Moving to Dublin from US

timulukus

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I got a job offer (verbal) with Dublin based company. What are the tax rates for base salary, bonus and RSU? And what is a good salary we need to have to live comfortably? Also, any idea what will be monthly expenditure for a family of 4 provided we take a 3 bedroom + 2 bath apt?

My wife and 2 kids (< 10 years) are also moving with me to Dublin.
 
There are two income tax rates: 20% and 40%.


For a married couple with one income, the 40% rate starts at 44,300.

There is another income tax called USC, the rates are as follows:

RateIncome band
0.5%Up to €12,012
2%From €12,012.01 to €20,687
4.5%From €20,687 to €70,044
8%From €70,044.01 and over



Then there is social insurance at 4%.
 
If your basic salary is >€75k you may qualify for the special assignee relief programme

Benefits could include:

Where you qualify for the SARP, you can make a claim to have a proportion of your employment earnings disregarded for Income Tax (IT). For 2019, the proportion is 30% of your income over €75,000 up to a limit of €1,000,000. This applies when you first commenced your employment duties in Ireland on or after 1 January 2019.

Your employer should be able to fill you in on this though.
 
If your basic salary is >€75k you may qualify for the special assignee relief programme

Benefits could include:



Your employer should be able to fill you in on this though.
I think you need to be with the employer for a year in the foreign country before transferring to Ireland to qualify for SARP. That was the case 3 years ago when I became eligible, not sure if it still is.

@timulukus I moved from NYC to Dublin, and despite being eligible for SARP that reduced my income taxes I still found the tax rate more punitive than the US, especially when factoring in the cost of living was not that much cheaper than NYC. The other major gripe with the taxation system is wealth accumulation via investments. CGT rates/exemptions and deemed disposals are incredibly uncompetitive vs the US and the UK. The tax benefits here are really just in pension investment which is not ideal for people that are not intending to retire in Ireland and also that cash is locked away.

I would pretty much estimate that if you take your current salary and convert it to Euro that is the base salary you should expect to live comfortably. That will take into account the higher tax rate and the slightly cheaper cost of living. This will obviously vary based on where you are relocating from in the States? New York to Dublin is on par, but St Louis to Dublin is the equivalent of St Louis to New York i.e. you would expect a higher salary.

Ireland is an amazing country and offers a great lifestyle, but so does the US!
 
I think you need to be with the employer for a year in the foreign country before transferring to Ireland to qualify for SARP. That was the case 3 years ago when I became eligible, not sure if it still is.

@timulukus I moved from NYC to Dublin, and despite being eligible for SARP that reduced my income taxes I still found the tax rate more punitive than the US, especially when factoring in the cost of living was not that much cheaper than NYC. The other major gripe with the taxation system is wealth accumulation via investments. CGT rates/exemptions and deemed disposals are incredibly uncompetitive vs the US and the UK. The tax benefits here are really just in pension investment which is not ideal for people that are not intending to retire in Ireland and also that cash is locked away.

I would pretty much estimate that if you take your current salary and convert it to Euro that is the base salary you should expect to live comfortably. That will take into account the higher tax rate and the slightly cheaper cost of living. This will obviously vary based on where you are relocating from in the States? New York to Dublin is on par, but St Louis to Dublin is the equivalent of St Louis to New York i.e. you would expect a higher salary.

Ireland is an amazing country and offers a great lifestyle, but so does the US!
If the OP has a US investment account, they should maintain this and pay into that instead of setting up an Irish one. It is difficult for US citizens to open investment accounts anyway because of IRS reporting requirements and from an investor point of view, they will have to pay tax annually to the IRS which cannot be offset against the tax that they will eventually pay on their investments.

A lot of European and US investments structures are like oil and water, they don't mix. So if they are intending on just doing a few years in Ireland and going back to the US, keep investments in the US tax environment.
 
If the OP has a US investment account, they should maintain this and pay into that instead of setting up an Irish one. It is difficult for US citizens to open investment accounts anyway because of IRS reporting requirements and from an investor point of view, they will have to pay tax annually to the IRS which cannot be offset against the tax that they will eventually pay on their investments.

A lot of European and US investments structures are like oil and water, they don't mix. So if they are intending on just doing a few years in Ireland and going back to the US, keep investments in the US tax environment.

Completely makes sense, I should have mentioned that I am not a US Citizen, so didn't have the benefit of continuing US investments
 
I think you need to be with the employer for a year in the foreign country before transferring to Ireland to qualify for SARP. That was the case 3 years ago when I became eligible, not sure if it still is.

@timulukus I moved from NYC to Dublin, and despite being eligible for SARP that reduced my income taxes I still found the tax rate more punitive than the US, especially when factoring in the cost of living was not that much cheaper than NYC. The other major gripe with the taxation system is wealth accumulation via investments. CGT rates/exemptions and deemed disposals are incredibly uncompetitive vs the US and the UK. The tax benefits here are really just in pension investment which is not ideal for people that are not intending to retire in Ireland and also that cash is locked away.

I would pretty much estimate that if you take your current salary and convert it to Euro that is the base salary you should expect to live comfortably. That will take into account the higher tax rate and the slightly cheaper cost of living. This will obviously vary based on where you are relocating from in the States? New York to Dublin is on par, but St Louis to Dublin is the equivalent of St Louis to New York i.e. you would expect a higher salary.

Ireland is an amazing country and offers a great lifestyle, but so does the US!
Thank you. I am moving from Texas / Dallas area. I will look into SARP.
 
OP if your children are school going age, I would recommend starting with there for your shortlist of areas to live in. Many public Dublin schools are oversubscribed so if you have a particular ethos or style of education you are interested in, you will need to contact the schools for enrollment information to find out if there are spaces available. Dublin Bus also has an extensive network that works reasonably well on some routes so don't discount areas on the 46a, 145 routes for example. Probably your best source of information is your company, see if you can find someone there who has made a similar move, or even a local working there who can give you good information on commuting routes etc. I will say that living by the coast in Dublin is great, the DART runs pretty much on the coast north & south and there are lots of great places to live. But it will depend on your needs & wants I guess!
 
OP if your children are school going age, I would recommend starting with there for your shortlist of areas to live in. Many public Dublin schools are oversubscribed so if you have a particular ethos or style of education you are interested in, you will need to contact the schools for enrollment information to find out if there are spaces available. Dublin Bus also has an extensive network that works reasonably well on some routes so don't discount areas on the 46a, 145 routes for example. Probably your best source of information is your company, see if you can find someone there who has made a similar move, or even a local working there who can give you good information on commuting routes etc. I will say that living by the coast in Dublin is great, the DART runs pretty much on the coast north & south and there are lots of great places to live. But it will depend on your needs & wants I guess!
thank you
 
I have a free spreadsheet available at http://taxcalc.eu/monthlyss which might help with the query.
Per agreement with the site owner, I must disclose that there is also a low cost spreadsheet (€2.50) at that site.
 
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I'd leave any RSUs /TRSUs in the US if you have them there.
Income tax will take 52% of these here, and that liability is usually taken at source by selling 52% of your shares to pay the tax.
 
I'd leave any RSUs /TRSUs in the US if you have them there.
Income tax will take 52% of these here, and that liability is usually taken at source by selling 52% of your shares to pay the tax.
Can you please explain with more details? I thought RSU is taxed at vesting. Does Ireland tax on unvested shares too?
 
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