Tax Nomad Status

J

joe_public

Guest
Hi there,

I'm a software contractor. In a new contract of mine I will be working in various countries in Central America and Asia, my client will be an Irish company.

I will be non-resident in Ireland next year (though still ordinary resident), and i will not be tax-resident in any other country either.

I will be paid as an independent contractor through a Hong Kong based company.

Would this make me a tax nomad, not eligible for income tax in ireland?

Thanks
 
Dont know about tax but what are the PRSI implications of not paying tax in ireland, may not be a concern to have a break in 'stamps'
 
Re stamps, as a contractor paying class "S" PRSI, the OP won't get any benefits anyway. As I found out the hard way.

I suggest you get proper professional advice as you have a complicated situation there.

IIRC from when i was based abroad, tax residency is not just based on 180 days in any one year, it's also averaged out over 3 years or some such formula.

Based on the Ireland-Italy tax agreement, I had to pay tax where the "benefit" of the work was (which was in Dublin). It might be held that the Irish company is ultimately benefiting from your work, so it doesn't matter where you are actually working, you'll be liable for irish income tax.
 
Thanks for the information. Were you an independent contractor? Were you working for your own limited company in Ireland? In my case, I will be working for the Hong Kong based company.

sean.c said:
Re stamps, as a contractor paying class "S" PRSI, the OP won't get any benefits anyway. As I found out the hard way.

I suggest you get proper professional advice as you have a complicated situation there.

IIRC from when i was based abroad, tax residency is not just based on 180 days in any one year, it's also averaged out over 3 years or some such formula.

Based on the Ireland-Italy tax agreement, I had to pay tax where the "benefit" of the work was (which was in Dublin). It might be held that the Irish company is ultimately benefiting from your work, so it doesn't matter where you are actually working, you'll be liable for irish income tax.
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I used an umberella company structure as I had an open ended contract. It ran for > 4 years, so I would have been better off using an offshored ltd company out of Jersey or somewhere.

This would have given the advantage that my invoices would have been paid to the offshored company, I would have been liable for tax only on the money I brought into Ireland. The remaining question is how to benefit legally from the cash piling up in the offshore account - in your case, in Hong Kong? That's partly what all those Ansbacher tribunals were all about, isn't it?

At the end of the day, you have to take it as income, now or in the future. And then you have to pay tax on it somewhere. Ideally you'll pay that tax in a low-tax jurisidiction with a double-taxation agreement with Ireland, and then be able to transfer it back home without paying more tax on it. But that's not as easy as it sounds, or people with a lot more money than us would be doing it all the time.

Like I said, good professional advice is required before you get in over your head with the taxman.
 
Thanks again, this is all a bit of a mine-field alright. I spend most of my time outside Ireland at this stage of my life so I don't see any need to ever remit the money back here. If I could have a way to legally spend it abroad, that would suit me perfectly.

Do you know any professionals I could contact? I'm just a lowly software engineer so I don't have 10's of thousands to be spending on tax advice. I presume mentioning a name here could be against forum rules, perhaps you could pm me if you know anyone.

Thanks
 
joe_public said:
I presume mentioning a name here could be against forum rules, perhaps you could pm me if you know anyone.
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There should be no problem with recommendations being posted here, once the recommendations are genuine and the people posting them are established posters with a decent track record.

Recommendations by PM are hardly advisable if you can't vouch for the independence and bona fides of the person making the recommendation.
 
Well the only people I can vouch for are my own accountants, Mac Accountancy in Ballsbridge. You can look 'em up.

I assume that doesn't break forum rules!!! :)
 
sean.c said:
Re stamps, as a contractor paying class "S" PRSI, the OP won't get any benefits anyway. As I found out the hard way.
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It's incorrect to say that there are "no benefits" linked to Class S PRSI payments:

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PRSI/Pages/selfemployed.aspx

2. What benefits may I get by paying Class S PRSI?

PRSI Class S provides cover for:

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