Freenance for Irish Users 2026 — PFM App for Ireland, IBAN Sync, CGT 33% and PRSA Tracking

Freenance for Irish Users 2026 — A PFM App Aware of CGT and Deemed Disposal

Ireland is one of the most unusual personal finance environments in the eurozone. The country shares the euro with most of Europe, follows PSD2 open banking, and yet its tax code creates conditions that look very different from continental neighbours: a flat Capital Gains Tax (CGT) of 33%, the PRSA-led pension architecture that has consolidated under reforms, and an idiosyncratic regime for ETFs that includes the famous 8-year deemed disposal rule taxed at 41% under the gross-roll-up regime.

Freenance is built for the EU, including Ireland. Many users in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford find that the practical value is not in headline marketing features but in three things: clean PSD2 sync with Irish banks and the dominant neobanks, awareness of Irish-specific tax structures (CGT 33%, exit tax 41%, deemed disposal), and the ability to track PRSA pensions alongside everyday accounts in a single EUR-native dashboard. This article walks through how Irish users can consider using Freenance in 2026, without giving tax or investment advice.

Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. Irish tax rules — especially around ETFs, PRSAs and pension reforms — evolve. Always confirm with a qualified Irish tax adviser or directly with Revenue.

Why Irish Users Often Find Generic Apps Inadequate

Most international PFM apps were designed in the US or UK. For Irish users this means:

• The app does not connect to AIB, Bank of Ireland, PTSB under PSD2 in a useful way.
• The app treats capital gains generically, with no awareness of the 33% CGT rate or the annual personal exemption.
• The app does not understand that Irish-domiciled ETFs and many EU UCITS ETFs sit under the gross-roll-up regime with 41% exit tax and 8-year deemed disposal.
• The app does not provide a structured view that maps to Form 11 for self-assessment.
• The app does not aggregate DEGIRO Ireland, Trade Republic, Lightyear alongside an Irish current account.

Freenance is designed differently. It treats the EU as the primary market, offers PSD2 sync with the dominant Irish banks, and lets you tag your accounts and assets so that Ireland-specific structures show up clearly.

PSD2 Sync With Irish Banks: AIB, Bank of Ireland, PTSB and the Neobanks

The Irish retail banking landscape in 2026 is dominated by:

• AIB Group — the largest retail bank, including AIB and EBS branding.
• Bank of Ireland — the historical second pillar, broad retail footprint.
• PTSB (Permanent TSB) — third major Irish-headquartered bank after the KBC and Ulster Bank exits.
• Revolut Ireland — extremely widespread among Irish consumers, frequently used as a primary daily account.
• N26 Ireland — popular among younger users and expats.
• An Post Money, Avant Money, Bunq Ireland, Wise — niche but relevant.

Freenance can connect to these institutions via PSD2 read-only aggregation. Once authorised at the bank, your transactions, balances and standing orders flow into a single dashboard. Many users find that the most immediate productivity gain is the elimination of bouncing between AIB, Revolut and a broker app just to know the family's current cash position.

Sign up for Freenance to consolidate your AIB current account, Revolut and an Irish broker view into one EUR-native dashboard.

Irish CGT 33%, Exit Tax 41% and the ETF Question

Irish taxation of investments is famously different from the rest of Europe:

• Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is generally 33% on disposals of shares, property and many other assets, with an annual personal exemption (commonly cited at EUR 1,270; verify the current figure).
• Dividends are taxed as income at marginal income tax rates plus PRSI and USC.
• Most ETFs (Irish-domiciled or EU UCITS) typically fall under the gross-roll-up regime: gains are taxed at 41% exit tax, not 33% CGT.
• Deemed disposal at 8 years: for ETFs in scope, you may be deemed to have disposed of your holding every 8 years, triggering exit tax on the unrealised gain at that point.
• US-domiciled ETFs are generally not freely available to retail investors in the EU because of PRIIPs/KID rules.
• Individual shares, by contrast, are taxed under regular CGT.

These rules make Ireland one of the few EU jurisdictions where retail investors regularly choose individual shares over ETFs partly for tax reasons. Freenance does not give tax advice. What it does is help you keep the data clean enough to deal with the rules:

• Each broker account shows realised gains by asset.
• ETF positions can be tagged distinctly from shares so that you can run separate year-end totals.
• The system tracks acquisition dates, which matters for deemed disposal at 8 years.
• Year-end snapshots support both CGT and exit-tax calculations done by you or your accountant.

Many users find that tracking the original acquisition date per ETF position is the single feature that saves them most pain when deemed disposal eventually triggers.

PRSA, Occupational Pensions and the Irish Pension Layer

Ireland's pension architecture has been consolidating under recent reforms. In simplified terms:

• State Pension — the contributory and non-contributory state pensions paid via PRSI.
• Occupational pensions — defined-benefit and defined-contribution schemes provided through employers.
• PRSA (Personal Retirement Savings Account) — flexible, portable, tax-favoured private pensions.
• AVCs and other supplementary contributions — to top up occupational pensions.

PRSAs typically allow significant tax relief on contributions within statutory age-based limits, with the fund growing free of CGT and dividend tax inside the wrapper. Withdrawal rules at retirement, including tax-free lump sum thresholds, are subject to current legislation.

Freenance treats PRSAs and other pensions as first-class accounts:

• Add a PRSA from any provider with current value and monthly or one-off contributions.
• Add an employer DC scheme separately, with the current vested value from your annual statement.
• Add AVCs as additional retirement contributions.
• Keep these clearly separated from liquid savings in the runway view, so that "months I can live off" reflects only what you can actually access without retirement-stage taxation.

Many Irish users find this separation more honest than a single net-worth number.

Brokers Commonly Used by Irish Retail Investors

Irish retail investing in 2026 typically involves:

• DEGIRO Ireland — popular for European stocks and ETFs.
• Trade Republic Ireland — growing fast for low-cost EU ETF access.
• Lightyear — Irish-friendly digital broker.
• Interactive Brokers — for advanced or international portfolios.
• Davy Select, Goodbody, Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland — traditional Irish brokers.
• Revolut Stocks — used casually by many Irish consumers.

Freenance can aggregate positions across these brokers (where supported via integrations or structured imports). Combined with bank sync, you get a single EUR-native picture spanning daily cash, savings, brokerage and pensions — which is exactly the picture Excel struggles to maintain once you reach four or five institutions.

Sign up for Freenance to see your AIB, Revolut, DEGIRO Ireland and PRSA in one consolidated view.

How Irish Users Typically Use Freenance

Three composite personas.

Persona 1: Aoife, 28, Software Engineer in Dublin

Aoife earns around EUR 65,000 gross, banks daily with Revolut Ireland, has her salary deposited at AIB, contributes to a PRSA via her employer's group scheme, and invests roughly EUR 500/month into individual shares via DEGIRO Ireland.

In Freenance she sets up:

• AIB current account (PSD2 sync)
• AIB savings (PSD2 sync)
• Revolut Ireland (PSD2 sync)
• PRSA (manual, employer + personal contribution)
• DEGIRO Ireland (positions and dividends)

She uses runway to check how many months of her Dublin rent + lifestyle (around EUR 2,800/month all-in) her liquid savings cover, and reviews her share portfolio with explicit tagging so she can produce a clean year-end CGT figure for her Form 11 self-assessment if needed.

Persona 2: Conor, 39, Self-Employed Consultant in Cork

Conor runs an independent consultancy, invoices Irish and EU clients, banks with Bank of Ireland for business and PTSB for personal, contributes to a PRSA, and invests via Trade Republic and DEGIRO Ireland.

Freenance helps him by:

• Separating business and personal IBANs through tags.
• Tracking professional income and expenses for self-assessment.
• Aggregating Trade Republic and DEGIRO positions in EUR.
• Tracking PRSA contributions to optimise tax relief within statutory limits.
• Producing a clean year-end income and gain summary for his accountant.

He finds that the combination of freelancer-style tagging, ETF/share-aware portfolio tracking, and pension visibility lets him manage his finances without three separate tools.

Persona 3: Niamh and Sean, Couple in Galway

Niamh works in healthcare, Sean at a Galway-based tech company. They have a joint Bank of Ireland account for the mortgage and household, individual AIB accounts, two PRSAs, and a joint Lightyear account for shares and a small ETF allocation.

They use Freenance as a household dashboard:

• Joint and individual accounts side by side.
• Combined runway across both salaries.
• Mortgage tracked as long-term liability.
• ETF positions explicitly tagged for deemed-disposal awareness.
• Annual net-worth snapshot for clean year-end review.

Many Irish couples find that this household view replaces an aging Excel sheet and clarifies where the family's real flexibility actually sits.

Practical Setup: First Two Weeks for an Irish User

1. Days 1-2. Connect your main banking IBAN (AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB) via PSD2.
2. Days 3-4. Add neobanks (Revolut IE, N26 IE, Wise, Bunq IE, An Post Money).
3. Days 5-7. Connect or import broker accounts (DEGIRO Ireland, Trade Republic, Lightyear, Davy Select).
4. Days 8-10. Add PRSAs and any occupational DC pension as manual accounts.
5. Days 11-12. Record property and mortgage as long-term asset and liability.
6. Days 13-14. Set base currency to EUR, define your runway target, tag ETF positions distinctly from shares, and review the dashboard.

After two weeks, most Irish users have a clean source of truth covering current accounts, savings, ETFs, shares, PRSAs and the mortgage — denominated in EUR and structured for Irish tax categories.

Freenance vs Other Tools Irish Users Try

• Bank-specific apps (AIB, Bank of Ireland, PTSB) — excellent inside their own perimeter, blind to the rest.
• Revolut as a quasi-PFM — convenient, but only sees Revolut money.
• Excel and Google Sheets — universal, fragile under ETF complexity and deemed disposal.
• Wealth management portals via private banking — useful for higher net worth users, not for everyday personal finance.

Freenance positions itself as the cross-bank, cross-broker, Ireland-aware layer with local sync + EU-wide + multi-currency posture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Freenance compliant with PSD2 in Ireland? Yes. Freenance operates under GDPR and PSD2-aligned data handling. You authorise each bank connection explicitly at the bank, and you can revoke at any time. Many Irish users find this consent flow more transparent than older aggregators that asked for raw e-banking credentials.

Does Freenance handle the Irish ETF gross-roll-up regime and deemed disposal? Freenance does not file your tax. What it does is preserve acquisition dates and let you tag ETF positions distinctly from shares, so that when deemed disposal at 8 years comes up, you have the data you need to compute (with your adviser) the exit tax at 41% on unrealised gains.

Can Freenance export data for Form 11 or other Revenue filings? Freenance produces structured year-end views and exports that support self-assessment, but it is not an authorised filing tool. Many users use the exports as input to their accountant or directly to MyAccount / ROS.

Can it track PRSAs from any provider? Yes. PRSA accounts are added as manual or imported accounts, with current value and contributions. Multiple PRSAs from multiple providers can be tracked side by side.

Will Freenance work if I move from Ireland to another EU country? Generally yes. Freenance is EU-wide. Your Irish accounts can be kept as read-only history, and you can add new accounts in your new country. Many cross-border users find this continuity valuable when they relocate.

Further Reading

• Freenance for Investors — portfolio aggregation across brokers
• Freenance for FIRE Seekers — runway and savings-rate tracking
• Expat personal finance guide — managing money across borders

Why "Local Sync + EU-Wide + Multi-Currency" Matters in Ireland

Irish life is unusually cross-border for an EU country. Many residents:

• Work for multinationals headquartered in the US, UK or continental Europe.
• Have legacy accounts in the UK from before Brexit, or savings in sterling.
• Receive bonuses or RSUs in USD, vesting through US brokers like Morgan Stanley at Work, Fidelity, Schwab or E*TRADE.
• Maintain family ties — and sometimes property — in the UK, Poland, India, Brazil or Spain.

This makes the multi-currency dimension of Freenance more important in Ireland than in some other eurozone countries. A typical Irish tech professional may hold:

• EUR salary, EUR daily spending, EUR mortgage on a home in Dublin.
• USD RSUs vesting through a US broker, often held there for years.
• GBP balance in a legacy UK savings account.
• EUR ETFs through DEGIRO Ireland and EUR shares through a domestic broker.

Freenance records each holding in its native currency, with daily conversion to EUR for total net worth and runway. The cost basis remains in the currency of acquisition, which matters for any later CGT calculation when the asset is eventually sold. Many users find this is the single feature that finally lets them retire a sprawling Excel sheet.

Tactical Tips Irish Users Often Apply Inside Freenance

A few practical conventions that many Irish users adopt, without these being any kind of advice:

• Tag every ETF with its acquisition date so that the 8-year deemed disposal clock is always visible.
• Separate "share" and "ETF" tags in the broker view, because the tax regimes (CGT 33% vs exit tax 41%) differ.
• Tag dividends by source (Irish vs foreign) so DWT (Dividend Withholding Tax) reclaim conversations with your accountant are easier.
• Use a dedicated "PRSA" account category, separated from any non-pension investments, to keep the runway view honest.
• Mark RSU vesting events as zero-cost-basis or vest-price-cost-basis entries depending on how the income tax has already been accounted for via payroll.

Many users find that ten minutes spent setting these conventions during initial setup saves hours of forensic work each year before the Form 11 deadline.

The Bottom Line for Irish Users in 2026

Ireland combines a euro-area, PSD2-friendly banking system with a tax code that treats ETFs, individual shares and pensions very differently. Generic global apps tend to flatten those distinctions; Irish-only tools tend to be too narrow. Freenance sits in the middle, with local sync + EU-wide + multi-currency as its core posture, and explicit support for the Irish concepts that matter most: CGT 33%, exit tax 41%, deemed disposal at 8 years, and PRSA-style pensions.

If that matches your reality, sign up for Freenance and start with your primary current account. You can add brokers, pensions and properties at your own pace.