Declare bank account opened while non-resident

[basilbrush]

I moved to Ireland at the beginning of 2016 from the USA. I have two bank accounts in the USA that I opened several years ago while I lived there. They are still open, so do I need to declare them to the Revenue, and, if so, how? Form 11 only seems to provide the option of declaring foreign bank accounts opened in 2016.

I also own US shares that pay dividends. Form 11 says to "Enter the gross amount of Dividends received from the US". Just to be sure: this is gross of both US and Irish tax, correct?

 

[malpes180]

Hi Basilbrush

I also have a U.S. trading bank account and was in the same situation as you a number of years ago and I mailed the revenue and also got independent advise from a tax consulting firm in Dublin. Both came back to me saying that if my foreign bank account was opened in a year when I was not tax resident in Ireland then there was no obligation to declare it: you only declare the opening of a foreign account if you are tax resident in Ireland. I was tax resident in Italy when I had opened my U.S. trading account many years ago so I never declared it.

Also the independent tax consultant told me that I would have no tax liability in Ireland on the dividends and capital gains made on my shares and U.S. housed ETFs generated by my U.S. account if I don't bring the profits to Ireland, since I'm not domiciled in Ireland. Non domiciled in Ireland means that I was not born in Ireland and was not born from Irish parents and I will want to go back to my original country (Italy) at some stage and plan to bring to Italy the gains from my U.S. account when I will move back there. I'm very careful not to bring any money here in Ireland from that U.S. account

To be clear I'm not an accountant or tax expert here but this is the feedback that I got and may help you as well since your situation seems very similar to mine but it all depends if like myself you are non Irish domiciled or you are. If you are Irish domiciled (born from Irish parents) and have an Irish passport then you are liable to the foreign capital gains and dividends even if you don't bring the money back to Ireland so I suppose you still have to look at the double taxation agreement between Ireland and USA which normally says that if Ireland has a higher tax on income and capital gains than the US, then you pay the difference in Ireland, something like that.

This is my 2 cents I hope it helps

 

[basilbrush]

Hi malpes,

Thank you very much for your thorough reply. I was indeed beginning to suspect that there was no need to declare it, since, despite some effort searching, I couldn't find any appropriate forms or mentions of having to do so in tax guides about moving to Ireland. I suppose it makes sense, but, since there is so much fuss about offshore bank accounts I thought that maybe I had to. Unfortunately in my situation I don't think I could easily claim that I am not domiciled in Ireland so I will declare the interest from the accounts on Form 11. I also wrote to the Revenue about this using myEnquiries more than one month ago, but haven't received a reply yet. I'll post an update here if they do eventually reply.

 

[basilbrush]

I finally received a reply from the Revenue, it seems to confirm what we thought:

As far as I am aware you are obliged only to declare newly opened foreign bank accounts on the 2016 Form 11. You should include the gross amount of US dividends in the relevant section of the Form 11. The US tax deducted will be applied automatically on your assessment. If there was Irish tax deducted on encashment of the dividends you should also include this on the Form 11. There is a box in the Foreign Income section of the form for this purpose.