With inheritances, a new calculation begins after a few years.
Ireland has a 33 per cent tax on gifts and inheritances. For people moving there, though, there is a window. If you know it, you can put your wealth in order in time instead of being caught out later.
Anyone who researches Ireland sooner or later comes across the number 33, with a threatening undertone. Before you read this page, which is an all-clear and a deadline at once, the most important sentence first: on the day you arrive, nothing happens here at all. This tax affects you only from the sixth year, and that is exactly why it is no reason for fear but a date in the calendar. Families who know the date put their affairs in order in time. Families who do not discover it too late.
Which tax is really meant
The 33 per cent in question is not capital gains tax, with which it is often confused. What is meant is Irish Capital Acquisitions Tax, CAT for short: the tax on inheritances and gifts. Its rate is 33 per cent on everything above the thresholds, and its legal basis is the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003.
In Ireland the person liable is the one who receives, and the thresholds depend on the relationship. For a family with wealth, CAT is the one Irish tax that really weighs in when wealth passes between generations, and that is why it deserves a page of its own rather than a footnote.
The five-year threshold
Now the mechanism that turns the trap into a clock. For a non-dom: as long as you have not been resident in Ireland for five consecutive tax years, the law treats you as non-resident for gift and inheritance tax. In practice, Irish CAT in the first five years in principle reaches only Irish assets, which for most families means the Irish house and Irish accounts. An inheritance from Britain stays outside Ireland's reach during that time.
From the sixth year this turns round: anyone resident for five years in a row is in Irish CAT with worldwide assets, at 33 per cent above the thresholds. The provisions are section 6(4) of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003 (gifts) and section 11(4) (inheritances), in identical words.
The planning rule that follows is simple: whatever is to be settled between the generations is settled before year six. Not in a rush the day before you leave, and not every transfer has to happen at once. But the family should know which year has which consequence before the clock runs out.
The thresholds, and what misleads British families
| Group | Relationship | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| A | parent to child | €420,000 |
| B | brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, grandparents | €44,000 |
| C | everyone else | €22,000 |
Source: Statute text on irishstatutebook.ie; Revenue on group thresholds and on double taxation relief. As of: checked 14 October 2026; thresholds as set by Financial Resolution No. 2 of 6 October 2026 for gifts and inheritances taken from 7 October 2026.
At first glance Group A looks generous to British eyes: €420,000 from parents to a child, against the £325,000 threshold of UK inheritance tax. That very familiarity misleads, because the two systems count differently. UK inheritance tax is charged on the estate of the person who dies, at 40 per cent above the threshold, and gifts made more than 7 years before death normally drop out of the reckoning. Irish CAT is charged on the person who receives, and the group threshold is a lifetime total across everything received from the same group. A gift to your child in Ireland does not fall away after seven years; it uses up the threshold for good. A family that takes its British gifting habits to Ireland counts itself richer than the Irish system treats it. How the two legal orders mesh in your case belongs checked by a professional on both sides.
For British families there is a second point, and it comes from home. Since April 2025 the UK charges inheritance tax on worldwide assets by long-term residence: anyone UK resident for 10 of the last 20 tax years is in it, and it follows them for at least 3 and up to 10 tax years after they leave, the longer they lived in Britain the longer. A family that has lived in Britain for many years and moves to Ireland can therefore stand in both taxes at once for a while: still in UK inheritance tax through that tail, and in Irish CAT with its Irish assets from the start and, from year six, with its worldwide assets.
Only two treaties, and one is with the UK
With income tax the world is full of double taxation agreements. With inheritance tax Ireland is almost alone: there are only two treaties, with the United Kingdom and the United States. For British families that is the good news of this page. For families from the Netherlands, Belgium or Scandinavia there is none.
Without a treaty the same estate is not automatically taxed twice in full: Ireland grants unilateral credit (unilateral credit under section 107 CATCA 2003, where a comparable tax was paid abroad on the same property). But the protection is thinner than people are used to and depends on two legal orders that are not matched to each other. Even with the British treaty, two systems that count differently meet in the same estate: the UK taxes the estate of the person who gives, Ireland the person who receives. For a family whose parents and part of whose wealth stay in Britain, that is the strongest single reason to work through the succession before the move rather than after it.
The clock that runs from year six
Finally, the clock that turns a deadline into a plan. The CAT clock runs from your arrival, regardless of when your family can apply for a passport:
| Clock | Applies | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary residence | from year 4 | a tax status. It carries on for three more tax years after you leave. |
| Gift and inheritance tax | from year 6 | worldwide assets fall into Irish CAT at 33 per cent. |
| Naturalisation | from year 6 | an application for the passport becomes possible. |
Source: Statute text on irishstatutebook.ie; Revenue on group thresholds and on double taxation relief. As of: checked 14 October 2026; thresholds as set by Financial Resolution No. 2 of 6 October 2026 for gifts and inheritances taken from 7 October 2026.
After five consecutive tax years of residence, your family enters Irish gift and inheritance tax with its worldwide assets. That is the price of the years, and it belongs in the calendar from the start. The naturalisation clock has to be thought of separately: it runs by other rules and the government wants to lengthen it. What the calendar looks like for your family and your wealth is what we work out in the consultation.
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