So what happens to your contributions

Zambia

I would have been paying tax in Ireland for years in line of course to receive an Irish state pension.

Now when you migrate can you get that money in any way shape or form?

Legend100

Ireland has a bilateral agreement with australia in relation to social security contributions.

It is one of the more complex areas of international tax which is not easily expalined on here.

for a start - see http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Bilateral-Agreements---Guidelines-on-Application-of-Bilatera.aspx#claims

You can't get the contribtions back per se but there is pension entitlements that can be availed of. If you never intend going back home then it may be worth your while seeking some professional advice on it for your later years.

unfortunatley you may be exlusively limited to the Big 4 accounting firms for this kind of info as they have specialist mobile worker departments (I would assume the australian branches will have similar departments that could advise). I say unfortunately as it would not be cheap

Zambia

Legend100 wrote: »

Ireland has a bilateral agreement with australia in relation to social security contributions.

It is one of the more complex areas of international tax which is not easily expalined on here.

for a start - see http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Bilateral-Agreements---Guidelines-on-Application-of-Bilatera.aspx#claims

You can't get the contribtions back per se but there is pension entitlements that can be availed of. If you never intend going back home then it may be worth your while seeking some professional advice on it for your later years.

unfortunatley you may be exlusively limited to the Big 4 accounting firms for this kind of info as they have specialist mobile worker departments (I would assume the australian branches will have similar departments that could advise). I say unfortunately as it would not be cheap

My reading of that is due to the bi lateral your contributions are taken into account by the ato.

So you claim in Australia for years in both countries.

Legend100

It's not quite as simple as that (as it depends entirely on personal circumstances including things like number of contributions & no of year service and others) but at a basic level, yeah that is what would happen

Peregrinus

Legend100 wrote: »

It's not quite as simple as that (as it depends entirely on personal circumstances including things like number of contributions & no of year service and others) but at a basic level, yeah that is what would happen

But Australia doesn't provide a contributions-based old-age pension or retirement pension. There is an age pension, but it's means-tested.

So if you contribute for years in Ireland, and then relocate to Australia and, when you retire, you have enough means to disqualify you from the age pension, what do you get in return for your Irish contributions? Nothing?

Legend100

You can still get a reduced irish pension (in certain circumstance) but will more than likely be non contributory. Again can't highlight enough how much of this is down to the specific individual situation in question as your social welfare contribution history is what determines alot of it.

I agree that the ireland aus bilateral agreement isn't the most advantageous to migrants but there are certain benefits it does bring (most notably its existence at all as Ireland is so weak on the number of non EU bilateral social security agreements it is scary!!!)

When I was in practice back home, I would mainly have been looking at it from the perspective of those who emigrated and returned after long periods away and what was their entitlement to Irish state benefits. As for the accrual of pension rights in Australia, I guess it isn't quite the same given that super is compulsory for employers and people are encouraged not to live off the state when they retire.