Feasibility of working a fully remote Irish job from overseas

It's a country with a territorial tax system and so I don't have any concern with regard to the authorities in that country. There's no interest in any economic activity outside of the country or online. While resident there, the activity would be deemed to be occurring outside the jurisdiction. I'm looking at it from the perspective of the Irish side of things.

From what I've been able to gather, I'd likely have to pay PAYE as normal, I'd also likely be treated as if I was tax resident in Ireland. I posted to see if this understanding is correct or not but just through this thread alone, I can see that while I think its probably workable, nobody will go there simply because companies aren't used to this type of situation…..so I'll be met with a flat "no" to that idea.

Yes, I'm aware of another territorial tax system where remote workers are required to pay tax as they're physically present in said country when they log in - to work online. However, that's not an issue in this particular instance but thanks for flagging it.

There's no double taxation agreement in place in this instance.

"At the Irish end, the general rule is that a non-resident individual with an Irish private sector employment, all of the duties of which are exercised outside the state, is not liable to Irish income tax on the earnings from that employment. Your Irish employer will need to get a PAYE exclusion order from the Revenue Commissioners, so it will be necessary to satisfy them in advance (a) that you are non-resident, and (b) that all of the duties of the employment will be exercised outside Ireland."

I don't suppose there's any resource online that confirms this that you're aware of? It will be more credible if I can pitch this using info from an authoritative source.

I have been working as a contractor for a number of years, contracting to companies in Europe, North America and Asia. However, some companies don't entertain the contractor option at all…so that's what has brought me to investigate this related to Irish companies. I had a U.S. firm that was all set to send me out a contract the other week but they backed out and said that they had compliance issue concerns and went back to the idea of going with a direct hire. In that instance, there's nothing I can do (not a U.S. citizen/resident so no right to work directly) but at least if I pitched to Irish companies, it's possible.

It's literally the opposite of this. They CANT be tax registered or have a presence in the country I'm in. What you say may hold for other countries but it doesn't for this one. When they don't have a presence in my country, then there is no touchpoint for them with that country. The country I'm in isn't remotely interested in what it is I do if I work online for a foreign entity. They've set up their rules on the matter such that it has nothing to do with them. Equally, they have no interest in the employer as to them, its as if they haven't carried out any activity in-country in employing me.

The irony is that even though there is no issue, trying to convince an employer of that will be difficult as they simply don't know and I'm not likely to be special enough for them to make a couple of calls to find out.

"I can't definitively as I don't work in tax anymore but an Irish company would have to keep a record of all payments to you and if revenue decided to audit them, they would have to show that they are tax compliant. Even if the tax results in zero, companies would still need to file to show that they are being compliant."

I wonder would this get ironed out at the point of an application going in for a PAYE Exclusion Order.? Would Revenue issue this if they weren't happy with the individual not having any tax deductions made (while filing a legitimate tax return to include this income) in the other jurisdiction? Anyone else agree with @witchgirl26 's take on this and can point me to where this is spelt out?

"Are any of those companies EU based or even Irish based?"

Not Irish-based unfortunately as if there was an existing example, I'd be far better informed. Some of them may be EU-based but I'm not sure if there's any point in tapping those expats up as there will still be a variance in how this is dealt with between EU member states.

"And do they have any operations in the country that you're in? Or a number of employees? Or is it all contractors?"

No, the consensus among expats here is that to work directly for a foreign company and still be visa-compliant, the company cannot have operations within the country. This is in relation to direct employment. Working as an independent contractor (as I've done over the last eight years) is a separate item.

"Revenue in Ireland would be keen to ensure that you aren't claiming you've paid somewhere else to dodge paying Irish tax. So yes there would probably need to be proof of you not being tax resident in Ireland and then assessing if there is a double taxation agreement with the country you're in."

I'm eight years away so I don't think I could be accused of evading Irish tax through a feigned residency. I do maintain a property in Ireland and on average I'd spend about a month a year in Ireland - but beyond that I've no other stuff going on in Ireland. With that, I don't think anyone would want to question my claim of being resident abroad.

You mention a double taxation agreement. I suggested earlier that there wasn't one. I was wrong. I gave this scenario to Grok and asked it to consider it bearing in mind the double taxation agreement that exists between Ireland and the other country. Here's what it spat out →

If you’re an employee of the Irish company:

• The double taxation convention states that employment income is taxable only in your country of residence unless the work is performed in Ireland.
  • Since you’d be working remotely from overseas, with no work performed in Ireland (e.g., no business trips), Ireland has no taxing rights over your salary. The country you're resident in would have taxing rights, but as your income is foreign-sourced, the country you're resident in does not tax it under its territorial system.
  • Outcome: You pay no income tax or USC in Ireland, and no tax in the country you're resident in, resulting in zero tax on this income (assuming no other tax obligations in a third country, e.g., your country of citizenship).

"You also have the issue of timezones - if a company is solely based in Ireland & you're the opposite side of the world, where is the incentive for them to hire you over someone in their own timezone?"

An entirely valid point but there may be scenarios where me being in an Americas time zone would be a feature and benefit rather than a disadvantage. My last client (when working as an independent contractor) was based out of Asia. It needed someone positioned in my time zone for the service that it was offering.

"I get you want to make this a workable and desirable option to an Irish company but if I was an employer and had the choice between the scenario you're presenting (even if you had all the information as to how it works legally) and someone based in Ireland, I know which way I'm going."

You won't get any argument from me on this. There's every likelihood that this will end up being entirely academic. However, I'd just like to be well informed, know as precisely as I can what the rules are and how it works and maybe be able to succinctly point to that information.