Dominic Coyleanswers your questions.

SSIAs are different to special savings accounts

My deceased mother has an account with Irish Nationwide. She left her estate to my father. Irish Nationwide sent me forms to change the account to my father's name.

If I do, will it be regarded as a new account and lose out on any windfall when the society is sold? Should I hold off and change the account to my father's name after it has been credited with any windfall?

DH, Louth

It appears your father will receive no windfall from Irish Nationwide.

The basic prerequisite for eligibility is that the account holder should be a member for two years at the date demutualisation is announced and that their account meets the eligibility criteria in terms of minimum balance.

While your mother may well have been eligible, the clock returns to zero when she dies - unless the account is held jointly. While there is nothing stopping you transferring the account to your father's name, he would not benefit unless the account balance meets the current minimum threshold of €20,000 and no move is made to demutualise for two years after the transfer takes place.

Special interest

Your reply of April 6th to D McA prompts me to ask if the rate of tax for older persons on the interest or investment gain should be at 20 per cent rather than 23 per cent. Certainly the Revenue site states that for older persons special savings accounts are subject to Dirt at a special rate of 20 per cent.

FS, e-mail

A special savings account is a very different creature from a special savings incentive account (SSIA).

The latter is the Government-backed five-year incentive scheme, in which the bulk of accounts are maturing this month.

The former is an enhanced savings scheme on which a set level of income tax is payable as long as certain constraints are observed. On SSIAs, tax is applied at 23 per cent on the interest or investment gain, regardless of age.

• Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie

This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper.