Domicile vs residence: the short answer
Residence is about the present. Because tax residency is decided country by country under each country's own test, you can be resident in 2 countries, in 1 or in none, and the answer can change every year.
Domicile, in the common-law sense used in the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Australia and the US, is the country you treat as your permanent home. Everyone has a domicile at all times, nobody has 2 for the same purpose, and an existing domicile is presumed to continue until a new one is proven (HMRC, RDRM20080).
Residence and common-law domicile compared. Sources: HMRC, Revenue (Ireland) and others listed under Sources.
| Residence | Domicile (common law) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it asks | Where do you live this year? | Which country is your permanent home? |
| How many you can have | None, 1 or several | Exactly 1 for a given purpose |
| How you get it | Days, a home, family or work ties, under each country's test | At birth (domicile of origin), or by settling somewhere for good (domicile of choice) |
| How you lose it | Fail the country's test, usually by leaving | Origin: only by gaining a domicile of choice. Choice: also by leaving for good, which in UK law revives your domicile of origin; elsewhere it can last until a new one replaces it (HMRC, RDRM22300) |
| What it decides in 2026 | Income tax, and residence under tax treaties | Narrow questions: foreign income in Ireland and Malta, Cyprus's defence contribution, Australian residence, US estate tax for non-citizens |
What domicile means: origin, choice and proof
You get a domicile of origin at birth, usually your father's domicile, and you keep it unless you gain a new one, Revenue in Ireland explains. Gaining a domicile of choice takes clear evidence that you intend to live permanently in the new country and not return to live in your domicile of origin.
The law leans toward the domicile you already have. Whoever claims a change must prove it on the balance of probabilities, and replacing a domicile of origin is the hardest change to prove (HMRC, RDRM20080). People the law treats as unable to choose, such as children, get a domicile of dependence (HMRC, RDRM22200), and a child's follows a parent's (HMRC, RDRM22210).
Domicile in civil-law countries means where you live
In civil-law countries the word has no domicile of origin behind it. Domicile there is the residence test itself, built on a home, a main place of stay or your economic center, and it moves when you do:
- France. You are domiciled in France for tax if your home or main place of stay is there, if you work there, or if France is the center of your economic interests (PwC France).
- Germany. You have a Wohnsitz, the German domicile, wherever you hold an apartment you are likely to keep and use (AO, section 8).
- Switzerland. A tax domicile is where you stay with the intention of remaining permanently (DBG, article 3).
Where domicile still decides your tax in 2026
These are the tax systems where domicile, in the common-law sense of a permanent home, still decides something:
Where domicile still counts, checked October 12, 2026. Sources listed under Sources.
| Country | What domicile decides in 2026 |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Almost nothing since April 6, 2025: inheritance tax follows 10 of the last 20 years of residence, and domicile survives only in transitional rules and in inheritance tax treaties that use it |
| Ireland | Whether foreign income is taxed only when brought in, and the €200,000 (about $228,000) domicile levy |
| Malta | Whether foreign income is taxed only when brought in, with a €5,000 (about $5,690) minimum tax once foreign income reaches €35,000 (about $39,800) |
| Cyprus | Whether a resident pays the defence contribution on dividends and interest |
| Australia | Residence itself, unless your permanent place of abode is abroad |
| United States | Estate tax for non-citizens, and income tax in states such as New York |
United Kingdom: residence replaced domicile in April 2025
The UK was the best-known domicile system and is not one anymore. From April 6, 2025, domicile stopped being a connecting factor in UK tax and a system based on tax residence took its place (HMRC, RDRM20080); on the income tax side, that change ended non-dom status in the UK.
Inheritance tax moved furthest. You are now a long-term UK resident once you have been UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years, whatever your common-law domicile, and UK inheritance tax then follows you abroad: for 3 tax years after 10 to 13 years of residence, rising by 1 tax year for each further year of residence up to 10 (HMRC, IHTM47020).
Source: HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM47020: long-term UK residence test
Show the numbers
| Tax years in scope after leaving | |
|---|---|
| 10 to 13 years | 3 |
| 14 years | 4 |
| 15 years | 5 |
| 16 years | 6 |
| 17 years | 7 |
| 18 years | 8 |
| 19 years | 9 |
| 20 years | 10 |
Domicile still counts for people who had already left. If you were non-UK resident in 2025-26, your domicile on October 30, 2024 decides the transitional rules: neither domiciled nor deemed domiciled in the UK then, and you are outside UK inheritance tax on foreign assets while you stay non-resident; deemed domiciled then, and you stay in scope until the start of your 4th year of non-residence (HMRC, IHTM47021). It also survives for some trusts settled by that date and in inheritance tax treaties that use it (HMRC, IHTM47001).
Leaving the UK does not end inheritance tax right away
Someone who lived in the UK for 15 years and moves to Dubai in 2026 stays in scope for 5 more tax years under the long-term residence test. Income tax residence ends much sooner, so a will, a gift or a trust set up just after the move is still a UK inheritance tax question.
Ireland: domicile decides how foreign income is taxed
Ireland runs both tests side by side. You are resident with 183 days in a tax year, or 280 days across that year and the one before as long as you spend more than 30 days in the year itself (Revenue), and your domicile then decides how far Irish tax reaches abroad.
A resident who is not domiciled in Ireland pays Irish tax on income from foreign investments and other foreign possessions only to the extent it is brought into Ireland, whether or not they have become ordinarily resident (Revenue, Tax and Duty Manual Part 05-01-21a). That is the remittance basis for non-domiciled residents, and it is why 2 Irish residents with the same foreign income can owe very different Irish tax.
Domicile also carries a charge of its own that residence cannot switch off: Irish-domiciled people with worldwide income over €1,000,000 (about $1,140,000) and Irish property over €5,000,000 (about $5,690,000) may owe a domicile levy of up to €200,000 (about $228,000) a year, after offsetting the Irish income tax they paid, Revenue sets out. Residence is not a condition, so the levy reaches Irish-domiciled people living abroad.
| Worldwide income for the yearOver €1,000,000 | €2,000,000 (about $2,280,000) |
|---|---|
| Irish property on December 31Over €5,000,000; mortgages not deducted | €6,000,000 (about $6,830,000) |
| Irish income tax paid for the yearUnder €200,000 | €40,000 (about $45,500) |
| Domicile levy before the offset | €200,000 (about $228,000) |
| Offset for Irish income tax paidUniversal Social Charge cannot be offset | €40,000 (about $45,500) |
| Levy due by October 31 of the next year | €160,000 (about $182,000) |
Illustrative figures. Shares in certain trading companies are left out of Irish property, Revenue notes.
Malta: domicile decides the tax on foreign income
Malta taxes residents on worldwide income only when they are both domiciled and ordinarily resident there. A resident who is not domiciled in Malta pays tax on Maltese income and on foreign income brought into Malta, but not on foreign capital gains even when they are brought in, PwC's Malta summary notes. With €35,000 (about $39,800) or more of foreign income in the previous year, a non-domiciled resident owes at least €5,000 (about $5,690) of Maltese tax, PwC adds.
Cyprus: domicile decides the defence contribution
Cyprus makes you resident under its 183-day or 60-day rule (PwC Cyprus, residence), then uses domicile for 1 charge: the special defence contribution (SDC) on dividends and interest falls only on people who are both tax resident and domiciled in Cyprus (PwC Cyprus).
Domicile of origin is acquired at birth, and someone without a Cypriot domicile of origin counts as domiciled for SDC only after being tax resident for at least 17 of the 20 years before the tax year, PwC's Cyprus summary notes. For anyone moving in from abroad, that window is what Cyprus non-dom status is built on, and since 2026 it can be extended for up to 2 more 5-year periods at €250,000 (about $284,000) per period, KPMG Cyprus reports.
Cyprus and Ireland treat a non-domiciled resident's investment income differently: Cyprus exempts dividends and interest from the defence contribution whether or not the money reaches Cyprus, while Ireland taxes foreign investment income once it is brought in, so comparing Cyprus and Ireland at your own income turns on how much of that income you need to spend where you live.
Australia: domicile can make you resident
Australia uses domicile to decide residence itself. Besides people who live there and the 183-day test, you are resident if your domicile is in Australia, unless you have a permanent place of abode outside Australia, PwC's Australia summary states.
That rule catches leavers. A nomad with an Australian domicile and no fixed base abroad has no permanent place of abode outside Australia, because moving from country to country without a fixed or habitual home does not create one, PBL Law Group explains. So leaving Australia for tax means settling somewhere, not only spending the year away.
United States: domicile decides estate tax for non-citizens
US federal income tax follows citizenship and residence: citizens and resident aliens owe it on worldwide income wherever they live (IRS). Estate tax for non-citizens turns on domicile instead: a non-citizen who dies counts as a nonresident for US estate tax according to domicile at death, a nonresident's US estate covers only US-situated assets, and Form 706-NA is due once those assets plus adjusted taxable gifts exceed $60,000 (IRS).
Long stays can tip the balance. Living in the US, even briefly, with no definite present intention of leaving creates a US domicile (26 CFR 20.0-1), so a non-citizen settled in Miami with no plan to leave can have the estate taxed as a resident's, not only on US assets.
Some states use domicile for income tax as well. New York keeps your domicile until clear and convincing evidence shows you abandoned it and set up a new one; registering to vote elsewhere is not enough (New York's tax department). Without a New York domicile you can still be a statutory resident, with a permanent place of abode in the state for substantially all of the year and 184 days or more there (New York's tax department). Leaving the country does not end a state domicile for income tax by itself; it ends only when you set up a new domicile somewhere else.
How tax treaties handle domicile and residence
Tax treaties work on residence, whatever word a country's own law uses. Under Article 4(1) of the OECD Model Tax Convention, you are resident for the treaty if a country's law taxes you by reason of domicile, residence or a similar criterion, so a French tax domicile and an Irish residence count alike.
When 2 countries both claim you, you have dual tax residency, and the treaty's tie-breaker rules pick 1 in a fixed order: permanent home, center of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, then agreement between the 2 tax authorities (OECD Model, Article 4(2)). Common-law domicile is not a step in that order, and the result leaves your domicile under each country's law unchanged.
How to change your domicile
Domicile changes only when the facts and your intention change together, and the burden of proving both is yours.
An Irish nomad's domicile, 2 ways
A new domicile is arguable
Aoife, whose father was Irish-domiciled when she was born, sells her Cork house, buys an apartment in Lisbon, moves her family there, writes a Portuguese will and plans to retire there. Her facts and her intention point the same way.
Still Irish-domiciled
Aoife spends 8 years moving between Lisbon, Bali and Mexico City, keeps the Cork house for visits and expects to end up back home. She stopped being Irish resident years ago, but her Irish domicile of origin never moved.
Evidence that supports a new domicile
- A home in the new country that you own or hold on a long lease, and the old home sold or rented to an unrelated tenant.
- Long-term or permanent residence status there, and in time its citizenship.
- A will made under the new country's law, and retirement plans there.
- Your business, bank accounts and doctors moved, and memberships at home ended.
- Forms and statements that say the same thing every time: you live there for good.
Who needs to think about domicile
Domicile is worth your attention if:
- You are leaving the common-law country of your domicile of origin, such as Ireland or Australia, where domicile can keep a claim on you, or the UK, where long residence does.
- You are moving to Ireland, Malta or Cyprus with investment income, where being non-domiciled changes the tax on it.
- You are a non-citizen spending long stretches in the US, where domicile decides how much of your estate is taxed.
- You are writing a will or planning gifts, since estate taxes are where domicile, or the UK long-residence test, bites hardest.
It barely matters if you come from a civil-law country and move between others, such as Portugal, Spain or Georgia, where residence is the test that counts.
David's note
I would settle residence first, because it decides your income tax every year, and treat domicile as a question for 2 moments: the year you move to Ireland, Malta or Cyprus with investment income, and the day you write your will. If your domicile of origin is in a common-law country (usually your father's domicile when you were born), assume you still have it until you have built the evidence that says otherwise.
