Another SSIA Question

Eazy Treacle

So you have to sign a disclaimer 3 months prior to being able to claim your money. What happens if you have been out of the country during the 5 years? Do you get penalised and not receive your full amount

Meh

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/personal_finance/government_savings_scheme.html

You must have been resident in the Republic of Ireland and over 18 years of age at the time you began your special savings incentive account. In addition, you must be either resident or ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland throughout the period from the beginning of your account to the period on which the declaration of maturity is completed.
Resident in Ireland

You are considered to be resident in the Republic of Ireland for a year of assessment if either:

* You are present in the Republic of Ireland for 183* days or more in the tax year in question or
* You are in aggregate present in the Republic of Ireland for 280 days for the tax year in question and the previous tax year and at least 30 of those days fall into each tax year**.

*Where the tax year in question is the short tax year 2001, the number of days required is 135.

**Where the two tax years in question include the short tax year 2001, the aggregate number of days is 244, 22 of which must be in the short tax year 2001.
Ordinarily resident in Ireland

You are considered to be ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland for a year of assessment if you have been resident in the Republic of Ireland for the three previous tax years. An ordinarily resident person does not stop being ordinarily resident for a tax year unless he or she has not been resident in the Republic of Ireland for the three previous tax years.

So you won't lose your SSIA unless you've been out of the country for 3 consecutive years or more during the term of your SSIA (assuming you lived here for 3 years before taking out the SSIA).

Eazy Treacle

Will I only moved to Ireland in 2000.

I took the SSIA out in Sept 01 and officially left the country in Jan 04, so was around for the first 2.5 years of the account, however, I will probably be away for the duration of the period, the next 2.5 years.

Any thoughts?

Nuttzz

be economical with the truth.... they are unlikely to checkup

Meh

Eazy Treacle wrote:

Will I only moved to Ireland in 2000.

I took the SSIA out in Sept 01 and officially left the country in Jan 04, so was around for the first 2.5 years of the account, however, I will probably be away for the duration of the period, the next 2.5 years.

Any thoughts?

You were "resident" in Ireland for the 2001, 2002 and 2003 tax years, so that would establish you as "ordinarily resident" for the subsequent three tax years (2004, 2005 and 2006). Your SSIA matures in September 2006, so you should be OK.

You should confirm this with a real financial adviser though; "some bloke on the interweb said it was OK" is unlikely to impress the Revenue if I'm wrong

RainyDay

Nuttzz wrote:

be economical with the truth.... they are unlikely to checkup

Yes, they are really dumb over at Revenue. They'd never think of the possibility of cross-referencing your PAYE income records with your SSIA claim, given that they have your PPS number on both sets of data. Tax fraud is OK for us little guys - it's only when Lawlor/Haughey/Flynn do it that we whinge about it. :rolleyes:

Having said that, Meh's explanation looks valid to me, though I'm not an expert.

Victor

Meh wrote:

You were "resident" in Ireland for the 2001, 2002 and 2003 tax years, so that would establish you as "ordinarily resident" for the subsequent three tax years (2004, 2005 and 2006). Your SSIA matures in September 2006, so you should be OK.

It will mean doing tax returns for those years, which will mean declaring foreign earnings.

silverside

not sure if you have to do tax returns, i think you just have to sign a statement saying you were resident.

anyway, declaring foreign earnings need not be a big problem. if you were genuinely living and working overseas for those 2 or 3 years, you won't be charged extra irish tax on the salary.

i could be wrong of course, but i have read a bit about this.