The five-year clock on your Irish pension, and the Swiss rule that starts on day 14
September is when Irish teachers actually go. Two pieces of Irish paperwork decide how much of this year you keep, and one European destination starts counting the moment you land. Neither is hard. Both are easy to miss until it is too late to fix.
If you are leaving Ireland this month to teach English abroad, do two things before Christmas. Claim split-year treatment, so the employment income you earn abroad after your date of departure is ignored for Irish tax. Then decide whether to keep your Irish social insurance record alive with voluntary PRSI contributions: you need 520 paid contributions to qualify, and you must apply within 60 months of the end of the last completed tax year in which you paid. If your destination is Switzerland, you register with your commune within 14 days of arriving, and before you actually start work.
On the wire this fortnight
- Ireland, pensions. Voluntary PRSI needs 520 paid contributions and an application inside 60 months. The high rate is 6.6 per cent of last year’s reckonable income, with a minimum payment of 500 euro.
- Ireland, tax. Split-year treatment ignores your foreign employment income after the day you leave, and you generally keep the full year’s tax credits. It applies to employment income only.
- Switzerland. Up to three months in a calendar year with no residence permit. An L permit covers employment up to 364 days, a B permit covers a year or more. The registration clock is 14 days.
- France. The Irish route to the assistantship still shows the 2026/27 terms: 1,036.21 euro gross a month for 12 hours a week, 1 October to 30 April. The 2027/28 round is not published.
- Ireland’s own scheme. The Department of Education’s assistant page still carries the 2026/27 round, which closed on 12 March 2026. Spain remains excluded, in the Department’s own words, because of continued administrative issues.
- Hungary. CETP runs a January to June intake as well as the September one. Twenty-four teaching hours a week, and housing provided and paid for by the host institution.
The Irish desk: the five-year clock nobody mentions
Here is the part of leaving Ireland that no programme brochure covers. The moment you stop paying PRSI here, your Irish social insurance record stops growing. It does not disappear, and it does not have to stop growing either, because you can keep it going yourself with voluntary contributions. But there is a window, and it is finite.
To be allowed to pay voluntary contributions you need at least 520 PRSI contributions paid under compulsory insurance. And you have to apply within 60 months, five years, of the end of the last completed tax year in which you paid. Leave in September 2026 and, on that rule, the last completed tax year is 2026, so the clock runs to the end of 2031. Nobody sends you a reminder.
| Your last PRSI class | What a year of voluntary contributions costs | What it keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Class A, E or H most employees | 6.6 per cent of your reckonable income in the previous tax year, with a minimum payment of 500 euro | State Pension (Contributory), Bereaved Partner’s Pension, Guardian’s Payment (Contributory) |
| Class B, C or D certain public servants | 2.6 per cent of your reckonable income in the previous tax year, with a minimum payment of 250 euro | Bereaved Partner’s Pension and Guardian’s Payment only |
| Class S self-employed | A flat 650 euro | State Pension (Contributory), Bereaved Partner’s Pension, Guardian’s Payment |
Source: Citizens Information, voluntary PRSI contributions, page edited 13 February 2026, checked 2 September 2026.
Worth being clear about what this is not. Voluntary contributions do not buy you illness or jobseeker cover, and the low rate does not buy you a pension at all. What the high rate and Class S buy is continuity in the contribution record that the State Pension (Contributory) is calculated from. If you are twenty-three and going to Poland for a year, that is probably not the priority. If you are thirty-eight, have a long record behind you and are heading off for four or five years, it is a different conversation, and it is one to have with a real adviser rather than a newsletter.
Split-year treatment, and the order you do it in
The tax half is simpler and the deadline is softer, but the money is more immediate. If you are leaving Ireland permanently and taking up employment abroad, you can claim split-year treatment in your year of departure. Revenue’s condition is a pair: you must be resident in your year of departure and not resident in Ireland the following year.
What it does is worth stating plainly, because the phrase itself explains nothing. Revenue’s own wording is that employment income you earn abroad in that year, after the date of departure, is ignored for Irish tax purposes. You also generally get the full year’s tax credits despite leaving mid-year. That combination is why people who claim it in September often see a refund, and why people who do not claim it often do not.
How to claim it
- Check the pair of conditions. Resident in the year you go, not resident here the year after. If you are going for one school term and coming home in June, this is not for you.
- Claim in writing. Through MyEnquiries in myAccount, or to your local Revenue office. There is no tick-box for it on the way out the door.
- Send the evidence. Either a statement from your employer or a copy of your employment contract, depending on how long you will be abroad.
- If you already went, file instead. Revenue states that people who relocated after 31 December 2024 can claim split-year treatment by filing an Income Tax Return.
- Know the limit. Split-year treatment applies to employment income only. Rent from the house you left behind is not covered by it.
The third form, and it is your employer’s job
If the school or company paying you is Irish and you are working abroad for it, there is a separate document: a PAYE Exclusion Order. Revenue describes it as a certificate that authorises your employer not to deduct Income Tax and USC. Three conditions have to hold together: you are employed abroad by an Irish employer, all of your employment duties are carried out abroad, and you will be non-resident in Ireland in the tax year.
It matters most to online teachers still on an Irish payroll and to anyone seconded abroad by an Irish employer. Note that PRSI is handled separately from it, which loops straight back to the voluntary contributions question above.
Sources: Revenue, split-year treatment in your year of departure and Revenue, PAYE Exclusion Order, both checked 2 September 2026. We are not tax advisers and this is not tax advice.
Europe: free movement is not the same as no paperwork
An Irish passport is the best document in this business for one narrow reason. Across the EU and the EEA you do not need permission to take the job. That is genuinely different from every destination our sister title covers in Asia and the Gulf, where the job exists only if a visa is issued for it. But “no visa” and “no paperwork” are not the same sentence, and Switzerland is where Irish teachers find that out.
Switzerland is not in the EU, and the rules are their own. Irish citizens work there under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, which the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration describes as lifting restrictions on EU citizens wishing to live or work in Switzerland. Permits are issued by the cantons, not by Bern, so the office you deal with is local.
The number to remember is 14. EU and EFTA workers must register with the local authorities of the commune they are living in and apply for a residence permit within 14 days of arrival, and before actually taking up work. A language school that wants you to start on the Monday you land is asking you to do it in the wrong order.
| Your situation in Switzerland | What applies |
|---|---|
| Short work, up to three months | You may stay up to three months in a calendar year without a residence permit when employed, subject to the notification procedure |
| A contract under a year | L permit, the short-term residence permit, for employment of up to 364 days |
| A contract of a year or more | B permit, the residence permit, for employment of at least one year or for an unlimited period, valid five years |
| The academy folds in February | After losing employment you may stay at least six months to look for new work, having applied for job-seeker status with the cantonal authorities |
Source: Swiss State Secretariat for Migration, free movement FAQ and its agreement overview, checked 2 September 2026.
Inside the EU and EEA the shape is different again, and gentler. The European Commission’s own citizens’ portal separates three things: reporting your presence for short stays of less than three months, registering your presence after the first three months, and permanent residence after five years. So for a term in France, a school year in Poland or a contract in Italy, the first three months carry almost nothing. It is month four, when you want a bank account, a lease and a tax number, that the local registration you skipped starts to bite.
Source: Your Europe, registering your residence abroad, checked 2 September 2026. National procedures differ, so check the host country’s own office before you rely on a timeline.
The European windows board
Where the named European schemes actually stand this morning. Every line was opened and read today, and where a page still carries last season’s round we say so rather than inventing this season’s.
| Where | Status | What the official page says today |
|---|---|---|
| Hungary CETP |
Live wire | Two intakes: September to the end of June, and a January to June mid-year placement. Orientation in Budapest on 21 or 22 August, school from 1 September. 24 teaching hours a week. Pay is the same local scale as native teachers, and accommodation is provided and paid for by the host institution. A placement fee applies |
| Czechia AIA register |
Live wire | The Academic Information Agency circulates registered teachers to Czech schools and states plainly that it is not an employment agency. Native or native-like proficiency is a prerequisite. Schools hire directly. Irish citizens do not need the labour-market exemption the page lists for non-EU nationalities, because free movement already covers it |
| France the Irish route |
On the wire | The page still carries 2026/27: deadline 15 March 2026, contract 1 October to 30 April, 1,036.21 euro gross a month and about 820 euro net for 12 hours a week, ages 20 to 35 on arrival, working knowledge of French, applications through ADELE. The 2027/28 round is not published. Pencil in mid-March and get the French sorted first |
| Ireland Department of Education ELA |
On the wire | Still showing the 2026/27 round, which closed 12 March 2026 at 5pm, for Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels). Spain is excluded, in the Department’s words, because of continued administrative issues. Applications go by email to ELA@education.gov.ie. Page last updated 15 June 2026 |
| Spain the conversation assistants |
Line closed | No Irish-facing round is open. The most recent official word we have is the Department of Education’s, that the Spanish programme is out of the ELA scheme for now. We are printing no Spanish stipend figure, because we could not reach a ministry page today that carried one |
Sources: CETP programme details, DZS, English teachers in Czechia, the French Embassy in Ireland and gov.ie, English Language Assistant scheme, all checked 2 September 2026.
The schools desk: Transition Year starts this week
TY coordinators are timetabling now, and the awkward truth about September is that the electives chosen this fortnight are the ones the year actually runs on. Three things we have already published, rather than a fourth version of the same argument: a step-by-step guide to running an online TEFL course inside a TY programme, a comparison of the best Transition Year courses in Ireland and how TEFL sits among them, and the Transition Year course page itself for structure, access and group rates.
One correction we would make to our own earlier enthusiasm, and it belongs in a jobs briefing: a TEFL certificate carries no CAO points and no UCAS tariff points. It is a qualification a student can use, not a qualification that moves an offer. Say that to parents before they ask.
Elsewhere on the Group wire
Japan, Korea and the rest of the world are our sister title’s beat, not ours, and we would rather link than paraphrase. This fortnight’s Group edition leads on the JET 2027 timeline and carries the wider openings board: The Hire Wire, Group edition, Issue 3. We keep Ireland and Europe. They keep everywhere else and the qualification terminology.
What we could not verify
Three things, stated so you know what is missing rather than guessing at it. We found no Spanish ministry page today carrying a stipend or an open round for conversation assistants, so no Spanish figure is printed. The Czech register page no longer states the candidate-list dates or the koruna salary band we quoted on 18 August, so we have not carried those figures forward from a page that does not currently support them. And CETP’s own details page does not state its placement fee or a nationality requirement, so we have described only what it does say.
Every figure in this edition is published in euro at source, so no currency conversion was applied. Where we do convert, we use the European Central Bank reference rate and name the date; the most recent set at the time of writing was published on 31 August 2026.
Can I keep paying PRSI while I teach English abroad?
You can apply to pay voluntary contributions. You need at least 520 PRSI contributions paid under compulsory insurance, and you must apply within 60 months of the end of the last completed tax year in which you paid. For a former Class A, E or H contributor the rate is 6.6 per cent of the previous year’s reckonable income with a minimum payment of 500 euro.
What is split-year treatment and does it apply to a teaching job abroad?
It applies if you leave Ireland permanently to take up employment abroad, you are resident in your year of departure and you are not resident in Ireland the following year. Employment income you earn abroad after the date of departure is ignored for Irish tax purposes, and you generally keep the full year’s tax credits. It covers employment income only.
Do Irish citizens need a work permit to teach English in Switzerland?
Switzerland is not in the EU, but Irish citizens work there under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons. You may stay up to three months in a calendar year without a residence permit. Beyond that, an L permit covers employment of up to 364 days and a B permit covers a year or more. You must register with your commune within 14 days of arrival and before you take up work.
Which European assistantship schemes can an Irish graduate actually apply to?
Ireland’s own Department of Education scheme places assistants in Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels), and Irish nationals are eligible. The French Embassy in Ireland runs a separate Irish route to the French assistantship. Spain is currently excluded from the Irish scheme. The 2026/27 rounds for both closed in March 2026.
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The openings, salaries and deadlines that matter, from Ireland and across Europe. Written here, checked against official sources, and dated every time.
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Written by Ola Flynn for The Hire Wire, The TEFL Institute of Ireland. Every figure was checked against its official source on 2 September 2026 and links to it. Nothing here is tax, pension or immigration advice; the offices named are the ones to ask. Corrections are made here in place and noted. Read our Editorial Charter, or open The Salary Index, The Visa Desk, The Paperwork Desk and EFL jobs in Europe.