XJuly 13, 2026
Ireland taxes your EU domiciled UCITS ETF every eight years. You never sold it. Revenue does not care.
The paper gain is deemed realised, 38 percent of it due in cash, and a fresh eight year clock starts.
It ranks 8th of 233 on the index I maintain. Almost nobody prices it.
The trigger is Irish tax residence or ordinary residence, not a Dublin address. Arrive with a fund bought years ago and its purchase date, not your landing date, sets the clock.
Scope. Irish funds and equivalent offshore funds across the EU, EEA and OECD treaty states. A fund authorised as a UCITS counts as equivalent. The test is the fund status, not the ISIN prefix.
Since 2022 Revenue no longer confirms a US domiciled ETF sits outside. You test equivalence yourself. Bought on or after 1 January 2022, the clock runs from your purchase date. Bought before, under the old guidance, and found equivalent, it runs from 1 January 2022, first hit in 2030.
Direct shares: 33 percent CGT on disposal, EUR 1,270 annual exemption, allowable losses offset other capital gains, dividends taxed as income.
Funds: 38 percent, no exemption, no loss offset between funds, and a taxable event every eight years whether you sell or not.
An Irish fund whose units sit in a recognised clearing system deducts no exit tax, the normal setup for a listed ETF. An offshore fund never deducts it. Either way you self assess and you pay it yourself.
It is prepayment, not double taxation. Year eight is credited against the final bill, so the total should not exceed the tax on the real disposal. But the cash goes out early, and money that leaves the portfolio does not compound.
Budget 2026 cut the rate and left the clock. The reform roadmap, promised for early 2026, then summer, still has not landed.
The rate sets the size of the bill. The clock sets when you pay it, and early is where it quietly costs you.
If the roadmap kills the clock and leaves the 38 percent, does Ireland come back onto your list.
Data from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer I build at Lucky Nomads.
Ireland
United States