Before you begin
What the comparison depends on
A fund and a shareholding are taxed on different principles in Ireland: when tax is charged, on what and at which rate all differ between the two routes, and Budget 2027 changed the rates on both. Which route leaves more depends on how much of your return arrives as income rather than growth, how long you hold, and what rate your last euro of income attracts, and the comparison works that through for your own money. Budget 2027 also confirmed the Investment Account as a possible third route. How its charge is measured waits on Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026, so this tool does not price the account yet.
Split the return you expect into growth and income rather than entering one total. That split is what the comparison turns on: income is taxed every year outside a fund and not at all inside one.
An accumulating ETF pays you nothing, but the underlying holdings still generate income and it still compounds inside the fund. Enter the yield of what the fund holds, not zero.
The holding period is until you sell everything. Stopping at year seven and stopping at year nine are very different answers, because the first eight-year charge falls between them.
Your income figure is only used to find the rate on your next euro of dividend income. Nothing about it is kept.
Put the fund's real ongoing charge in rather than leaving the default. It is on the key information document, and the result shows whether the difference in charges or the difference in tax is deciding your comparison.
PRSI on unearned income turns on the total, not on this holding alone. If you have rent or deposit interest, enter it, because PRSI on the dividends here depends on it.
Reading the answer
Reading the gap between the two routes
The headline is the difference between two after-tax outcomes for identical money. Treat a small gap as noise, and set it beside what a modest difference in ongoing charges would do to the same money.
The break-even income yield is the number worth remembering. It is where the fund's shelter on distributions and the cost of the eight-year charge weigh the same, and the result says which side of it your holding sits on, and so which route your expected income favours.
The result prices the eight-year charge against the same fund charged only at exit, which isolates what the rule really costs your money rather than what its rate suggests.
If you contribute regularly, the result shows how the eight-year rule falls across your contributions and what that does to the gap between the two routes.
The Investment Account is not a third column here yet. Budget 2027 published its threshold, rate and cap, but not how the value its charge falls on is measured, and that decides the answer for anyone near the threshold. The two routes below already carry Budget 2027's own changes to exit tax and Capital Gains Tax.
Losses do not behave symmetrically between the two routes, and this comparison is built on positive returns. The treatment checker says what happens to a loss under your fund's regime, so read a losing scenario with that beside it.
If you would pay the eight-year charge from savings, the section on what the rule costs is the one to read. Leaving the units alone means every euro of it comes back as credit at disposal, so in cash terms the rule costs nothing and its whole cost is having handed the money over years early.
Read the charges section beside the tax one. Where the difference in ongoing charges is bigger than the difference in tax, the charges are deciding the comparison and the tax arithmetic above them is the smaller half of the answer.
Common questions
Common fund and share tax questions
What is the new Investment Account, and will it change this?
Budget 2027 confirmed the Investment Account from the retail investment Roadmap, with a tax treatment of its own. The comparison adds it as a route once Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026 settles how it is charged, and until then its result states the announced terms.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
Why does this tool not include the Investment Account yet?
Because one rule that decides the answer has not been published. Budget 2027 set the threshold, the rate and the yearly limit, but not how the value the charge falls on is measured, a figure on one day or an average across the year, or how withdrawals are treated. Those come in Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026, and a route priced on a guessed rule would put a confident number on a guess.
Is exit tax simply worse than Capital Gains Tax?
It turns on the mix of income and growth in your return and how long you hold. The comparison works out which route leaves your holding with more.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
I contribute monthly. Do I get one deemed disposal or many?
That depends on how the eight-year rule counts a holding built up month by month. The tool lists the year each charge falls for your contributions.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
How do I know which regime my ETF falls under?
The fund's domicile and legal form settle it, and Revenue now expects investors to establish that product by product. The treatment checker works through it from the fund's factsheet and tells you the regime.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
Is dividend withholding tax an extra charge on top?
It hinges on where the dividend comes from and how withholding is set against your final liability. The comparison covers Irish dividends and its result shows how the withholding was counted for you.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
Am I taxed twice on the same gain?
It rests on what becomes of a deemed disposal charge when you finally sell. The calculator shows each charge and how it counts against the tax on a sale, and the comparison shows what the rule costs your holding.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.
Does the new Investment Account get rid of deemed disposal?
It comes down to how the account's rules, still being settled in Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026, apply to your money. The checkers say what the existing rules charge on your holding today, and the comparison states the account's announced terms.
Get a result above and the full answer opens here.