hTTi

GaryC wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 3:34 pm Neither Child Trust Funds, nor ISAs, are concepts within German tax, so any income generated by the product would, I think, be taxable in Germany on first principles. They are both, of course tax exempt in the UK.

The income and/or growth in a Child Trust Fund belongs to the child but they cannot access it until they are 18. Panda will correct me if I'm wrong but as I see it the child simply has annual income in respect of any interest or dividends added to the fund and potentially capital gains to consider if the fund has been acquiring or disposing of assets. The first 1,000€ would not be taxable on the child and they would presumably cover some or all of the rest with their Grundfreibetrag?

Junior ISAs are similar and replaced CFTs. Again, the investment belongs to the child but cannot be accessed until they are 18. The general rule for ISAs is that while you can retain them if you move abroad, you cannot open new ones, add money to them or, I believe, transfer them to other providers. The only real benefit to retaining them if non-resident would seem to be to keep those savings in a UK tax wrapper in the event you one day return to the UK to "pick up where you left off". From a German tax perspective, they are just savings products based on cash savings or investments, so again, the child would presumably have taxable income and ordinary allowances to set against that income.