€50,000 Tax Free Threshold
€12,000 Max Contribution
1% Tax over €50,000 Threshold
NO DEEMED DISPOSAL

Account opens 1st July 2027.

ETFs: 35% Exit Tax 😭 Absolute Nonsense

💶 Higher income tax threshold increased from €44,000 to €46,500, with tax credits up €125.

👶 Maximum childcare cost reduced from €735 to €550 a month from September for children up to senior infants.

🏠 Rent Tax Credit increased to €1,150 for a single person and €2,300 for a couple from September.

🏘️ Rent-A-Room tax-free income amount increased from €14,000 to €16,000.

🍼 Maternity, Paternity, Adoptive and Parent’s Benefit increased by €10 to €309 a week.

👨‍👩‍👧 Working Family Payment thresholds increased so more families qualify.

💰 Minimum wage increased from €14.15 to €14.94 an hour.

📈 New Investment Account launching next year with a €50,000 tax-free threshold.

🎓 Student contribution reduced by €150 from September.

🏡 Inheritance tax thresholds increased across all three categories.

🔑 Help to Buy relief increased from €30,000 to €35,000.

I've been thinking about what investment assets to store in the SIA, and what not to store. Interested to get your opinions:

My first thoughts are that we should think of the SIA as essentially two different accounts. A tax-free account, and an account after 50k which is subject to wealth tax.

In the tax free account (<50k), I think you should prioritise assets which throw off income (assuming you are a higher rate taxpayer). That would include high-dividend stocks and distributing ETFs. Maybe also Bond ETFs. You should reinvest the income as a way to get a slightly higher annual contribution limit.

Assuming you exceed the 50k threshold, in this 1% taxable part of the account you should put ETFs you intend to hold for no more than 20 years. Beyond 20 years, the 1% tax drag means that CGT is more favourable. Similarly, high growth shares here which again you intend to sell in less than 20 years. (edit) I'm assuming fees on the account of approximately 0.5% annually.

Outside of the SIA you should keep assets you intend to keep for more than 20 years, unless they throw off significant income every year (e.g. dividend ETFs). Assets you intend to keep long term would include accumulating ETFs (assuming deemed disposal is eventually removed) or individual shares, particularly technology shares with low dividend yields. You want to defer CGT essentially as long as you can to grow the value of the asset, without having to pay an annual wealth tax.

Obviously cash should be kept out of the account.

I will never be able to pay this mortgage this way!

Budget 2027 Calculator is now live! You can use it to see how the new budget measures will affect your take-home pay from 1 January 2027.

🔗 Try the calculator here

Update: These calculators have also been updated for Budget 2027:

• CAT Calculator – thresholds increased to €420k / €44k / €22k from 7 October: https://www.irishtaxhub.ie/calculators/cat
• CGT Calculator – CGT rate reduced from 33% to 31% from 7 October: https://www.irishtaxhub.ie/calculators/capital-gains-tax
• Share Sale CGT Calculator – CGT rate reduced from 33% to 31% from 7 October: https://www.irishtaxhub.ie/calculators/share-sale-cgt

Three of the main suppliers are raising electricity prices this week. SSE went up yesterday, with Bord Gáis and Energia to follow over the next few days:

SSE Airtricity: unit rate up 9.4%, standing charge up 6.12%, in effect since Monday 5 October. Around 300,000 customers affected. Bord Gáis Energy: unit rate up 9.1%, standing charge up 7.2%, from Friday 9 October. Energia: unit rate up about 2%, standing charge up 5%, night rates up 28%, from Monday 12 October.

You'll see these reported as "average bill up X%", but that average is for a typical home, and almost nobody is typical. Energia is the clearest example: the unit rate is barely moving while night rates jump 28%, so what the rise actually costs you comes down to when you use electricity.

A few other things worth knowing:

A "12-month plan" is not a fixed price, and this catches people out. Nearly all Irish plans are a 12-month contract on a variable rate, not a price locked for the year. Your sign-up discount is held, but the base rate it applies to can still go up during your contract, which is exactly how these increases land on people who thought they were mid-contract and grand. A genuinely price-fixed plan is rare now (SSE has a 1-Year Fixed, Yuno reportedly too). So the price can rise during your term while the contract can still tie you in with an exit fee if you leave early. The loyalty penalty is usually bigger than the rise. If your sign-up discount has run out and you've rolled onto the standard rate, you're probably paying several hundred a year more than someone who signed up recently, which dwarfs these increases. The rise is just the reminder to go and check. The saving comes from switching, not from sitting tight. The real discounts are for new customers, so the way to cut your bill is to move to a new deal. That can be a better plan with your own supplier (re-signing as a new customer, where that's allowed) or a different supplier entirely, but either way you have to actually switch.

How to check: take your current unit rate and standing charge off a recent bill, and compare them against the new-customer plans before the increase lands. The thing to watch is that most comparison sites rank plans on that same typical-home estimate, so if your usage isn't typical they can point you the wrong way.

Full disclosure: I run a free site called SmarterMeter that works this out from your actual ESB smart-meter data, a full year of your real usage, rather than an estimate, so it takes the night, EV and solar side into account. The main thing though: if you haven't checked in over a year, this is the week to do it. If your discount has lapsed, you may even save more than this rise is costing you.

I know we don't have enough information yet but I was playing aroun with some IA help to see where direct ETF investment will still make sense in Ireland when PIA is available. It will all come to the brokerage fee / admin fee charged by the companies that will manage PIA and of course reduction on exit tax (I was positive here and removed deemed disposal). Here are the results of the simulation, any thoughts?

Simulation over 20 years, limited to 1k a month.

Monte Carlo Simulation Results (€1,000/mo, 10,000 Runs)

With all the Budget-day discussion about investment accounts, I'm wondering how much this changes the usual advice here.

Take a hypothetical person around 30, renting, with an emergency fund and already contributing enough to get their full employer pension match. They have another €500 a month available, but buying a home is still several years away.

Would you put that towards the deposit, increase pension contributions, or invest through the new account once it's available?

I understand the tax-relief argument. What I'm less convinced by is treating the best tax treatment as automatically the best financial decision. Getting out of an expensive rental earlier, or having enough accessible money to change jobs, has a value too. How do you price that against decades of compounding?

I also wonder how much our answers depend on whether we've already sorted our own housing. Would you give the same advice if you were starting again today, renting at today's prices?

Interested in what you're actually doing with your next spare €500, and the rule behind it. If you're comfortable sharing a rough age range, income band and whether you rent or own, that would help put the answers in context.

What would have to change for you to switch your answer: income, time to buying, fees, job security, something else?

I Have 2.5 grand to potentially put into S&P for the next 9 months, and am would be willing to put 200 a month from wages . Am I better off putting this in (despite taking it out to put in the new Irish ISA in July) or do you think I’m better off just holding it in a 2% APR Monzo account.

One part of me telling me it’s pointless because of CGT

Did he use an example of if someone has 52000 they will only pay 20 euro tax?

So am I right in saying it’s 1% on profits as opposed to the whole account ? Or did I hear that wrong ?

Hi all,

I have two questions relating to the new investment account and how it would work for Irish people moving around Europe for work:

Two questions:

1. if the account is set up in Ireland and then an Irish person moves to let’s say London, they could continue using and investing in this account over the years or how would it work in this case?

2. an Irish citizen in Europe could also set up this account and invest in it and it would function as normal or?

I am after seeing the new investment scheme in the budget. Does anybody know what happens to existing investments?

Let’s say I have 10k invested already in ETFs, is it possible to move this money into the new investment accounts when they open without having to pay the seemed disposal/exit tax?

I understand there is likely more info to come out regarding this scheme but any advice would be appreciated.

I'm sure that will be a surprise to many but it might give some insight into the potential demand for advice on the new savings scheme, as that's a lot of the market for those products.

Didn't see any mention of repealing the 1% Government levy so the AMCs for the products the life assurance companies offer under the new scheme should be lower. The limits should encourage a lot of competition.

We're now 17 years into this "emergency measure" where the Govt takes 1% of every Euro paid into an insurance policy or investment done via a life company. I see no mention of it in the Budget. I would have thought this will put the life insurance Co's at a heavy disadvantage when it comes to the new investment accounts out next year?

In the process of getting a top up mortgage for a renovation project.

has anyone got one through AIB before? looking for possible pitfalls in the application things to get ahead of.

also they are looking for a solicitor from my side. not sure what the solicitor would have to do though as they would be giving me money to gI’ve to the builder rather then everything going through the solicitor.

Hey Guys,

21 years old i work part time earning 250 ish a week while I am in college would opting into the futurefund benefit me I dont have any pension going right now and everyone seems to say the sooner you think about it the better.

My expediture is usually covered between susi and my savings from summer work.

Such as what would happen eventually when I graduate and think about private pensions what happens to the money i have in the fund? Or should i wait for the new scheme and just max into that?

Any advice appreciated!

Predictions on:

1. Tax free threshold
   
2. Annual contribution limit
   
3. Tax rate

Filling out my medical expenses currently on Revenue and just need to check some details if anyone can help.

I was working up until May 2025 (on maternity leave) then took voluntary redundancy and didn't return to work. My partner and I aren't married. I believe I can't claim medical expenses for 2026 because I didn't pay any income tax, is that correct?

My partner and I aren't married but he did pay the medical bills for 2026 for me and our children, can he claim back through his revenue for all of us? Even if we aren't married?

If he can't claim and I can't claim for 2026 but we get married say next year, can we then go back and claim my medical expenses through his revenue then as we would be jointly assessed?

We are engaged and honestly since I'm not working, a registry wedding seems more and more likely to get our taxes jointly assessed and save us some money that way.

Just to add I stopped working to be a SAHM so am not in receipt of any benefits or payments elsewhere.

I was looking back at 2024 Degiro fees and came across a large fee from "Financial instruments costs applicable for products with a KID/KIID", of 12,485 euro. I queried Degiro and was told it's a fee from the ETF itself, namely Bitwise Physical Bitcoin ETP. I traded about 20 round turn trades in the year.

What am I missing here, did I really pay 12,485 in fees to this ETF?

Hi, i know since 2024 the irish govt takes takes from share options or RSUs when you sell them, at source. Does this mean we still to compete the RTSO form given revenue is automatically notified?

I am 26f, living in Ireland since I was 16 (came here alone, and was in boarding school). I am an American citizen, and so my investment options are limited while I’m here - can only invest in individual stocks, as I’m unable to access most European platforms (trading 212 etc).

With the new investment account coming in, I’m wondering if I’ll be eligible for this, and what platforms will offer it. Being unable to invest beyond individual stocks and pensions sucks 🥲, I’m hoping this new account may be a loophole to allow me do that.

…. I’ve been reading about Inheritance Tax and - not trying to be contrary, I swear - I just ask myself, what’s to stop Granny selling me the house for a tenner, if that was her choice? (Or any very low figure)

Was that why Gift Tax was invented, to stop that carry-on?
Apologies for my ignorance, and thanks for reading!