Remittances Concept

I'm thinking about moving back to Ireland from the US. Have been away for 15 years. I have a bank account with about $160K in it - accumulated over as number of years.

I read about remittances and was wondering what this means? If I bring this money back into Ireland do I now have to pay income tax on it? This seems very unfair as I earned it a number of years ago and paid US taxes on it?

Or do you only pay Irish taxes on money that you remit and earned in the year?

I was born in Ireland but lived abroad for 15 years and don't want to live there permanently again

Capital brought into Ireland is not taxable.

Remittance basis applies to Irish resident, non-domiciled/not ordinarily resident individuals who are not taxable on foreign sourced income unless it is remitted.

As Domo points out, funds accumulated by you while you have been in the US will not be subject to Irish income tax if remitted into the country. One thing you should watch though is that if your US account is interest bearing you should transfer funds accumulated prior to your return to Ireland to a separate account. Otherwise if interest is earned on the account after your return to Ireland you will have a mixed fund account and any remittances from that account will be considered to come first from the interest earned post arrival in Ireland and that portion will be taxable.

Also worth considering is how to actually move funds back from the US. You could try the US banks who offer terrible exchange rates and high fees, you could try transfermate.com or xe who will allow you to either a. lock in exchange rates or at least get a better rate when you do convert

Agree with Breninio.