Opening IKE account in DM BOŚ (poland)

[godspurpose07]

I could not find a poland specific sub so I', posting here instead. I want to open IKE account at DM BOŚ from Australia. I am a polish citizen. They sent me a statement the content of which I am not quite sure of before signing. Can someone explain to me? I don't understand why the below 3 bullet points (in bold) are even necessary.

OŚWIADCZENIE

Ja niżej podpisany ....................................................... zamieszkały w

..............................., ........................................................................................,

legitymujący się ........................................... wydanym dnia

................................. r., przez ..........................................., ważnym do dnia

........................................... r., oświadczam, że:

- nie zostałem pozyskany jako Klient przez Dom Maklerski Banku Ochrony Środowiska S.A.

z Terytorium Australii

- nie wchodziłem na stronę internetową Domu Maklerskiego Banku Ochrony Środowiska

S.A. bossa.pl z Terytorium Australii,

- nie zapoznałem się z ofertą Domu Maklerskiego Banku Ochrony Środowiska S.A. za

pośrednictwem strony internetowej bossa.pl z Terytorium Australii

Jednocześnie oświadczam, iż Dom Maklerski Banku Ochrony Środowiska S.A. będzie

zwolniony z wszelkiej odpowiedzialności, w przypadku gdyby powyższe oświadczenie

okazało się niezgodne z rzeczywistym stanem faktycznym lub prawnym.

...............................................

Data i podpis składającego oświadczenie

 

[jrchristian]

@godspurpose07 Are you trying to open a tax-exempt retirement account offered in Poland while permanently residing & paying taxes in Australia? In that case, you may or may not be able open the account, but any tax advantages it offers to Polish taxpayers wouldn't matter to you, as Australia will want to tax your global income (unless you qualify for exemption as a temp resident or because of other special circumstances: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/australia/individual/taxes-on-personal-income).

My guess is the bank is trying to cover its ass in case its gets blamed for marketing financial products to Australian residents, for which it has no license.

 

[godspurpose07]

@jrchristian Income from IKE can be taken out only after 60. I don't plan on staying in Australia till that time. So it won't apply to me.

In terms of tax advantages it offers in Poland, I won't be able to take the benefit of that. Its ok because I don't earn my income in Poland. Is IKE only allowed for polish tax residents?

I just thought it was a bit strange that they ask me to sign such a statement because anyone is free to visit their website from anywhere to sign up to their services.

 

[jrchristian]

@godspurpose07 It sounds like you could use professional advice.

Make sure you understand that Australia will tax any income in that account, incl. interest, dividends/distributions, profit from share sales (incl. fund share sales on rebalancing, etc). If you are buying & holding fund shares that do not distribute any income, you may not be in the clear (e.g. someone asked about taxation of accumulating ETFs and ATO officials didn't have a ready answer as of a Sep 23 community forum post). Note that some other countries apply either punitive taxation & rules, discouraging any holding of such assets (notably USA, see PFICs) or have holding taxes aimed at neutralizing or compensating the inherent dividend tax deferral of accumulating funds (Austria, Germany, UK). Australia may have something like this in place or implement it in the future (and since it probably won't bother with a product class that no one there uses, it may well be the punitive kind of rules). I don't know what's possible to hold in IKE accounts. If you can directly hold company shares and select ones that never pay dividends, then it looks like you can hold tax-free in a future-proof way (I'd still get pro opinion; you will have losses if they start paying dividends).

But holding tax free is not the only thing you have to worry about. There's also the Australian exit tax (see also this and the PL-AU double taxation treaty, which you can check here). You must be sure that the Australian exit tax will not apply to you, otherwise you will just be charged Australian CGT on all your IKE assets upon leaving (you may be able to defer that until actual sale, at the cost of losing CGT discount rights you had when you were an Australian resident). Esp. if retirement is far away, you must also understand that these rules may change.

In Poland, you have to worry about whether you can actually open the account & contribute to it legally (other tax-advantaged accounts I've come across stop accepting deposits once you become non-resident). Apart from that, if you are still young or early middle age, plans may change and you need to consider how much flexibility you lose with an IKE account.

 

[chrishill88]

@godspurpose07 Well, living in Australia and opening an IKE account in Poland has zero sense. You're not a tax resident of Poland, IKE doesn't apply to you. Most likely BOS sees that you're in Australia, but who knows, maybe you're using VPN and are actually in Poland. That's why they're asking you to sign a document stating that you're not in Australia

 

[tbplayer]

@godspurpose07 I think the bank is not refusing you to open your account but instead they're trying to make you confirm they didn't advertise their services with you. Some financial regulators have heavy fines for advertising financial services without being licensed in their country and FCA has recently upped their activities by claiming that everything posted in English is potentially an ad directed at UK customers. I'm guessing by extension this might also concern the financial services in Australia.