Our 3 month old daughter has been given a gift of a bank account in New Zealand by her grandmother (who lives there). The account is in the baby's name and was opened without our knowledge or signature and even without any proof that she exists like a birth cert etc. we need to give her granny a copy of birth cert for the bank. Is there anything wrong with her having an offshore bank account but the account has already been opened and has money in it. Apparently cos she is an irish citizen she only pays half the amount of DIRT equivalent than a kiwi would.
hmm seems like a lot of hassle! Think granny was hoping that when baby turns 18 she would be able to blow it all on a trip to new zealand. Course she is entitled to dual citizenship so she might be liable to new zealander DIRT rather than irish DIRT when that time comes.
No need to do a Form 12 for your child. It should hawever be included on yoru tax return as you are the childs legal gaurdians and representatives. There may be a Double tax agreement with NZ regarding payment of the interest. Essentially if the account has paid tax there then when it is taxed here you can offset the NZ tax. Need to check that out though - have not looked at the NZ DTA