PAYE Exclusion Orders: working abroad for an Irish employer

If you work abroad for an Irish employer and are non-resident, a PAYE Exclusion Order lets your employer stop deducting Irish income tax and USC.

An Irish employer must normally run PAYE on everything it pays you, wherever you work. You may be posted abroad for a long stretch and stop being Irish resident. Then tax may be deducted here on income Ireland can't tax. A PAYE Exclusion Order is Revenue's certificate telling your employer not to deduct income tax or USC from your pay.

When one can be issued

All of these must apply:

• your employer is Irish
• you carry out all the duties of the job abroad, apart from incidental duties in Ireland of up to 30 days a year
• you will be non-resident in Ireland for the tax year: see the residence tests

An Irish employer paying a work pension to a former employee can also apply. The former employee must now live in a country with a tax treaty with Ireland. Directors of Irish companies are generally taxed here wherever they live, so orders are rarely issued for them unless a tax treaty exempts the income.

Applying

Your employer applies, online through ROS or myAccount, or on paper, which is slower. Revenue needs your name and PPSN, a letter confirming how long you will work abroad, the country, and your foreign address. Until the order is granted, your employer keeps operating PAYE on your Revenue Payroll Notification as usual.

What it does

• your employer stops deducting income tax and USC
• it may cover a full tax year or part of one, and has an expiry date
• if you are still abroad and non-resident at that date, your employer can apply for an extension
• it ends when you come back to work in Ireland, and normal PAYE resumes

PRSI is separate

The order doesn't cover PRSI. Depending on where you work and for how long, your employer may still have to deduct Irish PRSI and pay employer PRSI. That keeps you insured here. The Department of Social Protection decides this. If you want to keep paying Irish PRSI, for example to protect your State pension record, your employer should contact the Department.

If you don't need one

Some employees don't need an order: those recruited abroad who live and work only abroad, aren't directors and owe no Irish tax. The employer leaves them off Irish payroll. If you work abroad but stay Irish resident, an exclusion order isn't available; look instead at Transborder Workers' Relief or the Foreign Earnings Deduction.

Work it out

• PAYE calculator →
• Take-home pay →

Sources

• Revenue: Cumulative basis (weekly credits and cut-off points, worked examples) (checked 16/10/2026)

General information, not tax advice. HeyPenny is not a tax agent.