Irish National declaring Non-Residency & Foreign Bank Account

Hi all,
I am an Irish national living abroad in Turkey for the last 1.5 years. I will be starting work soon here for a Turkish company.

I would like to know how to declare non-resident status to the tax office? (do I just telephone them to tell them or is there forms involved?) Also is it possible for them to backdate this status for the last 1.5 years? (I haven't contacted them up to now). I assume this is a necessary declaration and I only have been home for about 3 weeks in total each year since leaving.

Also I have setup bank accounts here in Turkey - do I also need to declare these and again how do I do this? I have no income to my Turkish account yet except a 6,000 Euro cash deposit from my own savings. However I have also received a bank transfer from Ireland to my Turkish account (a loan from my family). Do I need to tell the tax office about these also and are there any implications for transferring money between Irish/Turkish accounts?

Sorry if my questions may be quite simple - I'd still really appreciate any advice from any of you about the above - I am a bit worried about ringing the tax office in case I have left this too late for them.

Thanks in advance,

Anything useful here?

Travel & Residence Matters

write to your local tax office (in Ireland) and notify them that you left the country on XX/XX/2006 and you are currently resident in Turkey. They should treat you as non-resident from the date of departure and if your turkish bank accounts were opened after that date (and the revenue consider you non-resident) there would no disclosure requirements, and no tax implications.

You haven't done anything wrong (other than not telling them sooner but there's no immediate implications for that) so don't be afraid to contact the revenue, assuming you've nothing to hide of course!!!

Regards

podowd
www.prima.ie

Thank you both for your replies and advice!

podowd -
I have one question about the letter - As I am obviously a non-resident I will certainly follow your advice and send this to my local tax office.

As you mention in your post, 'there would no disclosure requirements, and no tax implications'. By this do you mean that in the letter I should or should not also inform them of my Turkish bank account details at the same time (account number etc.)? Or is there no need because they only need to know that I am non-resident so it doesn't matter to them after that?

I vaguely remember seeing some kind of ad from the tax office in the paper the last time I was home - something like 'you must declare all bank accounts to the tax office' or something similar. That's why I'm wondering if I might need to do this too.

Thanks - I haven't anything to hide but would prefer to let them know only what's necessary rather than what they don't really need!