Hi Loui,
I am just reading this comment and am in a similar situation. I am wondering if revenue replied to you on this yet?

I just wanted to get some clarity, as two people have noted contradictory explanations of whether you need to self-assess and file Form 11 if you earn less than €5,000from non-PAYE income.

On the one hand, it has been mentioned here that you do not need to sign up for self-assessment through ROS if your income from ETFs is less than €5,000. But on the other hand, a user has mentioned that the only way of declaring ETFs is through Form F11 as a chargeable person.

I started buying ETFs at the start of 2025, but decided that I would rather have a more hands-off approach going forward, so I decided to sell all of my ETFs in 2025, with a small gain.

Say, for example, I have bought European ETFs and sold within 2025 with gains less than €5,000. In this case, should I file Form 12 on myAccount, or do I need to pay Preliminary Tax this year, and create a ROS account and file Form 11 next year to include my ETF purchases and gains?

I have contacted Revenue about this and will post my response from here for others when I hear back.

ETFs can only be filed on Form 11 and will go towards your net Income Tax calculations, affecting final tax liability.

So yes you will have to pay preliminary tax, but that’s based off of your final liability. Your PAYE income tax will be deduced from final liability, leaving only ETF gains / dividends if that’s the only non-PAYE source you have.

So, in effect, you’ll be paying preliminary tax on any realized ETF gains / dividends.

Hi Eanna, Another reader said they contacted Revenue re: reporting purchases of ETFs and were told “Based on the information you have supplied [that they buy only Irish ETFs] it is our view that the acquisition of Irish Domiciled ETFs does not have to be notified to Revenue.” – so seems like that is not required, but might be best to write them directly to have it on record for your own situation.

Hi Michele, As far as I know, preliminary tax only applies if you need to do a self-assessment tax return. Generally, if you are PAYE only and have taxes due from other sources (investments) that amount to less than 5,000€ (where the gross non-PAYE income does not exceed 30k before tax deductions), then you don’t need to self-assess. More criteria are listed here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/self-assessment-and-self-employment/guide-to-self-assessment/register-it-self-assessment.aspx. When in doubt though, reach out directly to Revenue and they will confirm.

Or do I need to submit a form11. I am very confused I must say! Any guidance would be appreciated. And if so am I a bit late ahead of the 31st setting up a ROS account if something has to be posted to me?

Hi Meagan, I am trying to file my return for 2021 ahead of the deadline on the 31st. I am a PAYE employee so am able to do it through “myaccount”. Looking at the web link where I am filling it in I can see it includes “form12-2021-web” so I appear to be in the correct spot. I am trying to declare purchases of my ETFs, no sales. The options look to be either “Foreign Non-Deposit Int/Annuit/Royalt/Divs” or “Other Foreign Income Including Rents”. When I go into either it won’t let me put zero in as the income (I have no income as I just bought the ETFs in 2021 and didn’t sell). In addition, I only seem to be able to enter one record. It’s very confusing. All I want to do is declare that I bought them. It should be straightforward but clearly isn’t.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks Bruno, I’ve updated that link now. If you follow the guide here it says to select income tax for form 11 https://www.revenue.ie/en/online-services/support/documents/ros-help/submitting-form-11-online.pdf – As the deemed disposal is part of the form 11 I think this makes sense.

HI Luke, Thanks for reading. I just put in the name of the ETF