The 3 Big Financial Planning Questions for People Moving to Ireland
By Marc Westlake
Published on: June 29, 2020
The move is happening, you’re on your way to Ireland – or indeed you’re already here! There’s lots to be done to help everyone settle in and multiple decisions to be made every day as you put down new roots.
As part of this, there are important decisions to be made that will fundamentally impact your personal financial life. At the end of the day, each of us is responsible to our families for making the right decisions that will determine whether we will achieve our financial dreams.
To do so successfully, you need what the head of every successful company has; a sound understanding of the challenges you face and a comprehensive approach for addressing those issues. However, being a stranger in a strange land can make this process even more complicated.
At Everlake, we have identified three key questions that you may not even have considered at all. Each of these potentially will have a very significant impact on your future financial success. Deal with these questions correctly, and you have the opportunity of seriously enhancing your wealth. The three questions are,
- Where do you call home?
- Where are your assets physically located?
- What are your intentions in the future?
The background to these questions is the knowledge that individuals have become more mobile over recent years. Irish individuals increasingly hold non-Irish investments, whether holiday homes, stocks and shares or other investment assets in Europe and further afield. In addition to this, according to the last Irish census, around 20% of the population of Ireland are foreign nationals.
This demographic profile raises exciting and interesting financial planning challenges, as to how we deal with financial planning for non-Irish assets and how we advise non-domiciled individuals living in Ireland.
As there are different tax environments, legal structures and other factors at play in different countries, it is important to carefully consider your elected place of domicile. For example, Irish resident but non-domiciled individuals are taxed on a “remittance basis” of taxation. This means that income and gains that are not remitted to the Republic of Ireland are not subject to Irish Taxation. This creates an interesting financial planning opportunity. This is just one of a number of factors to be considered.
A fundamental principle of Irish private international law is that the law of domicile (lex domicilii) of an individual determines the succession of moveable property whereas the law of the country where the property is situate (lex situs) determines the succession of immovable property. In other jurisdictions, particularly civil law countries, either the habitual residence or the nationality of the individual determines the succession of moveable property. In some jurisdictions, this factor also determines the succession of immovable property. Careful consideration needs to be given to where you call home and where your investment assets are located.
Finally, having a clear understanding of your future intentions around where you will live, timing of asset disposals etc. are also important financial planning considerations.
Each of these can give rise to complicated issues from a legal perspective that require careful and expert advice.
At Everlake, we specialise in helping people who are moving to Ireland to structure their personal finances in an optimal manner, and to leverage the financial planning opportunities that apply uniquely to them. In our guides Everlake Guide for US Nationals Living in Ireland & Everlake Guide for UK Nationals Living in Ireland we examine the issues in detail and look at real world examples that outline some of the financial planning issues for Americans and Britons living in Ireland today.
Would you like to find out more about how Everlake assists and guides individuals in making wise financial decisions when moving to Ireland?
