Quick note before we get started. Unfortunately there were a few microphone issues that

unexpectedly arose during recording. That means the guest's audio isn't up to

our usual standard, and we ask your forgiveness there. But

this episode covers some incredibly important stuff, so stick

with us.

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. This is part two of

Stephanie Wickham's conversation with Lisa Quinn O'Flaherty, a solicitor

at Fitzsimons and Redmond llp. If you haven't

listened to part one yet, make sure you check it out before jumping into this

episode. In this Part two, you will hear more about the

intricacies of setting up your will in Ireland, the necessity of having

a will in other jurisdictions as well, and the benefits

of having an excellent legal advisor to help keep your affairs in

order. Now, as with the last episode, lots of important tips for

expats and repats from Lisa. Enjoy.

And Will Will Irish probate so in

other words, the grant of probate would issue notwithstanding the fact

if it hasn't completed in the uk, the Irish beneficiaries or the beneficiaries on the

Irish will can still get what they're entitled to. Is that a correct understanding? There

isn't a contingent if there's a dual probate process in

play? No, no. The Irish executor should be able

to administer the estate of falls under the

Irish will. So there's another reason to have two wills, isn't there? Like, in

other words, is another reason to kind of simplify

matters by segregating the complexity on one jurisdiction.

And sometimes you might want to like appoint an executor. Most people

appoint their space as executor, but sometimes it's sensible to

appoint an executor in each jurisdiction, you know, so if you have

a trusted person on the ground, it can make

it quicker. In Irish publish anyway, it's all wet ink

signatures, so it's not always ideal to be waiting for someone to fly

over to sign a document. So say that

again. You're saying that you cannot digitally sign a document for

an Irish probate. No, you can't. No. You are wetting

signing it. It's only 2025. I mean, why would we

expect it? Yeah,

that is what it Is. And okay, that's useful. So now we can do

a bit of complex notarizing things from abroad.

But no, yeah, that's. I don't like to

complicate things. Sending them into the probate office. I think we send them in as

straightforward as we can. I would encourage people to sign them in in our

office. And what's the kind of current

turnaround time once something goes in for kind of

completion? So six to eight

months. Yeah. That's if there's no queries, if

this. Now, when you've got international matters, there will often

be queries far more likely that it will be sent back to us as Lister,

what kind of questions that the probation office have, whether or not to bet

the other will grants in other

jurisdictions. I would kind of give

an estimate close to expect a year just to

allow for those clearings and to allow for the gathering of

paperwork. And one of the things we've seen. I don't know how frequently

you've seen it, we're working with a few solicitors at the moment where, you know,

perhaps the individual hasn't been aware or

complied with their tax obligations sometimes because they're not.

They don't understand that, you know, they've been paying tax in one jurisdiction.

How frequently do you see that? And what is

that something you've come across? I come across not very

often. And cause problems. Huge

problems in that it all has to be rectified before you can do

anything. And if you don't have a huge estate, it

can really eat into it. Yeah. Even if you do have a huge

estate, it could eat into it. And the

understanding I have, it's not something that we do, but we have, you know,

worked with solicitors who do is essentially there's a process

where there's a declaration that everything is in order before you

can move to the stage of the grand probate. In other words,

somebody has to say, this is all as it should be. That's that person

taking individual responsibility to revenue, you know, the

most powerful authority in the land.

So two things that come from this, to

summarize what we've said this far is, you know, firstly, if you're

buying a house in Ireland, don't expect the process to maybe be as you would

like it to be in terms of how long it takes, but hopefully that's not

the case. The second point would be the value of an Irish will for Irish

assets, which broadly will include, you know, Irish situate property being

bricks and mortar in Ireland and can extend beyond that to other

Assets. I might come back to that in a second in terms of your recommendation

in that regard. And then the third point would be it's a kindness to

keep your tax affairs in order for the next generation so that they don't

have to do this when the time comes. On the

point I just touched on there, what would you say around,

you know, other assets that you would generally see passing

under an Irish will, You know, excluding

Irish real property. Yeah. So the main one

is bank accounts and then, yeah,

occasionally shares things like that

among older people. It will often be cash in a safe in the

house is a big one. Wow,

okay. Artwork, jewelry, things like that.

So yeah, they're the main things. And from a tax perspective,

this is probably where a review of the will is warranted as well. Because my

comment there would be depending on the domicile of the

disponer and where the asset is situate,

whether we have a treaty with the foreign jurisdiction, take something like

artwork, we would look at it and go, well, is it more efficient to pass

it under an Irish will if the artwork is not physically in Ireland in

particular? That question definitely warrants consideration. So. And that's

it. It's. Where is, where is that? Where is it most

advantageous? Especially, you know, us, There's a

fantastic tax treaty if it's used properly. But it's amazing

complications. So it's the using it properly and the planning

for it that is difficult but worth it. The high

level comment you'd have at this point being, what are we looking at here?

Well, the Irish tax rate, 33%, you know what I mean? Like that, that's what

you're looking at saving. And of course we have a threshold of €400,000,

thankfully in the most recent Finance Act. Yes, between parent

child. But you know, if you've got a valuable Irish family

home to leave to the next generation, it doesn't take long for that threshold to

be eroded based on current property values. Exactly. If you

have, you know, if you only have one child or particularly valuable

house, they're very easily into the tax

bracket. Lisa, what does working with you look like? If clients

listen to this and kind of what they're hearing resonates, what's the best

thing for them to do if they want to work with you or arguably any.

What does working with a sister in Ireland generally look like? Yeah, I

suppose. Oh, gosh. I imagine every office is, is very

different but for us clients or potential

clients can email me directly. My email is

Lisaitsimonsredmond.ie and I'm happy to have a

set up a call with them. I said I'd offer a free

first consultation to any of your listeners if they

mention the Tax Bites podcast. Thank you.

Then. Yeah, a lot of work can be done by, you know, a couple

of zoom calls, a couple of phone calls, and then emails back

and forward and then it's, you know, it's flurries of activity.

Most legal work tends to go, you know, I'm all over you for a week

and then you don't hear from me for two or three weeks. Do wills have

to be. Are they wet signatures or can wills be signed

digitally? Wet signatures, yeah. Two

witnesses. Okay. And can

a spouse be one of those signatories and can you.

A beneficiary to the will cannot be one of the signatories.

Okay. I have a policy where at all

possible we will get clients to sign wills in our

office. Right. So that we make sure that the witnesses

are in order, you know, that they're over 18. We have contact

details for them. The reason for that being if there's any question over the

will, the witnesses may have to do an affidavit just to set

out. Well, you know, oh, it's 100 will. The reason for this was.

Or the signature doesn't look like his normal signature because he was

unwell, something like that. So, you know,

that affidavit may not be needed for 20, 30,

40 years. So, yeah, as far as possible, we try

and know who the witnesses to the will are. A partner in our

firm. So that will be contactable if at all possible, when that

time comes, if needed. This is morbid, but I think

it's an important question in terms of what is

set out in a will, when do you generally recommend

that the family members, the bereaved, contact the solicitor?

How soon should they make contact?

I don't think there's any kind of set timeline on it.

And some families will call as a matter of course when someone has passed away

and we can get started on it straight away. You know, often if

someone's not, you know, someone will wait until they're selling the property and they

actually need access to the granted probate to do

that? It really depends how quickly they need access to the

assets or how efficient they are, you know. So is that to say

then, you know, like in American movies where there's a scene where there's like a

reading of the will? Does that happen in practice? I've never done

it, so it's

disappointing. I'm sure it could happen, yes. Absolutely. But

far more likely it's more like, you know, that the

beneficiary will, the spouse or a child

or several of the children will pop into the office or will phone

and it'll be read out of the phone or I'll pull it out of our

wills cabinet and show it to them there and then. Yeah. So

it's. I've never had anyone kind of shocked by

the contents of a will either. So we shouldn't believe everything we see

on Netflix. I think that's the key point there for sure. And look,

it's nice, it's. It's nice to be able to smile about it because it is

actually a difficult topic. I find it difficult to talk to clients about.

And, and I think it's really important that people work with someone

who I suppose understands both the importance of everything being

done efficiently, but also I suppose the empathy and

the, the kind of the difficult period. You know, as I go back

to my first point, often people in Ireland work with

sisters during quite stressful and key life events

and it's quite important to partner with somebody who understands

that, you know, things being done efficiently and accurately really can go a long

way and with empathy can actually help reduce the stress at that time. It

matters, doesn't it? And if at all possible,

you have this done at, you know, at an early stage as a. As a

matter of course, when you're buying a new asset, when you're making a change in

your life, that's the time to look at your estate planning. It is so much

harder for clients when we're going in, making wills in hospitals with

them or where they've just had bad news and they're

coming in to get their affairs in order. Of course we'll deal with them and

do all we can, but it's a lot harder for them.

And, you know, sometimes you just look at them and say, I wish you didn't

have to go through this. Yeah. At this point. Agree. And I am

currently working on a case where, because the affairs were

complicated and the probate was to be granted in the

uk, the probate process is going on for six years

because a lot of the documents that were drafted were done

DIY style. Oh, no. Without

legal review. Some were binding, some are non

binding. And I was speaking to

the sister in the UK last week and basically the message

was this has just become an absolute nightmare. So, you know, the

person who has left the assets no longer has to think about it,

thankfully, their loved ones. That are left with

that. And it's so it's so easy to make a mess of it these

days. I mean, you can go into chat GT and say,

draft me a will. And that's terrifying because

I know where is that, where is that information being pulled from? Is it specific

to Irish loan? It's most certainly not specific to your own tax

situation and personal situation. So,

I mean, I think this is one thing where

it doesn't cost a lot of money and it's worth just investing

that small amount of money to get it right and give that peace of mind

to your loved ones. And also, it's January, so we all have a little bit

of a burst of enthusiasm, don't we, at this time of the year.

I know, I was talking to you. I must actually send you back my documents

to do my own will. So this is a case of

it's easy to preach that we should do it. Perhaps put in for

practice is harder. Lisa, thank you so much for

taking the time to join us. I found this informative.

You know, we help clients navigate the tax side, but generally a

legal professional, a tax adviser, will work quite closely together. And often,

you know, it's our job to ask each other questions, isn't it, to kind of

learn how to best. Support the client and learning from each

other? Definitely. Thank you so much. You've given

your email there and it will be in the show notes. So if

anyone has any queries for Lisa, please do drop her a note and

mention the podcast. And yeah, I'm sure we will have you

back on again in future. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so

much, Stephanie for having me. Really enjoyed this. It's been a lovely chat.

Thank you. 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.