Online Investing Tax in Ireland: How Savings, ETFs, Shares and Dividends Are Taxed

If you’ve opened an investment or savings account in the last few years e.g. with Degiro, eToro, Lightyear, Trading 212, or a savings platform like Raisin or Trade Republic, you’re in good company. Huge numbers of Irish people now save and invest through an app.

Here’s the part people miss at sign-up: your platform doesn’t handle your Irish tax. Your Irish tax owed is not always taken off the interest when an EU savings platform pays you. Your Irish Capital Gains Tax is not deducted when you sell shares at a profit. Nobody calculates what you owe on your ETFs. Declaring it is your job.

That sentence is where the dread usually starts. So let’s replace the dread with a plan. This guide takes each type of income in turn, including interest on your savings, shares, ETFs and dividends, and shows how each is taxed, and finishes with the question that matters most: do you actually need to file a return? By the end, you’ll know exactly where you stand.

The golden rule: your platform files nothing to Revenue for you

No matter where your investment platform is based, the position is the same: it gives you an annual statement, and everything after that is between you and Revenue. Many platforms and banks report to the Revenue, so it’s possible that the Irish Revenue can see your earnings even ahead of you filing. Declaring any income is your responsibility.

1. Interest on your savings

Three similar situations that are taxed differently:

• Interest from an Irish bank. DIRT at 33% is deducted before the interest reaches you. For most people there’s nothing more to do.
• Interest from an EU bank or savings platform (Raisin, Trade Republic’s cash interest, N26 and the like). No Irish tax is deducted at source. Usually the gross interest lands in your account and declaring it is up to you. Some foreign tax may be deducted, and you will likely be able to claim this as a credit against your Irish tax owed. As long as you declare it on time, it’s taxed at 33% i.e. the same as DIRT, so you’re taxed the same as with an Irish bank while often accessing higher interest rates. File late, though, and it can instead be taxed at your marginal rate, up to 40% plus USC.
• Money market fund (for example Lightyear’s EUR yield or Trading 212’s cash options). These types of investments are often operated as UCITS and may come under the Offshore Funds regime. If no Irish tax is deducted, then the income earned has to be declared in your Irish tax return and will be liable at the current rate of tax for the tax year in question.

See more: The Ultimate Guide to Tax on Foreign Savings and Raisin Accounts

2. Shares: Capital Gains Tax (CGT)

Sell shares for more than you paid and the profit is a capital gain, taxed at 33%.

The good news first:

• Your first €1,270 of gains each year is exempt.
• Losses can be offset against gains, either this year’s or carried forward.

The catch that surprises everyone: CGT payment deadlines don’t match the tax return deadline. Gains made January–November are payable by 15 December of the same year; December gains by 31 January. The paperwork comes later.

Example: Sarah bought €5,000 of Ryanair shares and sold them for €8,000. Gain: €3,000. Minus the €1,270 exemption = €1,730 taxable. CGT at 33% = €570.90.

Three watch-outs:

• The €1,270 exemption is per person and can’t be transferred. A married couple can’t pool it against one spouse’s gain.
• The four-week rule: sell at a loss and buy the same shares back within four weeks, and that loss can only be used against a future gain on those same shares, not your other gains. These are known as bed & breakfast transactions.
• Buying and selling in dollars? The gain is worked out in euro, so currency movement alone can create (or shrink) a taxable gain.

Find Out More about CGT here.

3. ETFs: a completely different (and stricter) regime

This is the section that catches people out most, because ETFs look like shares but are taxed nothing like them.

Most ETFs available to Irish investors (Irish- and EU-domiciled UCITS funds, which are nearly everything on Degiro, Lightyear, Trade Republic and Trading 212) fall under the exit-tax regime:

• Gains are taxed at 38% (reduced from 41% in Budget 2026) not 33%.
• No €1,270 annual exemption.
• No loss relief – a loss on one ETF cannot be offset against a gain on another. Each fund stands alone; on partial sales, units are matched first-in-first-out.
• And the big one: deemed disposal – every 8 years, Revenue taxes your gains as if you’d sold, even if you haven’t sold anything.

Deemed disposal deserves its own guide, and we’ve written one: ETF Deemed Disposal Explained (Without the Jargon)

If you invest directly in equities e.g. ordinary shares, these rules don’t apply as they stay under normal CGT. US-domiciled ETFs have mostly been unavailable to EU retail investors since 2018.

You may have read that deemed disposal is being scrapped. Not just yet although the Government’s own review recommended changes and Budget 2026 cut the rate, but the rule still applies today. This area is moving; we track it so you don’t have to. And like always, FastTax.ie helps ensure everything is declared correctly.

4. Dividends: taxed like income, not gains

Dividends are income, taxed at your marginal rate of income tax (20% or 40%) plus USC + PRSI.

Two wrinkles worth knowing:

• Irish dividends arrive with 25% Dividend Withholding Tax already taken off. You declare the gross amount and get full credit for the 25% withheld.
• US dividends (think Apple or Microsoft on eToro) usually arrive with 15% US tax withheld, provided your platform had you sign a W-8BEN at sign-up which most do. That 15% is creditable against your Irish liability, so you’re not taxed twice but you must declare the income to claim it. No W-8BEN means 30% withheld, and generally only the 15% treaty rate is creditable here; the balance has to be reclaimed from the IRS, which nobody enjoys.

So do YOU need to file a Form 11?

You’re generally required to register for self-assessment and file a Form 11 if:

• Your net non-PAYE income (dividends, interest, rent and so on) is €5,000 or more in a year, or
• Your gross non-PAYE income is €30,000 or more, even if the net is small, or
• You have opened a new foreign bank account, and then must file a Form 11 the following year, or
• You have an ETF chargeable event of a sale or an 8-year deemed disposal. An exit-tax event usually puts you into Form 11 territory.

Deadlines for 2025 income: 18^th November 2026 if you file and pay through ROS or FastTax.ie. Filing correctly ensures you remain fully compliant with Revenue.

In summary

Different types of online income are taxed differently:

• Irish savings: DIRT deducted automatically
• Foreign savings: declare via tax return
• Shares: 33% CGT on gains
• Dividends: taxed as income
• ETFs: 41% exit tax

If you’ve read our breakdown above and your main feeling is “I just want this handled as easily as possible” that’s exactly what we built. With FastTax.ie you answer plain-English questions in our guided tool, typing in the handful of numbers from your annual statement. It takes minutes, not a weekend. Then for plans 2 + 3, a qualified tax expert reviews everything before it’s filed. Done for another year from €145, a fraction of what an accountant charges.

FastTax.ie is designed specifically for people earning income beyond a standard Irish salary. We help you declare:

• Foreign savings interest
• Online investment income
• Dividends
• ETF gains

Our guided system helps you complete your tax return safely and confidently, without accountant fees or the hassle of Revenue’s ROS. Free up your time and resources to focus on your gains!

Using Raisin, Trade Republic, Trading 212 or other online platforms?

FastTax.ie helps you file correctly and stay fully compliant. Get started today.