Irish financial institutions are targeting smaller savers and introducing minimum balance requirements to cut down the numbers of non-resident accounts on their books. All non-resident accounts with balances below a certain threshold are being reclassified, making them liable for DIRT.
Anticipated tightening of legal requirements on monitoring non-resident accounts to prevent a repeat of past abuse is the reason for the changes.
Financial institutions say smaller non-resident accounts will be too expensive for institutions to manage under the more onerous regime.
The provision of fresh proof of residence abroad will not be enough under the new procedures to avail of the DIRT exemptions for non-resident accounts.
It will be up to smaller non-resident account holders to establish what tax is owing to them.
Bank of Ireland, one of the institutions involved, has written to customers with balances of less than £5,000 last month to inform them their accounts would no longer be treated as non-resident.
The idea of introducing minimum balances for existing non-resident accounts was raised at the last hearing of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts in December.
