How your US retirement income is taxed here.
These come straight from the same country data the Glidepath engine uses to calculate your tax. Not a marketing summary.
Resident-non-dom remittance basis: Ireland taxes US-source income/gains only if remitted. Investment income and gains you leave in your US accounts stay untaxed - but the withdrawals you actually live on are a remittance the moment you spend them here, so they are not modeled as deferred.
US Social Security is taxed only by Ireland under treaty Art. 18(1)(b) (carved out of the saving clause) - exempt in the US. Modeled at Irish income tax (20% band to €44,000 single / €53,000 married, then 40%), less the personal and age tax credits, on your Social Security plus your IRA/401(k)/pension withdrawals - both fund Irish spending, so both are remitted. At 65+ the age exemption applies: total income up to €18,000 single / €36,000 married is tax-free, with 40% marginal relief just above it. No USC or PRSI on this remittance-basis income. The Employee (PAYE) credit and the married two-income band increase are not modeled, so the real bill can be a little lower.
Remittance is read broadly: spending remitted funds or repaying Irish debt both count, while clean pre-residence capital is not a remittance. Roth income is exempt in practice, but Revenue has issued no binding ruling - confirm with an advisor (Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, section 200).
What could change this.
Favorable Roth and pension treatment is unconfirmed: Ireland has no binding ruling, and a self-directed ARF or PRSA can drag you into foreign-trust paperwork.
When: No binding ruling; position-dependent
Compliance traps that catch US retirees here.
Investment products that look ordinary to locals can be tax traps for US citizens. These are the ones specific to Ireland.
Irish unit-linked funds and life-assurance bonds are PFICs
The funds and investment bonds an Irish bank or insurer sells are, to the IRS, PFICs and a costly tax trap.
Irish exit tax vs. US PFIC double bind
Ireland's own exit tax and US PFIC rules can both hit the same holding, giving you the worst of both.
ARF / PRSA may be a foreign grantor trust
The IRS may treat an ARF or PRSA as a foreign grantor trust, so a US tax specialist can help before you fund one.
Remittance triggers are broad, including US-card spending
Even paying Irish bills with a US card tied to your income can count as a taxable remittance.
Roth IRA treatment is favorable but not formally ruled
Not every Roth withdrawal is reliably Irish-tax-free: periodic payments usually are, but lump sums and the lack of a formal ruling leave doubt.
Healthcare as a retiree.
Stamp 0 retirees are not entitled to the public system (the GMS/medical card requires "ordinary residence" plus, under 70, a means test, and Stamp 0 grants no access to publicly funded services). Comprehensive private health insurance is mandatory for the visa and is the coverage retirees actually rely on: a full private hospital plan (VHI Plan D level or higher) from VHI, Laya or Irish Life Health.
For a retiree over 65 a full-cover plan typically runs €2,000–3,500+ per person per year and rises with age. The average over-65 VHI premium was about €2,815 in 2025, so roughly $3,000 per person is a reasonable mid-point. After 70, ordinarily-resident persons can qualify for a free GP Visit Card, but a Stamp 0 holder has no public entitlement to fall back on.
Models the affluent-retiree norm: public entitlements plus a mid-tier private policy priced at the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) market-average premium (assuming the Lifetime Community Rating loading was avoided by buying within 9 months of arrival). Recent premium inflation ran ~10%/yr (2025).
The retirement visa route.
Stamp 0 is Ireland's long-stay permission for retirees who can support themselves (persons of independent means). It renews one year at a time and never leads to long-term residency or citizenship.
- Verifiable income of at least €50,000 per year per person, from stable sources like pensions or savings, not speculative income.
- Access to an emergency lump sum roughly the price of a house, held on top of that income.
- Private medical insurance with full cover in private hospitals, kept in force for the whole stay.
- You must not rely on public funds or State benefits while on this permission.
What could this cost you?
A fast, illustrative estimate for Ireland - no login, nothing stored. Every country page carries its own, tuned to that country's tax treatment.
Your monthly spending power in Ireland (non-dom) on about $1M
These odds are about a withdrawal this size holding up over time - not about how far that amount goes here.
A lean lifestyle in Ireland (non-dom)
Day to day, that looks like a small apartment in a lower-cost town, transit or one older economy car, cooking at home with the odd cheap meal out. For health, the public health system, with out-of-pocket costs a real worry.
As a US citizen, you keep filing US taxes wherever you live.
Ireland (non-dom): Resident non-domiciled - remittance basis
This is a fast estimate, not the full simulation, and not financial advice. It only flags the tax question. The full plan works out what you'd actually owe on each side of the border. It also models real balances, every account type, and healthcare, year by year.
The terms you'll run into.
- Remittance basis
- If you are an Irish resident but not Irish-domiciled, Ireland taxes your foreign income and gains only when you bring them into Ireland. Money you leave abroad escapes Irish tax.
- Domicile (vs. residence)
- A common-law concept of your permanent home country; a US retiree is Irish-resident but US-domiciled, which is what unlocks the remittance basis - residence alone is not enough.
- Stamp 0
- Ireland's long-stay permission for retirees and other people of independent means. It is granted one year at a time and renewable, but gives no right to State benefits, public services, or long-term residency.
- USC and PRSI
- Universal Social Charge and Pay Related Social Insurance are two Irish income levies. US Social Security is exempt from both, but still faces ordinary Irish income tax, which the treaty assigns to Ireland. If you turn off remittance discipline, this plan charges USC (0.5–8% bands, +3% above €100,000) on your arising income and dividends, and PRSI (4.35% until age 70) on investment income only - foreign pensions are PRSI-exempt.
- GMS / Medical Card
- The public General Medical Services scheme. Eligibility needs "ordinary residence" (plus, under 70, a means test) - a Stamp 0 permission gives no ordinary residence for benefits purposes, so Stamp 0 retirees are shut out at every age and rely on private insurance.
- ARF and PRSA
- Two Irish personal retirement accounts you can draw down flexibly - an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) and a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA). For a US owner the treaty pension relief is uncertain, and the IRS may tax them as a foreign grantor trust.
- GP (family doctor)
- GP is short for general practitioner - your family doctor and first point of contact in the Irish health system. Public GP visits are free from age 70; younger residents usually pay out of pocket.
- VHI (Voluntary Health Insurance)
- VHI (Voluntary Health Insurance) is Ireland's largest private health insurer. Its Plan D is a common benchmark for the full-hospital cover the Stamp 0 visa requires.
- HSE (Health Service Executive)
- The Health Service Executive (HSE) runs Ireland's public, tax-funded health system. Stamp 0 retirees get little from it and must carry private insurance instead.
US terms that follow you to every country
- PFIC
- Passive Foreign Investment Company - the IRS label for almost any non-US fund, ETF, or pooled investment. Owning one triggers punitive US tax rates and Form 8621 paperwork. The single most common trap for Americans investing abroad.
- FBAR
- Foreign Bank Account Report (FinCEN Form 114). A yearly online filing that lists your non-US accounts once they total over $10,000. Not a tax - just a report - but penalties for skipping it are severe.
- FATCA
- A US law that makes foreign banks report American customers to the IRS. It is why some foreign banks refuse US clients, and why you may also file Form 8938 with your return.
- Form 8621
- The IRS form you must file for each PFIC you own. Complex enough that most preparers charge per form, per year.
- Form 8938
- The FATCA companion form filed with your US return, listing foreign financial assets above a threshold. Overlaps with, but does not replace, the FBAR.
- Forms 3520/3520-A
- US reporting forms for foreign trusts. Some foreign retirement and insurance wrappers count as trusts, dragging their owners into this heavy annual paperwork.
- UCITS
- The standard European fund format (an EU regulatory label). Fine for Europeans - but to the IRS, a UCITS fund is a PFIC.
- Totalization agreement
- A US bilateral deal that stops you paying Social Security tax to two countries on the same work, and lets work credits in each country count toward one benefit.
- Foreign tax credit
- The US mechanism that stops double taxation: tax you pay to your residence country offsets your US bill on the same income, dollar for dollar. You effectively pay the higher of the two totals - not both.
- Saving clause
- The clause in every US tax treaty that lets the US keep taxing its own citizens as if the treaty did not exist. It is why moving abroad never ends US filing.
- Foreign grantor trust
- The IRS classification some foreign pension and insurance wrappers fall into. It means the owner reports the trust personally, on Forms 3520/3520-A, every year.
Nothing on this page is invented.
Confidence: verified. Last verified July 17, 2026. Every figure above comes from one of the sources below - the same country data the full plan uses to compute your projection.
See the full country-by-country build sheet on the coverage page.