I hear that QROPS rules are changing because some have been missold by unregulated advisers and the UK tax office might be taking action. Anyone recommend a good adviser I can speak to?

Hi and welcome to BE, I hope you enjoying being part of our community.

I've moved your thread to our Europe forum for you. There is actually a thread currently running on this subject here, which I am sure you will find useful.

Welcome again and if you get stuck on any of the sites bells and whistles please let me know.

Someone has just pointed out to me that HMRC have taken down the list of recognised QROPS, the suggestion being that there will be a considerable number of changes.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/qrops.pdf

Proceed with caution seems to be the message.

I think anybody that took their pension as a lump sum and who probably got screwed by 8% charges may also find they will be facing a much higher bill in the very near future.

These may give you an idea of good advisers, and bad

http://www.costa-action.co.uk/

Do you have any reference to this possibilty? I am not suggesting that this will not happen, but is it possible that HMRC have drawn a line under the past with the change of rules to stop access to pension funds?

The HMRC list is up again. Guernsey will not be able to accept transfers from pension holders that are not resident there, though this won't affect those that have QROPS in Guernsey already. From what I have read, these complied with the rules at the time and should be fine.

The other big change seems to be on the New Zealand list. As far as I can see, apart from one or two exceptions, all the non-Kiwisaver( Kiwisaver schemes are pretty much for residents of New Zealand) have been taken off the list. I have not read anything to suggest that this is the same situation as with Guernsey and so it is possible that this removal is an administration type issue, and these schemes may reappear on the list soon.

If there are any offshore pension experts out there that could give a professional opinion on this, it might be helpful. That is if anyone is that interested in this subject which, I am sure, has the capacity to bore the pants off most people

Don't they charge for that ??


or can you do that for free Peter ? ?

My opinion, for what it is worth, is the HMRC have decided that QROPS will be run the way HMRC want them to be run and will not accept any loose interpretations of the rules. HMRC seemed to take a long time to get off the starting blocks, but have shown that they can act very firmly ( Guernsey).

The question is, are they going to do the same elsewhere? That is the question I cannot answer.

I'm in the process of setting up a QROPS, and my advisers were aiming at Guernsey until the government pulled the rug from under them. Now they're looking towards Malta. I wonder if the UK government is too!

Absolutely no idea.

Mind you, if everyman and his dog is now moving their pensions to one location that seems to have only a few QROPS providers I would be worried about a severe admin failure.

Can't you hang back and wait until things are a little clearer? If you have a guarantee date for your pension ( for a final salary scheme), then I suppose that one option could be to "park" it in a SIPP and wait. Mind you, to do this, the pension adviser will need to be FSA authorised, have permission to undertake transfers and the transfer will need to stack up financially after an analysis. Otherwise, a UK IFA would not touch it like as not.

Whilst not aimed specifically at QROPS, bearing in mind my comment above, I think this article from an FT newspaper is worth looking at. The FSA are cracking down on such transfers

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/pens...050464.article

Whilst a lot of justified criticism can be aimed at the regulator here in the UK, the intention here is to protect consumers.

Thanks, Peter,

The article you posted seems to be aimed more at those who are saving towards their pension. I have already retired (6 weeks ago), so my saving towards it is done. Until my pension starts to give me a salary, I'm existing on savings and the State pension, and that's just about enough to keep afloat.

Since QROPS changes were mentioned by the first commentator on here (what is the technical IT term for the person that starts a thread?), I think that this article is very relevant.

http://international-adviser.com/new...for-burgeoning

Malta seems to have become the default choice as a QROPS destination since Guernsey is not in the market and Jersey has decided not to join the market at all.
Much has been made of the "tax free" income that will paid from the Maltese QROPS at retirement. To counter the possibility of tax evasion, the Maltese authorities have come up with quite a smart move here.
All QROPS members that have a QROPS in Malta, if the proposals are enacted, will need to file an annual tax return BEFORE their pension is paid to them- no matter where the member lives. It looks like the members will have to provide evidence of their tax residency at the point that they wish to draw the pension. One can only wonder how long the delays in drawing an income could be if someone is not able to prove residency. Also, the member is bound to be reliant on a local Maltese tax advisor to provide a timely annual return.
It looks like the proposals mean that the tax affairs must be established first, so that the trustees can ensure no local tax is deducted for clients that reside in a country with a DTA (Double Tax Agreement) and these people will need to disclose this income to their host countries. Of course, people might choose not to do this, but I would not be sure that this would be a good idea under a DTA agreement as this information can be readily exchanged between states with DTAs.
For those that do not live where there is a DTA , then it looks like the income will suffer tax in Malta and tax in the host state. In other words, taxed twice.
As with all of these things, take tax advice before moving a UK pension.

I have read the rules on the Malta website.

I think Otto means that income won't be paid in year 2 of retirement, before the first tax return is completed and then the same issues will occur on an annual basis.

Surely, this is going to put some people off transferring funds to Malta? I cannot help wondering if people might start migrating their QROPS back to UK pensions as the costs must surely be lower with all the new reporting rules and requirements for annual tax returns and so forth.

I have read some blogs that are of the opinion that the Finance Act in the UK next year may make additional changes to the QROPS rules. One topic has been mentioned more than once, the possibility that UK pensions will only be able to be transferred to the country where the expat is tax resident and not some other tax jurisdiction as is the situation currently.

Anyone got any views on this?