Thursday 10 April 2014

UK based Indian pension investors (expats) can consider QROPS schemes in India & OFF Shore for better tax advantages on their UK pension savings

Expats including India based UK expats should know that they can no longer depends on the financial favors from UK Government anymore irrespective of whether they are in or out of the UK tax system. It looks UK Government is making clear on this part to UK expats.

For the information of UK expats there would be a consultation to consider scrapping the personal income tax allowance for expats.

When it comes to a question that who receives the allowance, it totally depends on the definition of an expat. From the tax point of view, an expat is no longer a UK resident & the member settles in another country & pay taxes there itself. Even though it does looks like UK Govt has liberated pensions, they are still decided  to collect for Treasury.

So switching one’s  Onshore pensions to an OFF Shore QROPS is the solution to get out of this tax trap.
On switching Onshore pensions to a OFF Shore QROPS like switching to a jurisdictions like India, Gibraltar, Malta etc., the member pays income tax on the pension payments in the country where he is tax resident , not at UK tax rates. The tax rates vary considerably from country to country.

For example, on transferring to a Gibraltar based QROPS the investor ends up paying just 2.5% income tax on pension income & also can withdraw 30% tax free lump sum on attaining age 55 .

Also, QROPS pension benefits can be taken in terms of any major currencies & not just in GBP ,that can be credited into member’s personal bank account directly. So that there is no foreign exchange worries.

Most of the QROPS providers do accept small UK pension pots also that are less than 75000 GBP. This will help many expat pension investors, those who got an average pension pot of 38,000 GBP.

About 80% of the Indian expatriate's have savings in an existing UK pension fund but are considering retiring in India and few percentage of them in other countries outside UK.

 The QROPS program was launched on 6 April 2006 as a part of new legislation with the objective of simplifying pensions. Typically this occurs when a Indian UK resident leaves the UK to permanently emigrate (or to retire abroad) having built up a pension fund within a scheme approved by HMRC or when a person born in India who has built up benefits in a HMRC approved UK Pension Scheme decides to return to his home country or  abroad with an expectation of retiring there.

Please contact me for an informal chat about the transfer scheme, finding right QROPS scheme in India and in OFF Shore jurisdiction to get your UK pensions transferred and Retirement planning with my following Contact details.

Mr Ravi Kumar. Financial Consultant.  Exide Life Insurance Co Ltd (formerly known as ING Life Insurance Co Ltd)
28, 6th Floor, Centenary Building,  Adjacent to Raheja Towers, M.G Road, Bangalore-560 001.       
Cell: +91 9980927393,  +91 9844519872

Email:  ravi.sampige@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

Featured post

New UK’s Pension Schemes Act 2015- Transfers are possible only to ‘Defined Benefit’(DB) QROPS scheme . India based UK expats/NRI’s who accumulated UK pensions should know about Defined Benefit scheme.

India based UK expats forms the largest expats in the United Kingdom. Many overseas Indian citizens who have been working in UK as Docto...