Capital Gains Tax on Stock bought in the US, sold in Ireland

mungovan

My situation: I've been legally working in the US for a number of years on an H1B visa and have bought stock on the NYSE during that time. I'm returning to Ireland later this year. I want to know whether I should sell my long term stock holdings (ownership >1 year) in the US before I leave here (and incur the lower 15% CGT) OR if I transfer the stock to an international brokerage account and sell them in a few years in Ireland, will I be charged the higher Irish 35% CGT for the entire length I had the stock, even for when they were appreciating value while I was living in the US as a tax resident.
I can't find a straight answer online and paying for an Irish tax professional seems expensive, does anyone have experience with this?

dogsears

CGT liability is mainly based on whether you are resident and if you aren't going to be returning to Ireland until later in the year you won't be resident till next year. If you sell the stock after this year you will pay full Irish CGT (33%) including on the part of the profit that accrued while you lived in the US. If you sell this year you won't pay Irish CGT.

I think you prob have enough to work out what to do, but check out whether you can sell and quickly rebuy without US issue if you think the value is likely to keep on rising

mungovan

Thanks @dogsears, I kind of thought that was the situation but wasn't sure. In that case I'm going to sell the long term stocks then buy them back straight away. 
Cheers!

Marcusm

dogsears wrote: »

CGT liability is mainly based on whether you are resident and if you aren't going to be returning to Ireland until later in the year you won't be resident till next year. If you sell the stock after this year you will pay full Irish CGT (33%) including on the part of the profit that accrued while you lived in the US. If you sell this year you won't pay Irish CGT.

I think you prob have enough to work out what to do, but check out whether you can sell and quickly rebuy without US issue if you think the value is likely to keep on rising

You need to be careful with this; if the OP moves to Ireland in (say) October, and remains here indefinitely then he will be subject to CGT in Ireland for all of 2018 including gains arising prior to taking up physical residence in Ireland. There is no split year treatment for CGT which is why this is likely one for professional advice.

nompere

A person who moves to Ireland in October 2018 cannot be tax resident in Ireland for 2018.

To be resident for 2018 he would either have to be in Ireland for 183 days in 2018 - but 1 October 2018 to 31 December 2018 is on!y 92 days; or have spent 281 days in Ireland taking 2017 with 2018. But he wasn't here at all in 2017 so he can't be resident for tax purposes under that test either.

So CGT can only apply to certain specified assets - which do not include US shares.

dogsears

Marcusm wrote: »

You need to be careful with this; if the OP moves to Ireland in (say) October, and remains here indefinitely then he will be subject to CGT in Ireland for all of 2018 including gains arising prior to taking up physical residence in Ireland. There is no split year treatment for CGT which is why this is likely one for professional advice.

Incorrect, cannot have enough days to become resident for 2018.

You are right about spit year residence not applying to CGT

TaxPro

How many years have you been in the US?

You will still be liable to Irish CGT if you are ordinarily resident (assuming you are Irish domiciled). You remain ordinarily resident for three years after you become non-resident. So, for example, if you left Ireland in early 2016 and were not resident for the year, you would remain ordinarily resident for 2016, 2017 and 2018 - and therefore subject to Irish tax on your worldwide gains during those years.

Marcusm

dogsears wrote: »

Incorrect, cannot have enough days to become resident for 2018.

You are right about spit year residence not applying to CGT

Duh, of course i’m Talking rubbish - only res for the second year! Sorry. Brain fart.