Moving UK pensions to Ireland

[Wiresandmore]

Hi

I am 54, my wife is 52.

I have a UK pension valued at £340K; my wife has one valued at £75K

Tentatively, we are planning on retiring in 6-8 years.

I'd prefer the simplicity of moving both to Ireland if possible. I have a further Irish pension valued at €650K now and intend to keep paying in as long as I can, maximising AVCs where I can.

I've searched on this topic on the site, and I'm pretty confused between QROPS, time limits on accessing funds and potential tax implications.

Or is there a good case to be made to keep them in the UK for tax/flexibility reasons?

Advice appreciated.

 

[North Star]

Hi there, I suppose the key points are as follows.

• If you transfer the UK pensions you can access them if you are over 55 and
• You ceased being a tax resident for 10 years
• You can transfer the UK pensions but not access them without any restriction on the number of years you have ceased being a UK tax payer
• Benefits include you have more control over the investment strategy and also future lump sum and pension income being in Euros
• A potential reason not to transfer might be lower charges (tbc) in the existing UK scheme and an unfavourable exchange rate when making the transfer
• From memory there is an option where the funds can be kept in GBP and don't have to convert to Euro immediately on transfer.

I hope that helps.

Vincent

 

[Steven Barrett]

The tax implications only apply if you are non UK tax resident for less than 10 years when accessing your pension. The QROPS provider in Ireland won't let you access your pension before age 55 anyway.

Transferring pensions from UK to Ireland is a pain. Lots of paperwork involved and a lot of the UK providers still insist on paper copies of all documents, so everything needs to be sent by post. it can take a while to get all the paperwork, so expect it to take a number of months to complete.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie