Understanding Capital Gains Tax in Ireland

What is Capital Gains Tax?

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a tax on the profit you make when you sell or dispose of an asset that has increased in value. The key word is profit. You are not taxed on the total amount you received from the sale. You are taxed on the difference between what you paid for the asset and what you sold it for. That difference is called your gain.

CGT in Ireland is governed by the Revenue Commissioners and applies to Irish tax residents on their worldwide gains. If you live in Ireland and make a profit selling assets anywhere in the world, CGT is likely relevant to you.

CGT revolves around two events: acquisitions and disposals.

An acquisition is how you come to own an asset. This includes purchasing shares through a broker, but it also includes receiving shares through an employee equity programme (such as RSU vests or ESPP purchases). Both are acquisitions, and both establish your cost basis for future CGT calculations. People sometimes overlook vested shares as acquisitions because no money left their account, but from a tax perspective they are treated the same way.

A disposal is how you part with an asset. This is most commonly a sale, but it also includes gifts, exchanges, and any transfer of ownership. If you give shares to someone (other than your spouse or civil partner), that is a disposal for CGT purposes, even though no money changed hands. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another is also a disposal.

Does CGT apply to you?

If any of the following apply to you, the answer is almost certainly yes:

• You sold shares through a broker like Interactive Brokers, Revolut, Trading 212, or Degiro
• You received employee equity (RSUs, ESPPs, PSUs) from your employer and sold some or all of those shares
• You traded cryptocurrency, including swapping one crypto for another
• You sold an investment property (not your main home)
• You sold any other asset at a profit (business assets, collectibles, precious metals)

Many people in Ireland have CGT obligations without realising it. This is particularly common among employees at multinational companies (PayPal, Microsoft, Google, Intel, HubSpot, and others) who receive shares as part of their compensation. Those shares create a CGT obligation the moment they are sold.

If you only hold an asset and have not sold or disposed of it, no CGT is due. The tax is triggered by the disposal, not by the asset increasing in value.

The rate, the exemption, and the basic calculation

The CGT rate

33% applies to the vast majority of asset disposals including shares, employee equity, and cryptocurrency. It is one of the higher rates in Europe, which is why getting the calculation right matters. Every euro of legitimate cost, loss, or exemption you can apply reduces your tax bill.

The annual exemption

Every individual in Ireland has an annual tax-free exemption of €1,270. The first €1,270 of capital gains you make in a tax year is not taxed. This applies per person, per year. It cannot be carried forward if unused, and it cannot be transferred to a spouse.

The basic calculation

The formula for calculating CGT is:

Sale price - (Purchase price + allowable costs) = Gain

Then subtract any capital losses, then subtract the €1,270 exemption, and apply 33% to what remains.

Allowable costs include broker fees, stamp duty, and professional fees directly related to the purchase or sale. They do not include general investment platform fees or subscription costs.

Deadlines: when to pay and when to file

This is where Irish CGT catches many people off guard. Unlike income tax (which is usually handled by your employer through PAYE), CGT is your personal responsibility to calculate, pay, and file.

Your CGT return (either a CG1 form or a Form 11 through ROS) is due by 31 October of the following year. If you file through ROS, you typically get a short extension to mid-November. More on how to file in the filing section below.

This timeline is unintuitive. If you sell shares at a profit in March 2025, you need to pay the CGT by December 2025, but you do not need to file the return until October 2026. You pay first, then file later.

How CGT is actually calculated

The basic formula (sale price minus purchase price) is straightforward. What makes Irish CGT complicated in practice are the rules that determine which purchase price to use and what happens when you sell at a loss and rebuy.

FIFO: First In, First Out

When you sell shares in a company that you bought at different times and different prices, Ireland requires you to use the FIFO (First In, First Out) method. This means the shares you bought first are treated as the ones you sold first.

This matters because it determines your cost basis (the price you are deemed to have paid), which directly affects the size of your gain or loss.

Getting FIFO wrong is one of the most common mistakes in Irish CGT. Most brokers do not apply FIFO for you. They display an average cost per share, which is not how Ireland calculates the tax.

The 28-day matching rule

There is an important exception to FIFO. If you sell shares within 28 days of acquiring shares in the same company, the recent acquisition is matched to the sale instead of following FIFO. This affects which cost basis is used for the sale, which directly changes the size of your gain or loss.

This commonly happens with employee equity. If your RSUs vest on Monday and you sell those shares on Wednesday, the vested shares are matched directly to the sale rather than FIFO reaching back to earlier, cheaper purchases. Submyt detects these situations automatically.

Bed and breakfasting (deferred losses)

Bed and breakfasting is a separate rule from the 28-day matching rule above. They happen to share the same 28-day timeframe but deal with completely different situations.

If you sell shares at a loss and repurchase shares in the same company within 28 days, the loss is deferred. It cannot be used to offset gains. The rule exists to prevent people from selling at a loss purely to claim a tax benefit and then immediately rebuying the same asset.

The deferred loss attaches to the replacement shares and can only be applied against the gain when those specific shares are eventually sold. This is a use-it-or-lose-it situation: if the deferred loss exceeds the gain on the replacement shares, the excess is permanently forfeited. The loss does not re-enter your general loss pool.

Foreign currency conversion

If you buy or sell assets in a currency other than euro (for example, US dollar-denominated shares), both the purchase and sale amounts must be converted to euro using the European Central Bank (ECB) daily exchange rate on the date of each transaction. The ECB publishes rates in the format "1 euro = X foreign currency units," so you divide the foreign amount by the rate to get the euro value. These rates are available from the Central Bank of Ireland. Currency fluctuations can affect your gain or loss independently of the underlying asset price.

Losses and exemptions

Offsetting losses

If you sell an asset at a loss, you can use that loss to reduce gains on other assets in the same tax year. Losses are deducted from gains before the annual exemption is applied. This can significantly reduce your CGT bill.

Carrying losses forward

If your total losses in a year exceed your total gains, the excess losses can be carried forward indefinitely and used against gains in future years. There is no time limit. However, to carry losses forward, you should declare them to Revenue in the year they occur. If you do not declare them, you may not be able to use them later.

The annual exemption

As mentioned above, each individual has a €1,270 annual exemption. This is applied after losses have been deducted. If your net gains (after losses) are below €1,270, no CGT is due.

Other reliefs

Several other CGT reliefs exist in Ireland, though most are not relevant to the typical Submyt user:

• Principal Private Residence Relief: Your main home is generally exempt from CGT when sold
• Spouse/civil partner transfers: Transfers between spouses are exempt from CGT
• Entrepreneur Relief: A reduced 10% CGT rate on qualifying business disposals, subject to a lifetime limit of €1 million in gains

For most people dealing with shares, employee equity, or crypto, the annual exemption and loss offsetting are the primary reliefs that apply. For more detail, see our CGT FAQ.

Employee equity: RSUs, ESPPs, and PSUs

If you work for a company that grants you shares as part of your compensation, there are two separate tax events to understand: income tax when the shares are received, and Capital Gains Tax when the shares are sold. These are different taxes with different rules.

RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)

When RSUs vest (become yours), their market value at that point is taxed as income. Your employer typically handles this by selling a portion of the shares to cover the tax (often called "sell to cover"). The remaining shares are yours to keep or sell.

If you later sell those shares, CGT applies on any gain between the market value at vesting (your cost basis) and the price you sold them for. If the share price has gone up since vesting, you have a gain. If it has gone down, you have a loss.

ESPPs (Employee Stock Purchase Plans)

With an ESPP, you purchase shares at a discount (often 15% below market price). The discount portion may be subject to income tax. When you sell the shares, CGT applies on any gain above your purchase price.

PSUs (Performance Stock Units)

PSUs work similarly to RSUs but vest based on performance targets being met. The same income tax and CGT rules apply. Income tax on the market value at vesting, then CGT on any gain when you sell.

Cryptocurrency and CGT

Revenue treats cryptocurrency as a chargeable asset. The same CGT rules that apply to shares apply to crypto, with some additional considerations.

What counts as a disposal

Every time you sell, exchange, or use cryptocurrency, it is a disposal for CGT purposes. This includes:

• Selling crypto for euro or any other fiat currency
• Exchanging one cryptocurrency for another (e.g. Bitcoin to Ethereum)
• Using crypto to pay for goods or services

Each of these events triggers a CGT calculation. The gain or loss is based on the euro value at the time of disposal compared to the euro value when you acquired the asset.

Crypto income vs. CGT

Some crypto events are treated as income rather than capital gains. Airdrops, staking rewards, and mining income are typically taxed as income at your marginal income tax rate when received. If you later sell those assets, CGT applies on any gain above the value at which they were received.

Due to the high volume of transactions involved in crypto trading, tracking disposals manually is extremely difficult. Submyt's Core Plus plan includes a Koinly license for dedicated crypto tax tracking.

How to file and pay

Many people assume that filing a CGT return is complicated. In practice, the hard part is the calculations: FIFO matching, 28-day rule detection, foreign currency conversions, loss tracking across years. Once you have accurate numbers, the filing itself is straightforward. You fill in a form with the figures from your tax summary and submit it to Revenue.

Paying CGT

CGT is paid through Revenue's myAccount (for most PAYE employees) or through ROS, the Revenue Online Service (for self-assessed taxpayers). You can pay by debit card, credit card, or bank transfer. Remember: payment is due in December and January, before you file the return.

Filing your return

There are two main ways to file:

• CG1 form: The most common route for PAYE employees. You can download the CG1 form from Revenue, complete it, and submit it by uploading through the "My Enquiries" section of myAccount or by posting it via Freepost.
• Form 11 via ROS: For self-assessed taxpayers. This is filed digitally through ROS. Registration requires a digital certificate from Revenue, which takes time to set up if you have not used it before.

Citizens Information provides a helpful overview of the filing process if you need additional guidance beyond what Revenue offers.

Common mistakes

These are the errors we see most often from people managing their own CGT:

• Using average cost instead of FIFO. Most brokers show an average cost per share. Ireland does not use average costing. You must apply FIFO.
• Missing the December payment deadline. Many people assume CGT is due when you file your return (October). It is not. Payment is due in December of the year you made the gain.
• Not declaring losses. If you made losses but did not declare them to Revenue, you cannot carry them forward. Always file, even when you only have losses.
• Ignoring currency conversion. If your shares are priced in US dollars, both the buy and sell must be converted to euro at the ECB rate on each date. This is easy to overlook and can meaningfully affect your gain.
• Not realising crypto swaps are disposals. Exchanging Bitcoin for Ethereum is a taxable event. Many people only think of CGT when they convert to euro.
• Confusing income tax and CGT on employee equity. RSU vesting triggers income tax. Selling the shares later triggers CGT. They are separate events with separate calculations.