Domicile

Our man in Havana

How does one go about changing their domicile? Is moving away from Ireland for good, enough?

Would one have to renounce their Irish citizenship?

GerardKeating

Our man in Havana wrote: »

How does one go about changing their domicile? Is moving away from Ireland for good, enough?

Would one have to renounce their Irish citizenship?

No need to renounce citizenship, just move, and (depending on why you are doing this) you might need to document this.

MagicSean

No you would just have to intend to live in your new domicile permanently. Not sure if there's any hard and fast rule as to how you would do this. i suppose purchasing a home or starting a family would be ways. Been a while since I studied taxation.

ResearchWill

All persons have a domicile, for most of us it is the domicile of birth. You can by action take on a new domicile. A number of things can be taken as an showing you have taken on new domicile, selling property in old country, buying in new, in one case I think the buying of a plot of land to be buried in was taken to show intention to give up old domicile.

But it really is a case by case situation.

Our man in Havana

Is there a time scale involved?

MagicSean

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Is there a time scale involved?

It's really the action that is the main consideration.

ResearchWill

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Is there a time scale involved?

It has no hard and fast rules re time. Example a person born in ireland, trains as a nurse, moves to US to work. Comes home regularly, keeps the room in parents house. Only ever rents in US. Has a plot for burial in home town. Over time either buys or gets a plot of land at home. Builds a house at home. Always tells everyone she will return as soon as house is built etc. that person may never be considered to have changed domicile, even 40 years later.

On the other hand, person is made redundant, house in negative equity, sells house, pays off all loans with savings. Then moves abroad vowing never to return to Ireland. Gets job buys house, gets life assurance policy to provide funeral in new country, that person may be considered domiciled in new country all most straight away.

It really depends on the facts of each case.

Delancey

There are few hard and fast rules about Domicile but an extremely important case that still applies revolved around the estate of the actor Errol Flynn.
Flynn was born in Australia to Irish parents , he had a British pasport as at the time Australia did not issue its own passports , he resided in the US for decades but did not take US citizenship , he applied several times to join the US military in WW2 ( the medical board just laughed at him given his dreadful medical history ).
Flynn died in Canada and at the time he had a residence in Beverly Hills as well as a London house and a holiday home in Jamaica - just to complcate things further - in the last years of his life Flynn discovered a love of Yachting and would spend months at a time cruising in the Meditteranean.

Where do you think he was Domiciled ?

HM revenue claimed Death Duties from his entire estate and a fierce legal battle ensued which ended with the Judge ruling that Flynn was domiciled in Jamaica on the basis that he had left instructions he was to be buried there.

Max Aitken ( aka Lord Beaverbrook ) is another example - he was born in Canada but moved to Britain as a young man where he become extraordinarily wealthy from his ownership of Express newspapers. He lived in the UK for 50+ years and served in Churchills wartime cabinet.
Acting on advice resulting from the Flynn judgement he left instructions he was to be buried in his birthplace of New Brunswick , Canada and thus saved his estate some 60 milllion Canadian Dollars that would otherwise have gone to the British Treasury.

Our man in Havana

Thanks for that.

So the jist is to make a will specifying where you want to be buried. Then send the tax man a copy with a cheery smile.