The air in the Dublin conference room is thick with the smell of stale coffee and corporate optimism. It’s the third meeting of the day, number 46 on the PowerPoint slide deck. Liam, from HR, is explaining the company’s pension matching scheme with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for lottery winners. He keeps saying words like ‘free money’ and ‘secure future’. Everyone else is nodding, their faces reflecting a calm understanding. They see a simple equation: contribute X, company adds Y, future is golden.
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My own face probably reflects a low-grade panic. My thumb is moving frantically under the polished mahogany table, typing into a search bar: “contribuição previdência privada exterior tributação residente fiscal Brasil.” The results are a chaotic mess of forum posts from 2006, impenetrable legal jargon from the Receita Federal’s website, and articles that dance around the subject without ever landing a solid punch. Liam says “pre-tax contribution,” and my brain immediately translates it into a question: pre-tax for whom? For the Irish Revenue Commissioners, certainly. But for the Lion in Brazil, thousands of miles away? That feels like a different beast entirely.
The Quiet Cognitive Dissonance of an Expat
























