Elvira

I moved back to the UK a while back, but my son stayed in the US. He is now a US citizen and will probably remain there. Can I start a UK Stakeholder pension for him and, if so, would he be eligible for tax relief in the UK? Any potential complications I ought to be aware of? Thanks!

Pulaski

You are required to be tax resident to be allowed to contribute to a pension account in the UK.

Hypothetically if you fudged the paperwork and managed to open a pension account while tax resident outside the UK, there would be no tax benefit to contributing to it.

scrubbedexpat099

Why would you want to do a UK pension for a US resident? One thing if you already have one.

durham_lad

As a US citizen and US resident he is unlikely to have any UK tax liability. All his significant financial accounts in the UK will need reporting every year to the US Treasury and possibly IRS once they become large enough.

HMRC is not interested at all in any holdings, including pension accounts he holds in the USA. If he contributes to US pension accounts he will benefit from contributions before tax, which he would not get if he made those contributions to a UK stakeholder pension scheme. If you want to help fund his pension you could send the money to him. He can contribute up to $6,000/year to an IRA.

angelman

Could you transfer money to your son and have him put it into a 401k. UK pensions in the US are fraught with issues