I opened 2 equity savings accounts in different banks by mistake although an individual taxpayer is only allowed to have one account. What should I do?

According to tax rules in force, anyone who has more than one equity savings account must pay a punitive tax increase, which under the rules is €10 per day and per account. The reason for the existence of the punitive charge is to prevent abuse of the tax shelter that equity savings accounts offer to the account holder. There is a maximum limit of €50,000 that can be deposited in one account, but those who attempt abuse have opened 2 or more accounts in their name.

No punitive tax increase is imposed on individual taxpayers who have obviously made a mistake of some kind that caused them to hold more than one accounts simultaneously, on the condition that amounts of deposited money or corporate stock were in max. one account during the tax year. In the same way, no increase – or a reduced punitive increase – is imposed, if:

• considering the small size of the balances in the equity savings accounts, the punitive tax increase would be unreasonably high, or
• there are justified grounds for the tax authority to reduce or refrain from imposing the punitive increase. Examples of justified grounds include the individual taxpayer’s sickness, during which he or she was unable to manage their equity savings account, and problems with the IT connections, which prevented the taxpayer from closing the extra account or accounts.