Moving to the USA from Ireland: tax, social security, your company, pensions and visas

Leaving Ireland for America sets off a chain of questions: when Revenue stops treating you as resident, what happens to your shares, your PRSI record and your pension. This page walks you through the Irish side and the Ireland-US rules that sit on top of it. It is the same groundwork Mount Bonnell Advisors covers with every Irish client before the move.

How your Irish tax residence ends when you move to the US

Ireland decides your tax position on three tests: residence, ordinary residence and domicile. Residence is a day count under section 819 TCA 1997: you are resident with 183 days in a tax year, or 280 days across the current and preceding tax year, although 30 days or less in a year does not make you resident. Being in Ireland at any time during a day counts as a day.

Ordinary residence lingers. If you were ordinarily resident, you stay ordinarily resident for three consecutive tax years after you leave and remain taxable on worldwide income, except foreign trade or employment income and other foreign income of €3,810 or less. Ordinary residence ends only after three consecutive non-resident tax years, and while it lasts you are taxable on worldwide gains irrespective of residence, though a tax treaty may exempt income.

Domicile broadly means living in a country with the intention of living there permanently, and a new domicile requires clear evidence of intent to live permanently in the new country. An Irish-domiciled individual with worldwide income over €1 million, Irish property over €5 million and Irish income tax under €200,000 may owe a domicile levy of €200,000 a year. Once you are non-resident, non-ordinarily resident and non-domiciled, you pay Irish tax only on Irish income and on gains on Irish specified assets.

In your year of departure:

• Split-year treatment applies to employment income only. It requires residence in the year you leave and non-residence the following year, and for moves after 31 December 2024 you claim it by filing an Income Tax Return.
• A refund on leaving is claimed with Form P50, a Form 12 or Form 11 return and a statement of non-residence for at least the following tax year.
• Update your address to your US address in myAccount or ROS. Your employer is responsible for ceasing the employment with Revenue.
• Tell the Department of Social Protection of a permanent or semi-permanent absence if you receive a payment, and give a contact address abroad.

Exit tax on individuals and on shareholdings

For founders, the rule to watch is section 29A TCA 1997 on temporary non-residents. If you are Irish-domiciled and hold a shareholding of 5% or more, or worth over €500,000, and you are outside the charge to Irish tax for no more than 5 years and dispose of those shares in that period, you are deemed to have disposed of them at departure. Planning a sale of your company soon after the move is therefore a timing question to settle before you go.

Leaving does not take every asset out of the Irish net. Non-residents pay capital gains tax on gains from Irish land, buildings and minerals and on related unquoted shares, and the CGT rate is 31% for most gains.

Companies have their own regime. The exit tax charge in sections 627 to 629C TCA 1997 applies to companies that migrate or transfer assets offshore, which matters if you are thinking of moving your Irish company itself rather than adding a US subsidiary.

The Ireland-US income tax treaty

The Ireland-US double taxation convention was signed at Dublin on 28 July 1997 and entered into force on 17 December 1997. An amending convention signed at Washington on 24 September 1999 entered into force on 13 July 2000. Revenue lists the treaty as effective for income tax and capital gains tax from 6 April 1998 and for corporation tax from 1 January 1998 (S.I. 477 of 1997). The IRS shows a general effective date of 1 January 1998, and 1 September 2000 for the amending convention.

Tie-breaker. If both countries treat you as resident, Article 4 decides: first where you have a permanent home, then, if you have one in both, where your centre of vital interests lies, followed by habitual abode, nationality and mutual agreement. A US citizen or green card holder counts as US resident for the treaty only with a substantial presence, permanent home or habitual abode in the United States.

Dividends. Source-country tax is capped at 5% where the beneficial owner is a company owning at least 10% of the voting stock of the payer, and at 15% in all other cases. Treaty benefits go only to a resident that is a qualified person under the limitation on benefits article.

Pensions. Pensions for past employment are taxable only in the state of residence, subject to the government service article. Social security payments and annuities are likewise taxable only in the state of residence.

Saving clause. Each state may tax its own residents, and the US its citizens (and former citizens for 10 years after a tax-motivated loss of citizenship), as if the treaty did not exist. The social security rule in Article 18(1)(b), Article 18(4) and the relief, non-discrimination and mutual agreement articles still apply.

PRSI and US Social Security: the totalization agreement

Ireland and the US signed a social security agreement and administrative arrangement at Washington on 14 April 1992, in force since 1 September 1993. It stops you paying into both systems for the same work.

• Posted employees: if your employer sends you to the US for a temporary period not expected to exceed five years (or a longer period agreed by the authorities), you stay covered only by Irish PRSI. An employer and its affiliated company count as one employer, so a posting from your Irish company to its US subsidiary can qualify.
• Self-employed: if both countries would cover you, only the country where you are ordinarily resident does.
• Certificate of coverage: this proves your exemption from the other country's compulsory coverage. The administrative arrangement names the Scope Section of the Department of Social Welfare as the Irish issuer, and the SSA directs requests for Irish certificates to the PRSI Special Collection Section in Waterford.
• The flip side: when the agreement exempts you from Irish coverage, you pay no Irish social security contributions for the programmes concerned and generally cannot receive those benefits.

Benefits. The US counts your Irish periods of coverage towards US entitlement if you have at least six US quarters of coverage. Ireland adds your US periods to your Irish record if you have at least 52 Irish contribution weeks but not enough for Irish entitlement on their own.

Keeping your Irish company with a US subsidiary

Many Irish founders keep the Irish company and open a US corporation beneath it. The US federal corporate income tax is 21% of taxable income. On the Irish side, the questions are the CFC rules and how dividends come home.

CFC rules. Part 35B TCA 1997 implements the ATAD CFC rules and applies from 1 January 2019. Control broadly means owning or being entitled to more than 50% of the subsidiary's share capital, voting power or distributions. The charge attributes to the Irish parent the undistributed income arising from non-genuine arrangements put in place for the essential purpose of avoiding tax, where significant people functions are carried out in Ireland. No charge arises where Irish transfer pricing has applied, the arrangements are at arm's length, or an exemption applies:

• Low accounting profit: accounting profits under €750,000 with non-trading income under €75,000, or accounting profits under €75,000.
• Low profit margin: accounting profits below 10% of relevant operating costs.
• Effective tax rate: profits can only come within the charge where the subsidiary's tax (including any foreign QDTT) is less than half what it would have paid as an Irish resident.

Dividends to the Irish parent. Under the treaty, US tax on dividends is capped at 5% where the Irish company owns at least 10% of the voting stock, provided it is a qualified person. In Ireland, the participation exemption exempts relevant distributions made on or after 1 January 2025 where the parent holds at least 5% of the ordinary share capital continuously for at least 12 months including the distribution date. The subsidiary must be in a relevant territory, meaning an EU or EEA country or a treaty country not on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, and for distributions from 1 January 2026 it must have been resident there and not generally exempt from foreign tax throughout the preceding three years. The exemption is an alternative to a double tax credit and, once claimed, covers all relevant distributions from all relevant subsidiaries for that accounting period.

Choosing the US entity. Revenue classifies foreign entities on their own characteristics and its list of factors is not conclusive. Under section 1009A TCA (Finance Act 2025), a foreign body corporate substantially similar to an Irish partnership is taxed, with its members, like a partnership and its partners. That is worth weighing when you compare a US LLC with a corporation.

Pensions and retirement savings when you move

State Pension (Contributory). It is available from 66 with 520 full-rate contributions and keeps being paid during a temporary or permanent absence, though you must notify the Department of a permanent absence. It can be paid into an Irish account or an account in your country of residence. Electronic transfer is not possible to every country, and payment is otherwise by cheque. The State Pension (Non-Contributory) and Household Benefits are not paid to people living outside the State.

Tax on the State Pension. Revenue states that Irish State Pensions are taxed by the country of residence, and the treaty makes social security payments taxable only in the state of residence, a rule the saving clause leaves intact. The State Pension (Contributory) is not regarded as a governmental pension.

• Private sector occupational pension: taxed in your country of residence once you are non-resident in Ireland and resident in a treaty country, and a PAYE Exclusion Order can stop Irish deduction. No order is issued where the fund balance is taken as a taxable lump sum.
• Public sector pension: in general taxed in Ireland regardless of residence, subject to the treaty's government service article.
• ARF and vested PRSA: withdrawals are taxed at source regardless of residence, and no PAYE Exclusion Order is issued for these funds.

Transferring a pension. An occupational pension or PRSA can only be transferred to a country outside the EU if you are employed in that country. You must request the transfer, and the overseas arrangement must provide relevant benefits under section 770 TCA and be approved by the regulator in that country.

Visas: E-1, E-2, reciprocity and the Visa Waiver Program

Ireland is a treaty country for both investor and trader visas. The State Department lists Ireland for the E-1 treaty trader visa from 14 September 1950 and for the E-2 treaty investor visa from 18 November 1992, the route most Irish founders use to run their own US company.

The reciprocity fee is the amount charged in addition to the MRV application fee, and for Irish citizens it is none on all four categories.

For short trips, Ireland is a Visa Waiver Program country, with VWP travel beginning on 1 April 1995. If you would like to plan your own move from Ireland, book a consultation with Mount Bonnell Advisors or start with the firm's free potential analysis.