Finance (No. 2) Act 2008 amended the tax residence rules for the tax year 2009 and subsequent tax years, so that an individual shall be deemed to be present in the State for a day if the individual is present in the State at any time during that day. eBrief No. 3/09 provides further guidance on the change in rule.

Previously the residence rule was that an individual was resident in the State if he or she was present in the State at midnight.

eBrief No. 3/09 provides guidance in the following areas:

• An individual will not be regarded as being present in the State for any period during which he or she arrives in, and departs from, the State and throughout which he or she remains “airside”.
• An individual will not be regarded as being present in the State for tax residence purposes for the day after the intended day of departure provided the individual is unavoidably present in the State on that day due only to ‘force majeure’ circumstances, i.e.
  • where the individual is prevented from leaving the State on his or her intended day of departure because of extraordinary natural occurrences (for example, sudden and severe adverse weather conditions) or
  • an exceptional third party failure or action (for example, the breakdown of an aircraft or a labour strike) – none of which could reasonably have been foreseen and avoided.

In addition, eBrief provides guidance where a person is resident in the State for a tax year and is also a resident in a country with which Ireland has a tax treaty (under the laws of that country) for the same tax year-the operation of the standard “tie-break” provision in the tax treaty should ensure that the individual is deemed for the purposes of the treaty to be a resident of only one of the countries.

eBrief No. 3/2009 is reproduced at Section 2.02.