Still Game

I have heard that it's very difficult (unless conditions ie: retirement age is met) to transfer your pension back to the UK (speaking about Australia here).

Did anyone who is returning transfer their pension over to Aust, and what happens now?

I'm really unsure if we shoudl transfer ours. We want it all to work and live there forever.. but what if it doesn't work out?

chimpy

Hi.

We moved to Oz 8 years ago and moved back to the UK this year. We did transfer our pensions to Oz.
Problem is for us that we cannot transfer them from Oz to the UK. It seems to only work one way.
We are only able to claim our pensions (superannuation in Oz) once we reach retirement age. So we have over $100K in super that is tied in until we retire.
Someone else might have better advice, but I would certainly make sure I was staying in Oz before transferring it over. But that's almost impossible to decide as we originally thought we would stay there forever, but things worked out differently.
So, the trasnfer only works one way as far as we are aware.
Hope this hleps.

Still Game

Thanks Chimpy, that's what I feared. There must be loads of people surely in the same position?

We are going to seek out professional advice, however, good to know experiences from people on here.

sharon45

Hi , Hubby a financial advisor,

Its still a better option to have your pension here in australia,more benefits ..as if a couple and one dies then spouse gets 100% but in uk only 50% if both die then children get it in but in uk they dont it dies with you.

we wanted to move ours but stuck in a property fund which is frozen till 2012, so just have to wait and see.

but once moved you can't get ti back to uk.



sharon x

quoll

You have 6 months before there is any penalty for not transferring it so you should get a feel for the place and envisage where it is where you want to grow old and die. You can move it after that and quite probably the penalties wouldnt be that draconian anyway.

If you have a final salary indexed pension then you will want really good independent financial advice before you toss it into the current Aus super system which sees it going up and down like a bloody yo yo.

I believe some people have made a case for having their super returned to them once they have demonstrated that they have renounced citizenship or confirmed they no longer have a valid visa for re-entry but the ATO seems to indicate that you cant do that. Still not clear on that one. If you do take it though, they slug you all the tax you would have paid on it.

I'd make sure you like it here before you bring your money over

killerhales

Is it really a big deal if you move it to Australia and it gets "stuck" here if you were to go back? It's a pension so you normally can't and don't want to touch it until you retire.

When you can access the funds depends on your age, but in my wife's case she can access at 54 in about three years time, and I can get access two years later.

Currently you can withdraw up to $160,000 tax free, I believe. Obviously there are some UK tax implications to be considered.

Once we get access then we can stash the funds in a UK personal pension.

As I am not a financial expert, maybe others could point out any flaws in this plan!

JAJ

Correct - so in that case, why transfer it to Australia in the first place?
Especially if it's an employer based final salary pension.