CGT vs exit tax in Ireland
When a disposal is Capital Gains Tax at 31% or 33%, and when a fund is exit tax at 38% with an eight-year deemed disposal.
Two charges, and they do not mix
These figures are estimates. They are not tax advice and they are not financial advice. Selling a house, a painting or ordinary shares can be Capital Gains Tax. A holding in an Irish investment fund, or in an equivalent offshore fund, is usually exit tax instead. Putting a fund into a Capital Gains Tax sum, or claiming the €1,270 exemption against it, gives the wrong bill.
Capital Gains Tax
The chargeable gain is what you received, or the market value if you gave the asset away, minus what it cost you and minus allowable expenses such as auctioneer and solicitor fees. Losses come off next, including losses brought forward. The personal exemption of €1,270 comes off after the losses. It belongs to the individual. It is not transferred to a spouse or civil partner, and it is not paid out if the gain is smaller than €1,270.
Most disposals on or after 7 October 2026 are charged at 31%. Most disposals from 6 December 2021 to 6 October 2026 were charged at 33%. Development land stays at 33% either side of that date. Revenue’s published house example is a July 2025 sale, so the 33% rate is the right one for it: a €380,000 sale, a €130,000 purchase, €6,690 of fees, a chargeable gain of €243,310, a taxable gain of €242,040 and tax of €79,873.20. The same method on a €20,000 sale and a €10,000 cost after 7 October 2026 is tax of €2,706.30. The capital gains tax calculator does both, and it leaves indexation for an asset owned before 2003 out.
Pay the initial period, disposals from 1 January to 30 November, by 15 December of that year. Pay the later period, disposals from 1 December to 31 December, by 31 January of the next year. File the return by 31 October of the following year even when reliefs or losses mean there is no tax to pay.
Exit tax on a fund
From 1 January 2026 the individual rate is 38% on Irish-domiciled investment funds and on equivalent funds in the EU, EEA and OECD countries that have a double tax agreement with Ireland. It was 41% until the end of 2025. Where a fund deducts the exit tax, Revenue’s manual treats that deduction as a final liability to Irish tax for an individual unit holder. A personal portfolio investment undertaking, where the investor can influence what the fund holds, is 60% and is outside the calculator.
You do not need to sell for a charge to arise. A disposal is deemed to take place at the end of an 8-year period beginning with the acquisition, and at the end of every later 8-year period. The gain is the value of the units then, minus their cost of acquisition. A fund can value that date, or the previous 30 June or 31 December. Exit tax already paid on a deemed disposal is set against the tax on a later chargeable event. The calculator’s exit-tax mode is the simple version of that: value minus original cost, at 38%, minus tax you have already paid, and never a negative number. It does not follow separate purchase lots, and it does not refund an overpayment.
Life policies, and rates this page skips
An Irish life assurance policy is taxed when a chargeable event happens: maturity, a full or partial surrender, an assignment, or the 8th anniversary and every 8 years after it. That is life assurance exit tax, not Capital Gains Tax. The gain on a full encashment is generally the value minus the premiums paid. This site does not calculate it. Revenue’s life assurance page, published 18 December 2025, states 41% for an Irish individual and says the rate will decrease to 38% for chargeable events on or after 1 January 2026 on the passing of Finance Bill 2025.
On the Capital Gains Tax rate list, and not in the calculator, are 40% for foreign life policies and foreign investment products, 15% for venture capital funds held by an individual or a partnership, and 12.5% where the holder is a company. Company migration exit tax is a separate anti-avoidance charge. Deposit interest is neither of these: an Irish deposit is usually paid after DIRT at 33%. A projection that ignores all of that is the compound interest calculator, and it says so on the result.