Q. I bought a holiday home 3 years ago in the Algarve which I now rent out for part of the year paying certain taxes over there. Do I need to do an Irish tax return for this? Paddy – Skibbereen Co Cork
A. All income from abroad Paddy – worldwide, including rents, pensions, dividends, fees from foreign directorships and details of any overseas assets and bank accounts should be declared and returned annually. Revenue recently wrote to self-assessed tax payers to advise them of their obligation in this regard and gave a deadline for those who have not previously made such returns to do so now on a voluntary basis. Those who do this will be subject to lesser penalties than might otherwise apply. Those who continue to ignore their obligation to make returns and are subsequently found out could be subject to greater penalties, have their names published in the tax defaulters lists and possibly even be subject to criminal charges. Ireland has reciprocal double tax agreements with 73 countries including Portugal so it may be possible to offset tax paid abroad against the Irish tax due. In this regard it must be remembered that for the purposes of such returns, Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, is regarded as being overseas… for the moment. It is understood that from now on the Revenue Commissioners will be able to access bank and other financial account information from more than 100 countries. The information available will include the identity of taxpayers, account balances, gross income, gross sales proceeds and account closures for those foreign accounts. You have been warned.