It has to be declared at item 20 (Supplementary tax return) where it asks:
"During the year did you own, or have an interest in, assets located outside Australia which had a total value of AUD $50,000 or more? "
And when it comes to that, people should be aware that Australia may be getting such information on a routine basis from the foreign country where the account is located..
As to the income, it must be declared after having been converted into Australia dollars at the prevailing exchange rate at the date that the interest was paid or at the average value for the year.
Since in some countries the end of financial year is different from ours a proportional amount may need to be declared twice, a proportion as having fallen during the previous year and another during the current one.
