Glossary

Tax

Non-domiciled

Also known as non-dom, non-domicile status

Non-domiciled status describes a person who is tax resident in a country but whose domicile — broadly, their permanent home in the legal sense — lies elsewhere. Several countries give such residents a preferential treatment of foreign income for a defined number of years.

In plain terms: You live here, but the law treats your real home as somewhere else, so foreign income is treated differently.

Why it matters

Cyprus, Malta, Ireland and Greece each operate a version. Domicile is a distinct legal concept from residence and is much harder to change: it generally follows a person's father at birth and shifts only on evidence of an intention to remain somewhere permanently.

Common misunderstanding

Treating it as permanent. These regimes are almost always time-limited or subject to deemed-domicile rules that switch them off after a set number of years of residence.

Related terms