SARP after 2026: Ireland’s €125,000 relief for inbound executives

The relief for bringing talent in, not taking capital out

SARP is the one relief in this cluster that works in the opposite direction to the others: it reduces the income tax of an executive relocating into Ireland, rather than the capital gains tax of a founder taking value out. The rest of the cluster is about exit and extraction, how an owner sells the business under Revised Entrepreneur Relief, passes it to family under Retirement Relief, or draws surplus cash out through the employer pension route. SARP is the inbound side of the same corridor: the tool a company uses to bring senior talent into Ireland and make the move financially worthwhile.

It matters here because the businesses this cluster is written for are the ones that both create founder wealth and hire expensive executives, and because SARP changed from 1 January 2026 in a way that narrows who can use it. The programme was extended to run to the end of 2030, which gives certainty, but the entry salary rose from €100,000 to €125,000, which excludes a band of mid-level managers who would previously have qualified. This article sets out what the relief does, the new threshold, the conditions, and the certification and reporting mechanics that decide whether the relief is actually delivered.

What SARP actually does: 30% off the top

SARP exempts 30% of an inbound employee's employment income above a lower threshold from income tax, subject to an upper limit, for up to five consecutive years. The mechanism is a disregard: where a qualifying employee earns above the lower threshold, 30% of the income between that threshold and an upper limit of €1 million is disregarded for income tax purposes. On a €300,000 salary with a €125,000 threshold, roughly 30% of €175,000, about €52,500, is taken out of the income tax charge, which at the higher rate is a meaningful annual saving for the executive.

Two limits on the relief are important. The relief is from income tax only: the Universal Social Charge and PRSI are still due on the full income, so SARP reduces but does not remove the Irish tax on a large salary. And the relief runs for a maximum of five consecutive tax years from the year of arrival, so it is a time-limited incentive to relocate rather than a permanent feature of being employed in Ireland. It is designed to smooth the cost of the move for the first few years, on the assumption that the executive and the employer both benefit from the relocation, not to make Ireland a permanently low-tax location for high earners.

The €125,000 threshold for 2026 arrivals

The entry threshold rose from €100,000 to €125,000 for employees arriving on or after 1 January 2026, and the programme was extended to 31 December 2030. The threshold is the minimum basic salary an employee must earn to qualify, and it is also the floor above which the 30% relief is calculated, so raising it does two things at once: it excludes employees earning between €100,000 and €125,000 who would previously have qualified, and it lifts the point from which the disregard is measured for those who do. The policy intent is to concentrate the relief on genuinely senior, highly paid assignees rather than mid-tier managers.

The change applies to new entrants, not to existing claimants. An employee who arrived and qualified up to 2025 continues on the €100,000 basis for the balance of their five years; the €125,000 threshold applies to those arriving from 2026. For an employer planning relocations around the turn of 2026, that timing distinction is worth attention, because an arrival in late 2025 and an arrival in early 2026 are on different thresholds. The extension to 2030 gives the planning horizon that the programme had lacked when it ran on shorter renewals, so an employer can now build SARP into a multi-year assignment with reasonable confidence it will still exist.

The conditions: who qualifies

SARP is available only to an employee who is genuinely inbound, and three conditions define that. The employee must have worked for the relevant employer, or an associated company, abroad for a minimum period, at least six months, immediately before being assigned to Ireland; the relief is for an existing employee moved into the country, not a new local hire. The employee must then arrive to perform the duties of that employment in Ireland. And the employee must not have been tax resident in Ireland for any of the five tax years immediately before the year of arrival, which keeps the relief for genuine new arrivals rather than returning residents.

The employee must also become Irish tax resident in the year in which they claim, and meet the salary threshold in force for their year of arrival. The conditions together describe a specific person: a senior employee of an international group, working abroad, moved to Ireland to work for the same group, who has not recently been Irish-resident. An executive who does not fit that profile, for example a locally recruited hire or someone who was Irish-resident within the last five years, does not qualify, however senior or well paid. The relief is narrow by design, and the qualifying facts have to be right at the point of arrival.

The 90-day certification and the eSARP portal

The relief depends on the employer certifying the employee's eligibility within 90 days of arrival, and this is where SARP is most often lost. The employer must submit a Form SARP 1A to Revenue certifying that the employee meets the conditions, and it must do so within 90 days of the employee's arrival in the State. Historically, missing the 90-day deadline meant losing the relief entirely, and a surprising number of otherwise-eligible assignments failed on this administrative point rather than on the substantive conditions.

From 2026 the position is a little more forgiving, but not by much. A certification filed after the 90-day deadline can now still secure the relief, but for a reduced number of the five years rather than the full period, so lateness now costs years of relief rather than all of it. All certifications, and the ongoing administration, run through Revenue's eSARP portal, the dedicated electronic system for the programme, so paper or ad hoc submissions are not the route. The practical message for an employer is unchanged in substance: identify the qualifying employees before or on arrival, and file the SARP 1A inside the 90 days through eSARP, because the alternative is to give up part or all of a five-year relief for a missed form.

The 30 June employer return

There is an annual employer return for SARP, due by 30 June following the tax year, and it is filed through the eSARP portal. The return reports, for each employee availing of the relief, the details Revenue requires to confirm the relief remains due, and it is a recurring obligation for as long as the employer has employees claiming SARP, not a one-off at the start. The 30 June deadline is a fixed annual date that a company running several inbound assignees has to build into its compliance calendar.

The return matters because it is a condition of the relief continuing, not merely a reporting formality. An employer that certifies employees into SARP and then neglects the annual return exposes those employees' relief and its own compliance position. For a company using SARP as part of its offer to senior international hires, the certification and the annual return are the two administrative points on which the value of the relief actually turns, and both now run through eSARP on fixed deadlines. The relief is generous to the employee; the responsibility for delivering it sits largely with the employer's process.

Where SARP fits: the inbound side of the corridor

SARP is the mirror of the founder-exit reliefs, and seeing the two together is the point of placing it in this cluster. The founder reliefs reduce the tax on taking value out of an Irish business; SARP reduces the tax on bringing a senior person into one. A growing company often does both at once: it rewards its founders on an eventual exit and it hires expensive executives to build the value in the meantime, and the executive-remuneration question connects directly to the employer pension route, because both are about how a company structures high pay tax-efficiently.

There is also a lifecycle link. Today's inbound executive on SARP can be tomorrow's founder or shareholder, and the same person who arrives under the relief may later hold equity that qualifies for Revised Entrepreneur Relief on a future exit. For an internationally mobile senior professional weighing a move to Ireland, SARP is one part of a wider tax picture that includes how they will be remunerated, how any equity will be taxed, and how they will eventually leave. The relief is a reason to come; it is not, by itself, the whole plan.

What an employer and an executive should get right

The relief is delivered by getting the timing and the paperwork right, so the work is front-loaded around the arrival. For the employer, the steps are to confirm each inbound employee meets the conditions, including the six-month prior employment abroad and the five-year non-residence, before the assignment; to check the salary against the threshold in force for the year of arrival, €125,000 from 2026; to file the Form SARP 1A through eSARP within 90 days of arrival; and to diarise the 30 June annual return for every year the employee claims. For the executive, the steps are to confirm they have not been Irish-resident in the last five years and that their package clears the threshold, and to make sure the employer files on time, because the relief is claimed through the employer's certification rather than by the individual alone.

The single most consequential point is the 90-day certification. A qualifying executive on a large salary can lose years of relief because an employer treated the SARP 1A as a routine payroll task rather than a deadline. The relief is worth planning the assignment around, and it is worth confirming, before the executive arrives, that the employer's process will actually deliver it. SARP rewards the company that treats the inbound move as a tax event to be managed from day one, and it quietly penalises the one that files late.

Frequently asked questions

What is SARP in Ireland?

SARP, the Special Assignee Relief Programme, is an income tax relief for an employee who relocates to Ireland to work for their employer or an associated company. It exempts 30% of the employee's employment income above a lower threshold from income tax, up to an upper limit of €1 million, for up to five consecutive tax years. It reduces income tax only; the Universal Social Charge and PRSI remain payable in full. It is designed to lower the cost of relocating senior international talent into Ireland.

What is the SARP threshold for 2026?

For employees arriving on or after 1 January 2026, the minimum qualifying salary rose from €100,000 to €125,000, and the programme was extended to 31 December 2030. The €125,000 is both the entry threshold and the floor above which the 30% relief is calculated. Employees who arrived and qualified up to 2025 continue on the €100,000 basis for the remainder of their five years, so the higher threshold applies to new arrivals from 2026 rather than to existing claimants.

How much is SARP worth?

It exempts 30% of employment income between the lower threshold and an upper limit of €1 million from income tax. On a €300,000 salary with a €125,000 threshold, about 30% of €175,000, roughly €52,500, is disregarded for income tax, which at the higher rate is a substantial annual saving. The relief does not reduce the Universal Social Charge or PRSI, and it lasts a maximum of five consecutive years, so it lowers but does not remove the Irish tax on a high salary and is time-limited.

Who qualifies for SARP?

An employee who worked for the relevant employer, or an associated company, abroad for at least six months immediately before being assigned to Ireland; who arrives to perform the duties of that employment in Ireland; who was not Irish tax resident in any of the five tax years before the year of arrival; and who becomes Irish tax resident and meets the salary threshold for their year of arrival. It is for genuine inbound assignees of international groups, not locally recruited hires or recently resident returners.

What is the 90-day rule for SARP?

The employer must certify the employee's eligibility on a Form SARP 1A within 90 days of the employee's arrival in Ireland. Historically, missing this deadline meant losing the relief entirely. From 2026 a certification filed after the 90 days can still secure the relief, but for a reduced number of years rather than the full five, and all certifications are made through the eSARP portal. The 90-day deadline is the single most common reason an otherwise-eligible SARP claim fails.

What is the eSARP portal, and the annual return?

The eSARP portal is Revenue's dedicated electronic system for the Special Assignee Relief Programme, through which the employer files both the initial Form SARP 1A certification and the annual employer return. The annual return is due by 30 June following the tax year and must be filed for each year an employee is availing of the relief. The return is a condition of the relief continuing, not merely a formality, so a company using SARP has to keep the 30 June filing in its compliance calendar.

Does SARP reduce USC and PRSI?

No. SARP relieves income tax only. The Universal Social Charge and PRSI are payable in full on the whole of the employee's income, including the portion disregarded for income tax. This is why SARP lowers the effective tax on a large salary rather than transforming it: a senior executive on SARP still pays USC and PRSI on their full pay, and the relief applies only to the income tax on 30% of the income above the threshold, up to the €1 million upper limit.

How does SARP fit with the other reliefs in this cluster?

SARP is the inbound mirror of the founder-exit reliefs. Where Entrepreneur Relief and Retirement Relief reduce the tax on taking value out of an Irish business, SARP reduces the income tax on bringing a senior person into one, and it connects to the employer pension question because both concern how high pay is structured tax-efficiently. An inbound executive on SARP today may hold qualifying equity tomorrow, so the relief is one part of a wider plan that runs from arrival through remuneration to a possible future exit.

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SARP is the corridor's welcome mat for senior international talent, and used properly it takes a real slice of income tax off a large salary for the first five years in Ireland. From 2026 it asks for more, a €125,000 salary rather than €100,000, and it gives more certainty, running now to 2030, but the value still turns on two deadlines an employer must not miss: the 90-day certification and the 30 June return, both through the eSARP portal. SARP is not a permanent low-tax status for high earners. It is a time-limited incentive to make the move, delivered only if the paperwork is on time.

Critical advisory. The jurisdictional frameworks set out above carry strict liability and retroactive tax exposure. Executing these structures without institutional-grade tax architecture is a primary trigger for Revenue and HMRC audits. To mitigate systemic risk and discuss bespoke structuring, initiate a confidential briefing with our Managing Partners.