AHC

I retired from the Met in 2005 with a 25 year pension that I will start to receive in just under a year, I now live and work in the US and intend to remain here permanently my "green card" hopefully should be here within the next few months.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge in regards to taxation in the US of a UK Police pension. As I understand it the UK/US have a "Double Taxation" agreement whereby I can choose where I receive the pension and where I am taxed (I'm thinking that it would be of benefit to choose to be taxed in the US). I'm particularly interested in knowing how they will treat my commutation "lump sum" which I believe is tax free in the UK but is this the case in the US if I choose to pay tax here?

Any info or links to good Internet resources would be much appreciated. I went along to a local H.R Block yesterday and they had no clue !

Andy

ann m

Andy - Hi, and welcome to BE.

Like HR Block, I also have no clue !!

However, may I suggest that you re-post this question in the main US section of this forum, as I suspect you may get some sensible answers from people in the know. On this occasion I would guess it does not matter what kind of pension you are getting - you just need to know the best place to declare any taxation.

If it's anything like Canada, there may be some kind of declaration on your US tax return about 'worldwide income' ? - your lump sum would come under this heading I suspect.

Potentially teaching grannie to suck eggs, but were you aware that the foreign exchange houses (like HIFX) also do monthly transactions for exactly this pension kind of reason? Don't know what kind of cut they take, but may be worth considering - or bring it over once a year ...

Sorry I can't help - but hope you find answers soon - the US forumites will be your font of all knowledge ....

pinoybill

Andy
Well done on beating the clock.


try this link as a starting point

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/faq4.htm


if it wont let you in go to inland revenue site and it should get you some numbers/ideas of where to start looking.have found them very helpful on the phone when you get through to the right dept.


I think met pensions may be considered as "Govt pension" and therefore liable to some form of UK tax wherever you are.

Worth thinking about a state penesion forecast also as you can top it up very cheaply if you havent made enough contributions for full state pension.
think topping up is even cheaper if abroad.

Good luck
"Team Met" is sinkling fast.

Regards Bill

jo_march

Hi Andy - Perhaps you have all the answers you need by now, but others may be interested. You can apply for relief from UK tax if you can prove that you reside elsewhere. There is a form http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/us_individual_2002.pdf on the Inland Revenue site. I filled it out and sent it to the IRS in Philadelphia as directed and it came back with a request for $35 and instructions on filling out an Application for United States Residency Certification http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8802.pdf which is basically the same thing but from the US angle. They send that to the UK for you.

About that time, I heard that my pension in the UK (both teachers and state) together did not reach the income level to be taxed (I only worked there for 8 years) so I did not need to bother. Here are the details http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm
I don't mind declaring my UK pension as income in the US so long as I am not taxed in the UK also! The only unanswered question concerns my pension lump sum. It's not intended to be taxed in the UK but I have a feeling the US would want to tax it. We are currently trying to decide whether or not to declare it, and in any case where on the tax form we would do that!

Joan

rae

hi, i left with a 15yr pension, frozen till 60 obviously, with the assurance from my pension dept in GMP that it would remain index linked, paid anywhere in the world monthly, taxed at source each mth.