Ireland Capital Gains Tax Calculator (33%)

Irish CGT is simpler than most and harsher than many. There is a single flat rate of 33%, with no split by income band and no distinction between asset types. Whether you earn €20,000 or €200,000, the rate on your gain is the same.

The annual exemption is €1,270, a figure that has not moved in decades and is now small enough to be nearly irrelevant on any substantial disposal. It is also not transferable between spouses, unlike most Irish reliefs, so a couple has two separate €1,270 exemptions that cannot be pooled.

The payment rules catch people out. Ireland has two payment windows in the year, split at 30 November, and the earlier one falls due before the tax year has even ended.

Step 1 -- The chargeable gain:

Allowable costs are the incidental costs of buying and selling, such as legal and auctioneer fees, plus enhancement expenditure still reflected in the asset.

Step 2 -- Deduct losses. Current year and carried-forward capital losses are applied before the exemption.

Step 3 -- Apply the annual exemption of €1,270, capped at the remaining gain so it cannot create or increase a loss.

Step 4 -- Charge at 33%:

Payment. Disposals from 1 January to 30 November are payable by 15 December of the same year. Disposals in December are payable by 31 January of the following year.

€250,000 sale, €200,000 cost:

• Chargeable gain: €50,000
• Less the €1,270 exemption: €48,730 taxable
• CGT: €48,730 × 33% = €16,080.90
• Effective rate on the gain: 32.16%, only marginally below the headline 33% because the exemption is so small

The same disposal with €20,000 of losses:

• Gain after losses: €30,000
• Less €1,270: €28,730 taxable
• CGT: €9,480.90

A gain of €800: entirely covered by the exemption, so no tax, and the unused €470 of exemption is lost rather than carried forward.

• Principal Private Residence relief, which exempts the gain on your main home, subject to apportionment for periods of non-occupation and for land over one acre.
• Retirement relief, available on the disposal of business or farm assets by those aged 55 and over, subject to thresholds.
• Entrepreneur relief, which reduces the rate to 10% on qualifying business disposals up to a lifetime limit of €1 million.
• Transfers between spouses, which are made on a no gain, no loss basis.
• Indexation relief, abolished for periods of ownership after 31 December 2002 but still relevant to assets acquired before then.
• Development land, which has its own restrictions on losses and reliefs.
• Non-residents, taxable only on specified Irish assets such as land and buildings.
• The 15% withholding a purchaser must deduct on disposals over €500,000 where no CG50A clearance certificate is produced.
• CGT on death, where there is no disposal and the beneficiary acquires at market value.

• Expecting a UK-style banded rate. Ireland charges a flat 33% regardless of income. A basic rate taxpayer and a high earner pay identical CGT on the same gain.
• Overestimating the exemption. €1,270 is small and unchanged for many years. It removes roughly €419 of tax at most.
• Trying to pool exemptions between spouses. Each spouse has their own €1,270 and it cannot be transferred, which is unusual among Irish reliefs.
• Missing the December payment date. Tax on a disposal made in, say, March is due on 15 December of the same year, well before the return is filed the following October.
• Applying the exemption before losses. Losses come first. Applying the exemption first would waste it.
• Assuming unused exemption carries forward. It does not. It is use it or lose it each year.

• Revenue: "Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on the disposal of an asset" -- the 33% rate and the payment deadlines
• Citizens Information: "Capital Gains Tax" -- the €1,270 annual personal exemption
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 02-03-01a -- Capital Gains Tax rate of charge, section 28
• All figures verified on 30 August 2026