Probate Tax Clearance Ireland
Why Revenue Comes Before Probate
In Ireland, the Probate Office requires the Revenue Notice of Acknowledgement before it will accept a Grant of Probate application. This is the step that trips up most self-representing executors: they gather all the documents, prepare the Form S1 application pack, and then discover that the Probate Office won't accept it without a printed Notice of Acknowledgement from Revenue's online portal.
The sequence is fixed and non-negotiable:
- File Form SA.2 (Statement of Affairs — Probate) with Revenue online
- Receive the Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate) from Revenue
- Print and sign the Notice of Acknowledgement
- Include it in the Probate Office application pack alongside Form S1 and the original Will
Skip step 1, and steps 3 and 4 are impossible. The Probate Office explicitly states that it cannot help with Revenue filings and will reject any application that doesn't include the acknowledgement.
Form SA.2: What It Requires
Form SA.2 replaced the old paper-based Inland Revenue Affidavit (Form CA24). It must be filed online through either the Revenue Online Service (ROS) or myAccount — there is no standard paper option. Paper filing is restricted to personal applicants who can demonstrate to the National Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) Unit that they cannot use a computer due to age, physical disability, or cognitive impairment.
The form requires a comprehensive financial disclosure of the deceased's estate:
Asset Valuation
Every asset the deceased held, solely or jointly, must be listed with a date-of-death value:
- Bank and credit union balances (obtain date-of-death balance certificates from each institution)
- Property (professional market valuation at date of death)
- Investments, shares, and funds
- Life insurance policies (including Section 72 policies)
- Pension death-in-service or lump sum benefits
- Business interests and partnerships
- Personal property of significant value (vehicles, jewellery, art)
- Digital assets (cryptocurrency, domain names, digital businesses)
PPS Numbers
This is where many executors get stuck. Form SA.2 requires the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) of the deceased and of every named beneficiary.
If a named beneficiary's PPSN is missing, resolve that before filing; a missing PPSN can stall the SA.2 submission.
Lifetime Gift History
Revenue requires a declaration of all prior gifts received by each beneficiary from the deceased since 5 December 1991. These historical gifts count toward the beneficiary's Capital Acquisitions Tax lifetime threshold. For many families, accurately tracking gifts made decades ago is the most time-consuming part of the SA.2 filing.
Each beneficiary falls into one of three CAT groups:
- Group A (€400,000 threshold): gifts/inheritances from a parent
- Group B (€40,000 threshold): gifts/inheritances from a grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, or their spouse
- Group C (€20,000 threshold): gifts/inheritances from all other relationships, including cohabiting partners
Any inheritance or gift that pushes a beneficiary's cumulative lifetime total above their group threshold is taxed at a flat 33%.
The Notice of Acknowledgement
Once Form SA.2 is successfully submitted, Revenue processes the filing and issues a Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate). This is generated through the ROS/myAccount portal and must be:
- Printed — the Probate Office requires a physical document
- Signed by the executor or personal representative
- Matched exactly to the Form S1 application — the names and details on the Notice of Acknowledgement must correspond precisely to the Probate Office application
If there are discrepancies between the Revenue acknowledgement and the Probate Office application (different spelling of names, different executor details), the Probate Office will reject the application. Getting this right the first time saves weeks.
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Tax Clearance Certificates: A Different Document
A tax clearance certificate and the Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate) are not the same thing, though executors sometimes confuse them.
A tax clearance certificate confirms that a particular taxpayer has no outstanding tax liabilities with Revenue. Executors may need to obtain one for the deceased if the estate involves certain transactions — for example, selling property, winding up a business, or distributing proceeds from a government contract.
The Notice of Acknowledgement (Probate) confirms that Revenue has received and recorded the estate's financial disclosure through Form SA.2. It does not mean that no tax is owed — it simply means Revenue has the information it needs to assess any CAT liability.
A separate Revenue tax-clearance step belongs later in the administration: the executor submits it after debts are paid and before final distribution. Revenue has a 35-working-day response timeframe.
Common Filing Problems
Missing PPSNs. A missing PPSN can prevent submission of Form SA.2; resolve it before filing.
Understated assets. Omitting or understating assets can delay the probate process. If an asset is discovered after the initial filing — a forgotten bank account, an unclaimed life insurance policy, or a property in another jurisdiction — ask Revenue for the current correction process before proceeding.
Joint asset confusion. Assets held as joint tenants pass automatically by survivorship and do not form part of the probated estate. However, they still must be disclosed on Form SA.2 for Capital Acquisitions Tax purposes. Assets held as tenants in common do form part of the estate and must be valued at the deceased's proportional share.
Prior gift amnesia. Revenue expects accurate reporting of all gifts back to December 1991. If family records don't go back that far, make a best-faith estimate and note the uncertainty on the form. Deliberate omission of known gifts is a compliance issue.
The Executor's Timeline
For a self-representing executor, the realistic timeline looks like this:
- Weeks 1–4: Gather death certificates, obtain date-of-death balance certificates from banks, instruct a property valuer, locate beneficiary PPSNs
- Weeks 4–8: Complete and submit Form SA.2 online
- Weeks 8–10: Receive Notice of Acknowledgement, prepare Form S1 and the application pack
- Weeks 10–12: Book and attend Probate Office appointment (Dublin currently has a 10–12 week wait for personal applicants; other registries vary — Waterford processes personal applications in as few as 2 weeks)
- Weeks 12–15: Grant of Probate issued (typically posted within 3 weeks of the appointment)
The Revenue filing phase is often the bottleneck — not because the form is inherently difficult, but because gathering all the information it requires (especially PPSNs and historical gift data) takes longer than people expect.
The Ireland End-of-Life Planning Guide includes a pre-filing worksheet for Form SA.2 that helps executors organise asset values, beneficiary PPSNs, and lifetime gift histories before they log into the Revenue portal, reducing the risk of errors and multiple submission attempts.
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