The rules for leaving Ireland
Ireland has no departure form and no residence-determination request. Residence is a day count fixed by statute; what follows you out is ordinary residence, domicile and a five-year rule on shares. You self-assess, file for the year you leave, and keep the evidence in case Revenue asks.
183 days this year, or 280 days over two years.
You are resident in Ireland for a tax year (1 January to 31 December) if you are present for 183 days or more in that year, or for 280 days or more over that year and the preceding year taken together. Under the two-year test you are not resident in any year in which you are present for 30 days or less. You count a day if you are present at any time during that day, unless you stay airside or are stranded by unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances.
The trap for leavers is the 280-day look-back: if you were in Ireland all of last year, you can be resident again this year after only 31 days here. Leaving early in the year, or deferring departure to January, is often the difference between one more resident year and none.
Revenue: how to know if you are resident for tax purposes ↗Ordinary residence follows you for three years.
After three consecutive resident tax years you become ordinarily resident from the fourth. When you leave, you stay ordinarily resident until you have been non-resident for three consecutive tax years. During that tail, if you are Irish-domiciled, Revenue taxes your worldwide income except income from a trade, profession or employment exercised wholly abroad and other foreign income of €3,810 or less — above that, the full amount is taxable. Worldwide capital gains stay in charge too, because CGT applies to anyone resident or ordinarily resident and domiciled in the State.
Revenue: how to know if you are ordinarily resident ↗There is no residence ruling. There is an opinion service.
Revenue does not issue determinations or certificates of non-residence to people leaving. The Revenue Technical Service will answer a genuinely complex technical query submitted through MyEnquiries on Form RTS 1A, but it is not a first point of contact, its opinions are not legally binding and they last at most five years. In practice your protection is a residence file that stands on the day counts, the documents and the departure narrative.
Revenue Technical Service ↗Your departure-year return still has to be right.
You are resident for the whole of the year you leave. Split-year treatment (section 822 TCA 1997) lets you exclude post-departure employment income only if you are resident this year and non-resident next year. For departures on or after 1 January 2025 you self-assess the claim on your Income Tax Return; you can also claim in-year through MyEnquiries with an employer statement or contract. Chargeable persons file Form 11 by 31 October of the following year (ROS extension: 18 November 2026 for 2025); PAYE-only leavers file Form 12 in myAccount.
Revenue: split-year treatment in your year of departure ↗No exit tax —
but three tails and a levy.
Ireland does not charge a deemed disposal when you leave. What it does instead is keep reaching back. For three tax years after departure an ordinarily resident, Irish-domiciled person stays chargeable to income tax on worldwide income (with the exceptions above) and to CGT at 33% on worldwide gains. Under section 29A, if you cease residence and become taxable here again within five years of assessment, shares you held on departure worth more than €500,000 or amounting to 5% or more of a company are treated as disposed of and reacquired on the last day of your final resident year — the gain is taxed, at the value on the date of actual disposal for disposals on or after 23 December 2014. And an Irish-domiciled person with worldwide income over €1m, Irish property worth over €5m and Irish income tax under €200,000 owes the domicile levy of €200,000 a year, wherever they live.
Revenue manual Part 02-03-02: temporary non-residents (section 29A) ↗Why the facts matter more than the flight
Irish tax obligations depend on three separate statuses. Residence is a day count; ordinary residence is a three-year pattern; domicile is where you intend to live permanently. Residents pay on worldwide income; non-residents pay on Irish-source income only, and EU citizens keep full tax credits only where at least 75 percent of worldwide income is taxable in Ireland. Revenue applies the day counts strictly — but domicile, split-year relief and treaty tie-breakers all turn on how your life actually looks.
Where is your home?
A home kept available in Ireland invites day counts to creep back over 30 and 280, and is the first fact a treaty tie-breaker looks at. Whether you sold, let or retained it needs a clear answer.
Where is your family?
A spouse, partner or dependants staying in Ireland pulls your centre of vital interests home and undermines any claim that you left otherwise than for a temporary purpose.
What does daily life look like?
Work, a new permanent home, banking, healthcare and time in each country are what prove intention — the evidence that supports split-year relief today and a change of domicile over time.
Read Revenue's guidance for non-residents ↗
Official sources checked 8 September 2026. Rules and thresholds change; confirm before you rely on them.
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