way you can kind of do it is, like you said, try and keep yourself busy with things that you do enjoy.

Because if you focus purely on trying to get yourself sorted with all the other non kind of, you know, social things, you might get a bit frustrated because that might not happen really quickly.

So I think you're really right. You know, and one of the other things that's come through from some of the other people we've spoken to is join social groups and, you know, take up a hobby. Try and get yourself.

You know, into a routine, you know, that's as much as you can. I think you're dead right because it is difficult or I found it hard in both directions.

Going to Australia and coming back, leaving a country and moving to a new one. It's not the easiest thing to do. And it does sound like you guys, it's overall, it's been a good move so far. I know it's early days.

It sounds like I get the impression that now that you're settled, more settled, that this might be home for the next few years. Is that? A realistic thing to say?

Well, it's a funny, it's a funny thing. I mean, another bit of advice that I give to anyone listening, considering a move is about whether you're thinking about moving wholesale.

Like we know people who have said Australia, no more. Ireland's it. We're going to go home, be with family, whatever we need to do. But we're not coming back. Whereas we wanted the opportunity to go back if we wanted to.

So we both got leave from our jobs, which means that we can go into those jobs. Well, at least one of us can, unfortunately for me, because of the employment situation over there.

Look, I can't talk about it much because I did have a government job, but that job is now not necessarily there when I return.

So I've had to do a bit of management from this side of the world about what my employment situation is like over there.

And not only is that something I have to manage myself, but they've also been very poor communicating to me these changes.

That affect a role that I'm expecting to come back to or be able to come back to when I return.

So the bit of advice there is that if you're planning to have something to return to, like having an anchor that you can go back to if Ireland doesn't work out or any country, really be prepared for there to be a burden there.

It might be financial. It might be emotional. It might be social. It could be logistical, but there's a lot more to it than you expect. And that's what we're finding now in this. Settled in period.

We don't have things to think of that need to be done in order for us to continue to live here.

We could just sit back and do nothing for four weeks and, you know, we can just be, but like I've had to manage my job over there for a little bit. And my wife has been connecting with a lot of people.

She hasn't talked to for a long time in Australia. We're very good friends. Like we've lived over there for 10 years. She has, and she has strong friendship networks there that she's trying to cultivate from here. And that's incredibly difficult. And it's, it's not like.

You know, you say goodbye to your friend, you say, sayonara was a great time, but we don't need you anymore. Goodbye. It's not how friendship works.

Uh, you know, if you're, if you're expecting to have things to return to, even if you're like me and you've got your lists, you're like, I can leave that automated. I don't have to touch it. You know, there might be payments.

There might be, you know, little things that can kind of get managed outside of you. There's still a burden there. There's like 20% of you that just stays in Australia. And thinks about what's happening there.

And if this doesn't work out, what you have to do over there again, and all of a sudden you're thinking about the move back as well.

That's it. And I think what you're talking about there are the things that you can't control. Like that, that's ultimately what you're, you're saying, I think is that, you know, cause I know exactly what you're saying there about your wife.

You know, you stay in contact with people who you really care about. The really sad thing is, is that over time, those friendships, they don't go away, but they change. Because friendship is.

The media thing where you see somebody, you have something common, you share an experience. Okay.

Of course you have friendships that span continents in years, but the point being that they're different to the ones where you go for a cup of coffee with your friends and catch up.

And I think if you're thinking of going back, you almost can, to some extent, try to live your life in two places and you can't do that. You're only in one place at a time. Um, but I know exactly what you're talking about.

And I think it's best summarized by saying there are some things on this. That don't make a list. And even if they do, you'll never take them off because they're out of your control.

It's just a function of living in two different places or having lived in two places. It's not easy. And I don't know if there's anything that people take from that other than there will be some things beyond your control. You can't add them to a list.

And that's just a decision you make the day you book that flight. You know, that that's just a function of it.

We've talked about preparation a lot for this.

I expected us to eventually hit the money in this episode. Uh, tax-wise and, you know, thinking about what we did financially, maybe that can be a part two, uh, for a few months down the track.

But the thing is that you can't discount anything that you have logistically in your space, your space of control.

That won't be a burden for you prepare for it to be something hard, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised when it's not.

But if you expect it to be easy and then it's hard, that is a, a harder burden to bear than if you didn't. And I think you're, you're dead right though.

We should definitely do another episode where we probably talk a bit more about the taxes.

So that's, that's the other part of this too.

Well, how we connected initially, not just me discovering this podcast before, uh, moving from Australia, but also engaging the services to help out with getting the PPS number and figuring out the tax situation here is, uh, and having a podcast that talks about it as advice for other people.

I actually know a tremendous amount where we could probably have a cogent conversation about tax. And money that would make sense, even though I'm not qualified as a financial consultant.

So, um, yeah, bring me back. We'll, we'll have a chat about our situation and how we made it easier.

Yeah, 100%. Let's do it, Matt. Thank you so much for your time. And also just to give a shout out, Matt has recently become the editor of our podcast.

Um, and he's open for business for anybody who has a podcast or who has questions about, um, setting one up.

Yeah.

Running one that's currently underway and we highly recommend it. So thank you on every front for joining us for your work and, uh, yeah, look forward to the next chat.

Thanks so much, Steph.

Thanks for listening to TaxBytes for Expats. Please do leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast.

And as always, remember to take professional tax advice specific to your personal circumstances before acting or refraining from action in connection with the matters dealt with in this series.

The material in this podcast is intended to give general guidance only.