Returning To Ireland After Working Abroad

Many returning emigrants to Ireland find themselves out of touch in terms of how they should deal with retirement funding, stock options from past employers or simpler things such as protection insurance covers for their family.

Restarting a financial life in Ireland can be a somewhat daunting experience especially where you may have got used to the tax, legal and pension arrangements in a foreign country.

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The Aspire Life Plan™

Exiting Your Business

Dealing With Sudden Money

Financial Consequences of Redundancy

Organising Your Financial Future (Again) In Ireland

Many of our current clients were also returning emigrants who, at the time, needed guidance on arranging their financial affairs in Ireland especially where different tax rules apply to a range of financial products.

If you are in a similar position you may also have foreign investments and pension plans that you may need advice on as to how the Irish tax environment treats them. Furthermore you may also need advice on:

Setting up an Irish pension for a new employment or making a claim on a previously funded Irish pension.
Possibly consolidating all your lifetime’s working pensions into one scheme?
What the tax treatment on dealing with Restricted Stock Units (RSU) of a past employer’s share listing?
What the protection rules for bank deposits are and where is the best place to invest your money?

We have extensive experience in this general area and through with our network of specialist tax and investment advisers both in Ireland and abroad we have helped many returning emigrants reorganise their changing financial circumstances.

Questions you may have..

Deciding to contribute to a pension is one of the most tax-efficient forms of investing a person can engage in due to the incentives the government has put in place to encourage saving for retirement in order to ease the burden on taxpayers. These tax-efficiencies are realised in three ways:

Tax-relief on Contributions

If you are a 20% taxpayer a €200 monthly pension contribution will only cost you €160 after tax.

If you are a 40% taxpayer a €200 monthly pension contribution will only cost you €120 after tax.

Reliefs, within the annual limits specified below, are deductible for income tax purposes but not PRSI or USC against your salary.

Age Attained During Year	Income relief Limit (As a % of remuneration)
Less than 30	15%
30 to 39	20%
40 to 49	25%
50 to 54	30%
55 to 59	35%
60 and over	40%

2. Tax-free Growth

Pension savings are allowed to grow tax-free. This will allow your savings to compound annually. A standard non-pension savings plan is liable to both Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. Conversely, a life assurance company based savings plan changes 41% Exit Tax every eight years, so the advantages are clear to see.

Tax-free Lump sum

At retirement age you have the option to take 25% of your pension tax-free as a lump sum within certain limits with the balance being invested into an Annuity of Approved Retirement Fund (ARF).

The answer to this question would depend on the country of transfer and their legislation.

First and foremost, all pensions within Ireland are considered to be taxable sourced of income in Ireland. If you are a tax resident in a country that has a double taxation agreement (DTA) with Ireland you may however be able to claim an exemption or a repayment of Irish tax on your Irish Pension but it would be advisable to check this criteria prior to transfer at the following Irish Revenue office link below:

Tax treaties by country (revenue.ie)

If exempt, you would need to complete a Form IC2 claim form here and submit it to the Revenue office for review.

Any realised gain upon the disposal in employee Share options in the Republic of Ireland is liable to Income Tax, USC and Employee PRSI.

In Ireland there are two types of Revenue office approved share schemes that the majority of multinationals avail of, these are Approved Profit Sharing schemes (APSS) and Save As You Earn schemes (SAYE). Although Income Tax relief is available under both schemes, Employee’s still pay USC and employee PRSI in each instance.

There are a number of conditions that apply to Employment related share disposals. For more information please refer to the Revenue Office’s dedicated Employment share page at the following link here.

Using Our Services

How We Work

As one of Ireland’s leading financial planning firms based in south Dublin, there’s very little we haven’t encountered to help our clients prepare for. Our experience, technical knowledge and willingness to see things from your perspective means that whatever you have in mind for you and your family’s future we can help you plan the best way to get there.

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What The Aspire Life Plan™ Provides

We look for more than the financial facts and need to understand what shapes your goals and aspirations and how you want to live your future life.

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How We Are Paid

We are a fee based financial planning firm. This means that we can focus on delivering the best advice for our clients needs and aren’t compromised by ties to financial product providers such as investment companies and pension providers.

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