Welcome to tax bytes 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, hope you're well. Welcome to this episode of

tax fights for xpaths. Thanks to all the new

listeners. We've had joy in recent months, and for the

people who frequently on calls tell me that they listen, it's great to

hear that we're getting people joining and listening, and please feel

free to contact us and let us know what topics you'd like us to talk

about today. I want to talk about the five top

tips to think about if you're planning your move to

Ireland in the context of your taxes. We've covered

each of these things throughout all the episodes, but I thought it might be good

to have a brief episode for people to take away

five things I'd like them to think about in advance of their

move. So just me, as you've probably gathered,

and we'll jump straight in. The first one would be around

understanding your tax residency status. So we've

spoken about this previously. Compared to some of the rules that we see in other

jurisdictions, the irish tax residency rules are relatively straightforward.

As a reminder for anybody who hasn't heard us talk about it

before, it's a days test. We're looking to count the

number of days that you have in Ireland in a calendar year. If you exceed

a certain number of days, you're a tax resident. It's quite straightforward in that

regard. The tests that we're using or measuring

are 183 days in a calendar year

or 280 days over the course of two years. So

those two points are ones to be aware of. And

by using those tests, you can answer the question, am I an irish

tax resident in the year I move? And if not, when will I become

one? In addition to that, under the tip of know

your residency status, I always think it's useful to

understand your tax residency position in the country that you're

leaving. So this probably feeds

into the second tip, which is consider having

advice or a tax return preparer in both

countries, particularly in the year you move. Why do I

say that? Well, if we think about some of the countries

where we have clients come to us from to

list them, you know, the US, Canada, Australia, UK

to name but a few, some of those jurisdictions

have what are called exit taxes, so they can,

in certain circumstances, not all impose a tax

on an individual when they're leaving the jurisdiction. It's

not in every case, but it's always good to have a

conversation with the tax advisor when you're planning to leave a

country to check whether or not there's any implications in

terms of income or assets you have or any actions that they'd like you

to take. So the second tip is get two tax return preparers,

one for the country you're leaving and one for the country you're arriving

in. Because, as we've mentioned many times on

this podcast, the value in tax advice

is generally much greater if taken in

advance. In other words, take advice when planning

and avoid, if possible, taking it after the fact.

That's not to say there is no value to advice taken after the fact. It's

just generally easier for us to provide solid advice before you

move. So that's the second tip. Get two tax return preparers on that

point. We're frequently asked and contacted and asked,

can you do my us and irish return? Can you do my irish and my

UK return? Can you do my irish and insert other

country here return? The answer is no. And the

reason for that is we are chartered tax

advisors. We are registered with the Institute of Tax in Ireland. We are chartered

accountants and practicing members of the Institute of Chartered

Accountants in Ireland. Both those bodies regulate us

and they have CPD requirements. That's continuing professional

development for anyone who's not familiar with the acronym charge. Fees have

obligations and many, many different aspects

to, I suppose, how we operate as

practitioners. And what's common in

practice in Ireland is, and globally, not just in Ireland,

is that it's very, very rare to have a tax advisor who

is qualified and able to advise you on two jurisdictions at the

same time. And that's across the board. Whether you go from

the big four accountants to your local accountant on the

street, it's just very rare. So this is a common

misconception that there is people out there who do both. They may

exist, they are rare in practice, but that doesn't mean that we can't

solve the problem, because what's the problem? The problem is that you have an

obligation to file a return in Ireland. You have an obligation to file a tax

return in, for example, the US, Australia and UK.

Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands,

Canada. I'm listing places where we have a solid

referral network. So my point is this. A good advisor will be able

to connect you with somebody in the other location where you have a requirement, they'll

be able to work with that person. So you should be able to, as a,

as a client, step back from the process and let the two advisors do their

thing, work together, make your life easier, and do what they

are qualified to do, which is to deal with the questions, obviously with the

expertise of understanding the international angle in their own

jurisdiction. Third tip, know your tax domicile.

And if you don't know, speak to somebody who can give you advice on it.

Good, solid advice. Tax domicile, from an irish perspective,

is such an important concept, and it's so frequently misunderstood

by clients. Why do we focus on it so much? Well,

in Ireland, there's a special basis of taxation. It's known as the

remittance basis of tax. Very simply, it means that

if you are non irish domiciled, you are not

required to pay tax in Ireland on foreign income

or foreign gains until you bring the income or gains to

Ireland. So the implications of this vary

depending on the taxpayer's profile. But it's such a

useful thing to understand and take advantage of, and you can't do

that until you're clear on your tax domicile. So speak to

a tax advisor, get advice on your tax domicile,

and please resist the urge to self assess your domicile position,

because particularly if your situation is slightly complex, it can

be quite difficult to self assess correctly

without expert input. The third

tip is understand the tax system. So a

couple of small points that might be helpful for anybody who's listening, whether you're

a returning irish person or somebody coming to live in Ireland for the first

time. Few small points about our tax system. It's calendar year.

So you're moving from maybe an April deadline in the UK,

a June deadline in the Australia

December deadline, or year end. I mean, in the US

to calendar system here in Ireland. So it's quite similar to the, to the us

system in that regard. If you come to Ireland and you have an

obligation to file a tax return, let's say you move in 2024,

you have to file a tax return that year, because we've determined that there is

an obligation to do so. You must do so by the 31 October and the

following year. So it's quite a long lead in period of time

where you need to, before you need to do the return. But one

important point, if you have, if you move to Ireland in

2024 and you have to do a tax return in 2025 by the deadline

that we mentioned, and you have a tax payment to make, there's a preliminary

tax system here, which very simply means you are in a prepayment

situation with your taxes. And if you've moved to Ireland in the first

year, you don't have to pay preliminary tax. You can choose to do so if

you wish. However, when you come to do your tax return in

2025, you'll have to pay your 2024 bill and

prepay your 2025 bill. And what that means is if you haven't

budgeted for the taxes, when you get to the payment point in October

2025, you're going to have a big outlet. So understand

how the system works, understand how it applies to you. And

again, sounds like a broken record, but try to do that in

conjunction with an advisor so that you get the best outcome and the correct one

the first time. The fifth point is learn to

navigate Revenue's online system. Learn to use their website,

work out whether you are going to be using

their my account system, which we've had a recent podcast

episode with Alan Purcell, who I explained really, really well how

that works and who it's for. Are you using my account, which is a

simple online system broadly designed for people who

are employees and who have low levels of other income,

or are you required to register via revenues? Online

system so, for example, of people who are retiring to

Ireland or coming to live in Ireland and who might have foreign investment income

are required to register for revenues. Online service, which

is an online system whereby longer form

tax returns, called colloquially in the industry form eleven

s, are lodged. Everybody can log on to revenue, ie, and

familiarize themselves with the system. There's some really good

information on revenue's website, and I think revenue

recently installed a chatbot as well, where I think you can engage with it. I

haven't personally used it, so I'm not too familiar with how functional it is,

but it's a useful thing to know. But I would say this, and just

bear this in mind, we do sometimes work with clients who

ring revenue and try to engage with them about

complex international tax issues. If you don't get a clear

answer, or you're struggling to get traction, it's not just you. Revenue currently,

are you struggling to deal with the volume of queries they're getting? I

understand that they're also recruiting internally to try and build up their staff,

but the point is this, they don't exist as a tax advisory

service. So if you're struggling or you're finding it difficult to get answers to

questions which might of course seem basic or

simple, consider speaking with an advisor,

just to try and get to the root of the issue quickly and resolve it.

So there are five high level points that you might take away. Hopefully some

of them have been helpful and that would be applicable for some, not for

others, and broadly geared towards people who are in the planning

phase or have recently moved to Ireland. And if you want

me to help you with any of the issues you're facing, check out the show

notes. It'll refer you to expat taxes, ie, where you can book a

consultation with myself directly or one of the team who'd be more than

happy to help. And this is what we do day in, day out, helping clients

of ours navigate the stressful time that is planning their move to

Ireland. But yeah, drop us a note

infoxpataccess ie and let us know what you'd like to hear us talk about,

and we look forward to catch up with you next time.

Thanks for listening to tax bytes 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.