Do I have to file at home while living in Ireland?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and Ireland?
Treaty networks change with each protocol and each multilateral-instrument position, so we confirm the treaty in force for your specific year with the issuing authority rather than relying on a published summary. Where there is none, unilateral relief and domestic law do the work instead.
I own property in Ireland. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
How is my Canadian pension taxed if I retire in Ireland?
Two countries look at the same payment. Canada may collect at source from the payer, and Ireland taxes you on what your residence brings into charge, with the treaty deciding which claim yields and to what extent. The distinction that matters most is between regular payments and lump sums: treaties commonly treat them differently, so a plan drawn down steadily and the same plan taken in one go do not produce the same result. Relief that depends on a claim is relief you have to make, in the right year and with the payer documentation. We deal with the source side and the return side together.
Why is tax deducted before my pension leaves the country?
Because collecting from the payer is far simpler for a tax authority than collecting from someone who has left. Withholding at source is applied by the institution making the payment, on the basis of what it has been told and the forms it holds, not on the basis of your overall position. If the treaty allows a lower charge, the payer generally has to be given the right documentation before the payment is made. Afterwards the only route is a claim for repayment, which is slower and needs evidence the payer will not supply twice. Fix the paperwork at the payer before the first payment, not after it.
Is my US social security taxed in Ireland or in America?
Treaties usually deal with state social security separately from private and workplace pensions, and frequently allocate it to one country alone rather than sharing it. Which country that is depends on the treaty in force for your year, so it is read rather than recalled. Where the allocation is exclusive, the other country should not tax the income at all and any deduction taken is recovered by claim. As an American citizen you will still report the income wherever it ends up being taxed, because the obligation to file does not follow the taxing right. We read the article that applies and set the position out in writing.
Should I take my pension as a lump sum before moving?
It changes who taxes the money and often how, which is why the question is worth asking before the move rather than after it. Many treaties treat a lump sum differently from regular payments, and residence at the moment of payment forms part of the test, so the same money can fall under different rules a few weeks apart. Some countries also give relief on a portion of a lump sum that the other does not recognise at all, which can leave part of it taxed twice in substance. There is no universal answer. We model the timings against your own dates and put the comparison in writing.
Do I have to file an Irish return if tax is already deducted?
Deduction at source is a payment on account of a liability, not a substitute for working the liability out. If you have income from more than one country, or income the payer knows nothing about, the return is the only place the whole picture is assembled and the credits are claimed. It is also where over-collection is recovered, and withholding set by a payer on incomplete information is frequently more than the final charge. Filing is not an admission that more is owed. In retirement cases the return more often produces a repayment than a balance. We prepare it from the payer documents you already receive.
Does my domicile matter now that I have retired to Ireland?
It can matter a great deal. Ireland treats residence, ordinary residence and domicile as three separate concepts, and domicile is about permanent attachment rather than presence, so someone who retires to Ireland after a working life elsewhere often keeps the domicile they arrived with. Because the three are independent, a person can be resident here and still outside the charge on certain foreign income. That is a position established from the facts, being where the family home has been and what was said and done over a lifetime, and it is evidenced rather than asserted. Settle it at the start of retirement, while the people who remember are available.
How do I claim tax treaty benefits?
Two moments, and the earlier one matters more. Before a payment is made, you give the payer a declaration so they withhold at the treaty rate rather than the domestic one — a W-8BEN for a US payer, an NR301 for a Canadian payer, a residency certificate and Form 10F for an Indian one. After the year ends, you claim the position on a return, and the United States often wants it disclosed there in its own right. Claiming late means asking for a refund instead. See NR301 declarations.
How do I report the sale of a foreign property?
On your residence-country return, as a disposition, with proceeds and cost base converted at the rates for their own dates. Separately, the country where the property sits may require its own return and may hold back tax at closing until a clearance or certificate is issued — Canada does this for a non-resident vendor, and the United States withholds on a foreign seller of US real property. Those steps have their own deadlines, often before closing. See clearance certificates on a property sale.
