Any tax liability on overseas personal injury claim ?

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Two years ago my wife and I were involved in a car accident while on holidays in Australia. Recently our solicitor in australia has (finally) settled our case and we have been awarded damages and out of pocket medical expenses totaling the AU$ equivalent of about €30,000. My wife is an australian citizen so this is currently sitting in her Australian bank account.

Are damages resulting from an out of court settlement in Ireland taxable ?
If not would the fact that the settlement originated overseas make any difference ?
 
Any use?

[broken link removed]

You might want to get independent, professional tax advice.
 
Thank you Clubman, I had searched the Revenue website but obviously not as thouroughly as I thought.

According to the link you provided we dont seem to qualify for exemption here however It appears we are exempt in Australia (according to our solicitor) possibly because we are not resident for tax purposes there.

It looks like i will just have to use it to buy something like [broken link removed]
 
Just because you may be exempt from tax in Oz doesn't actually mean that keeping the money over there makes you exempt from tax here if that's what you're seriously suggesting! If I was you I'd get professional advice.
 
the compensation payment is free of income tax, however any interest/income therefreom is taxable.
 
Thanks guys, I spoke to a friend of a friend today who works in revenue and have been advised that this money would be treated as a capital amount and as such is not taxable - as Ravima says any income that derives from that capital would be taxable in the normal way.

Thanks for your help.
 
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