LisaB

Hi all,
I wondered if someone could give me some much needed information about pensions. We are moving to Adelaide as soon as we have sold our house, I have been sponsored by my company and we are coming over on a subclass 457.

I just need to know or speak to someone regarding my pension. Do I transfer it over? Are there tax penalties? Should I freeze the onr here and start again. I will be working for the same company and they have told me that my service will not be broken either ( 18yrs). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks alot

Lisa and co.

wongstonn

A 457 is a temporary visa isn't it? Maybe I'm missing something, but it would seem a bit pointless to transfer your funds to Aus on a temporary basis. You'd only have to transfer it back when the visa ran out.

Neil

wongstonn

Just re-read my prior post. My use of the word 'pointless' might come acorss as patronising or rude. It wasn't intended as such.

Sorry if I accidentally offended, Lisa.

Neil

Bix

Hi Lisa.

I am not sure that you can legally transfer your pension whilst on a temp visa because as it says it is only temp. Even if you intend obtainig PR farther down the line I don't think you will be able to do it. In any case it would not be wise to transfer while you only have a tempoary residency status.

You don't need to worry about that now anyway as you do not want to transfer it in the immediate future anyway. The reason is that the UK law changed on 6 April 2006. From that date any pension transfered to a "non-complying" overseas fund is subject to a 40% taxation by the UK government.

Overseas funds can apply for complying status but it requires them to meet certain UK regulations and stipulations. So far we have heard of no Australian Super fund that is approved and it is not clear if any have actually applied. However it is early days yet I suppose. They call it QROPS "qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme".

So I guess the answer for you is to freeze the UK pension and join your companies Aus super scheme. I'm sorry, I don't know if you can keep the UK one going whilst working in Aus. Maybe someone else can comment on that ?

LisaB

Hi Neil,

No offence taken, I should have added that my company are applying for a permanent visa as soon as we arrive and we are intending to stay. I was wondering that because I have been paying into it for 18 years and I was to carry it on would I be in a much better financial positon when I retire than if I froze it in the U.K, and had a pension from Oz as well. or transfering it over and having about 45 years worth. Any ideas????

Thanks,

Carl,(lisas hubby)

CathnPaul

We started a similar thread last month... have a look at the link and see if there is anything useful...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=367815

We are in similar circumstances with the length of time paying into a pension.