Sir, – In her article on the booming housing market in the North, Freya McClements quotes a Northern housing expert puzzled by the lack of interest in properties from Southern buyers who can’t get a house in Dublin. “Why are they not living in Newry and commuting down?” he asks (“North relocation which began during Covid-19 slowing but ongoing”, News, August 20th).
The answer is that living in one country and working in another gives rise to complications in tax, banking, expenditure and social welfare arrangements which are best avoided.
Our Newry couple working in Dublin would be paying income tax in the Republic but will need to declare this on a UK tax form and the double-taxation treaty will not cover any investment, inheritance or rental income they receive in the UK.
The tax year starts in January in the Republic but April in the UK, adding to complications on reporting made worse if one partner is working in a different jurisdiction to the other.
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Future pension arrangements will be complicated if there is a mixture of PRSI and UK national insurance contributions.
They will need separate sterling and euro bank accounts and will be juggling funds between them to pay UK council tax and UK road tax and insurance on their Northern-registered car. They will lose value every time they make a currency conversion.
The common travel area makes it easy to move around the island, but it’s more complicated when you take residency in one country on the island and work in the other. – Yours, etc,
KENNETH HARPER,
Burtonport,
Co Donegal.