Domicile for tax return? Where to apply for probate?

[Hooverfish]

Dear askaboutmoney people

26 Mar 2020 I had to rescue my 84 year old, terminally ill Dad from London and bring him back to Ireland to look after him as his social care had collapsed.
04 Feb 2021 he died peacefully in Cork. So he was in Ireland for 183 days in 2020, which means he was tax resident but not "ordinarily resident" which takes 3 years.

Now we need to figure out his tax for 2020 and then apply (or possibly not...?) for probate. It's all tiny sums.
He was born in South Africa, but a foreign birth Irish citizen via my grandmother and had an Irish passport since the 70s.
He last worked here in 1959 and had an Irish PPSN, but since then, he had lived in the UK although he had not owned any property in the UK for over 20 years.

I registered him with Revenue here in Summer 2020 and my brother deregistered him with HMRC in the UK (we were his lasting powers of attorney).
He had very little left in terms of assets at all and survived on UK old age pension and disability allowance.
We had transferred about half of his assets to Ireland towards the end of 2020 to cover his living expenses. The rest is in his UK account. He still had one very small UK occupational pension.
UK tax year ends 5 April, Irish tax year 31 Dec.

Does anyone know how his domicile would work? Surely not South Africa which he left aged about 2 in 1937?
He knew it was likely he would die in Ireland so had made an intentional decision to move here, but he had lost mental capacity in 2014, so that decision, that he was coming to Cork was officially taken by my brother and I, with his agreement.

So do we do his UK tax until 5 April 2020 then Irish tax for the remaining sums transferred here up until 31 Dec 2020?
Or as he's tax resident, do we make all his income for 2020 Irish, and put in his form 12 for the whole of 2020?
My brother's been told he is likely due a small refund on any UK tax.
Where do we put in for probate, UK or Ireland? He has under 25k in each jurisdiction but died intestate, so the small amount will be split between us siblings.
Or can we avoid the probate saga as the amounts are very small?

Any advice gratefully received... I have asked Revenue about his domicile but the response to queries seems to be about two weeks at the moment.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

I’m sorry for your loss.

Where was your father’s own father from?

e.g. was he Irish, English, or South African?

 

[Pmc365]

I'm sorry to learn about your father's death.
Where your father's father was from would of course be his Domicile of Origin. The question is did he alter this to a Domicile of choice. The issue of Domicile will dictate the intestacy laws applicable. The intestacy rules would be under the English Administration of Estates Act, 1925 if Domiciled in England and Wales: This English Law would apply for movable cash assets in Republic of Ireland even if taking Probate out in the Republic of Ireland. An affidavit of Laws would be supplied to the Irish Probate office setting out the relevant English intestacy Law.

As his Estate is very small and well below UK Inheritance Tax thresholds of approx £325,000 the separate matter of deemed Domicile for IHT is irrelevant.

However, this may be an academic exercise as I think you may be able to access the relatively small sum of cash without probate from the bank by filling out an indemnity form and death certificate. Different banks obviously have different rules around this.

 

[Hooverfish]

I’m sorry for your loss.

Where was your father’s own father from?

e.g. was he Irish, English, or South African?

My father's father was English. Many thanks for the information about how to figure out domicile of origin - I still have little clue how domicile of choice works, but I'm guessing that because he was in the UK for so long, and back in Ireland just for his final 10 months, it will probably be the UK.

I realise our next step is to make up a statement of his assets and liabilities but we need to do his 2020 tax first to be able to do that for his date of death in 2021. So I'm still not sure: do we do a UK tax return to 5/4/20, and also an Irish one from that date to 31/12/20, or do we do the Irish one for the full calendar year of 2020, as he's tax resident, but only for the money that we brought in and used to cover his expenses in Ireland during 2020?

Thanks again for any help with this. I agree that it looks as though since the amount he has in his UK bank account is under the bank rules for release via indemnity and death certificate, we may well be able to avoid the need for probate in the UK.