DIRT on Investment options?

[David.F]

I've a 5 year investment with Irish Life which to date has produced a bit of a profit, and it is due to mature Aug 2008.

Now I vaguely recall chatting to the investment 'specialist' and mentioning that I might be in Australia when the investment matured - that was a ficticious plan. Anyway, he said something about - If I have my moneh lodged into a foreign bank account ie. an Australian bank account, then I'd be liable for much less than the standard Irish DIRT rate.

Is this true?

Now please understand that I'm not looking to escape anything here and have always been upfront with regards to tax issues, but myself and the missus were considering a 3-4 month stint in Europe next summer, and I was wondering if the above situation would be possible?

I realise that on entering the country, I would probably be liable for the balance of tax, but then at least the overall sum would be smaller.

I dunno, any ideas?

 

[ClubMan]

DIRT (20%) is charged on deposit interest and not other investments. I think you mean investment exit tax of standard rate (20%) + 3% on any growth?

Are you referring to what deposit interest tax rate would be charged if you deposited the matured funds in an offshore bank account? If you do this and you are tax resident in Ireland then you may be worse off as the interest could be assessable for income tax. Perhaps this bloke was suggesting tax evasion (e.g. putting the money in an offshore account while tax resident in Ireland but not declaring it)? If so then bear in mind what has happened to bogus non resident account holders recently.