Steph Wickham

The UK scheme had changed over the years and they've just done away with it.

Ireland retains it and it is very useful for clients coming here who are non-domiciled.

Why is it useful?

Well, essentially it means that their foreign income and their foreign capital gains can remain outside the charge to Irish tax.

So all of a sudden, when they're terrified and they hear that Ireland is a high taxing jurisdiction, it changes things.

But the application and the practical living of the scheme and how it works requires guidance because it can be complex.

We have a lot of clients where one spouse is non-domiciled and one spouse is Irish, returning Irish.

So those couples benefit from having a conversation before they come back.

And I think what people sometimes don't realise is that if they don't get the proper advice, they'll actually find that both their taxes, their tax bill in Ireland is higher than it needs to be.

And also the cost to prepare the tax return can be higher because if it's

It's complicated.

And if you try to DIY it and you get it wrong, it can get complex very quickly.

I think it has come up because there's anti-avoidance to prevent interspousal transfers if it's not done in a careful way.

So I think the conversation there really turns on the importance of taking advice, you know, in advance.

Because essentially, you know, there's anti-avoidance that would prevent two resident spouses in that circumstance from transferring assets between each other to benefit from.

It would definitely be a consideration and something that would warrant review.

The point I would make is, and this is kind of where sometimes experience comes in, specifically when you're talking about certain jurisdictions, you'd always be cognizant as well about, well, you know, if we do something to be efficient from an Irish tax perspective and, you know, obviously subject to review, what are the foreign tax consequences?

So this is my point about...

Exactly.

And often the conversations we'll have with clients as well will turn on, you know, what do you want?