Please consider signing our petition to Parliament

Kira from Greenhithe

Hi neighbours,
Would appreciate it if you would consider signing a petition to Parliament. You may have recently seen some media coverage in RNZ and Stuff, regarding a petition to change the rules regarding KiwiSaver closures for New Zealand resident US citizen children.

As you may know, whilst KiwiSaver can certainly be a financially sound investment for US citizen adults, it can sometimes create difficulties for US citizen children due to the tax rules in force between the two countries. These require even children to report on their (modest) Kiwisaver accounts, but the cost of this required reporting is hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars every year.

My kids (who are dual US/NZ citizens) have been caught up in this loophole, but when I asked to close their accounts - even offering to give up any claim to the small amount of money that is in there - my request was rejected. This means that we either have to spend thousands of dollars to be compliant with tax reporting regulations, risk tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for not reporting, or give up the kids' US citizenship.

The petition asks Parliament to amend the KiwiSaver Act, to permit under-18s with dual US/NZ tax residency to close their KiwiSaver accounts and thus end reporting requirements.

The link to the petition can be found below:

www.parliament.nz...

Thanks so much for considering it!