UK DC pension

What are my options for my uk DC Pension Plan?

I am turning 55 later this year.

Was hoping to take 25% tax free cash and transfer the balance to an Irish ARF

Anyone know is this doable? Total value is about 100k so not the largest fund.

Thanks in advance

Are you now living in Ireland with no plans to go back to the UK?

LDFerguson said:

Are you now living in Ireland with no plans to go back to the UK?

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Yip , resident and domiciled in Ireland with no plans to return to the uk

You can transfer the pension to Ireland and mature it from here. The whole process is a pain regards paperwork and the UK providers are difficult to deal with but it is just a case of going through the process.

In case it is a similar thought I am awaiting an answer from Revenue as to how accessing a UK private DC pension would be seen/treated.
There is a view that lump sums drawn from overseas pension could be tax free up to receipt of €200k over total lifetime under Irish tax law.
Due to the DTA with UK and Ireland if one provides the UK HMRC with the Irish Revenue letter stating tax resident in Ireland then the usual UK tax on withdrawal (i.e. the UK defined 75% part subject to UK tax) would not be charged.
I am no expert but if so that is a way more attractive proposition than transferring it to an Irish pension/ARF.
In my case the UK pension provider has my Irish details since I moved but I believe it is key that UK HMRC inform them of the individual's Irish tax residency position annually.
If I get any firm info from Revenue here I will update things accordingly.
It would be great to have a definitive answer.

Max Abbey said:

There is a view that lump sums drawn from overseas pension could be tax free up to receipt of €200k over total lifetime under Irish tax law.

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That's right, but it depends how you define "lump sum". It's generally what the rules of the foreign scheme permits. More information on that in Paragraph 2.2 here.

If I have an Irish pension pot of €200k, and I take the 25% lump sum, then that €50k lump sum is tax free. I could ask the pension administrator to pay me the balance of 75% as cash, but that cash 'lump amount' would be subject to income tax.

Are you proposing that you would take 25% as a lump sum from the UK Scheme and then the 75% balance would be paid to you gross of tax from the UK under the UK/IRE DTA as you are tax resident in Ireland, for which no tax at all would then be payable in Ireland as the 25% lump sum + 75% balance is less than the €200k tax free limit?

That would be a nice arbitrage!

Are you domiciled in the UK for tax purposes by any chance?

No, I am tax resident and domiciled and ordinarily resident in Ireland since 2007.
But indeed the idea that potentially I (and others in similar circumstances) could "import" up to €200k equivalent from a UK (foreign pension scheme) free of both UK tax and Irish tax does sound appealing but I suspect there is something that snags it!
As you note a lot comes down to what is seen as a lump sum. The UK pensions rules are quire reasonably set up around the locals in the main. As far as I know after the 25% tax free amount is paid the remainder in the UK is taken as "income" and the recipient pays income tax on it.
But being tax resident in Ireland means not paying UK income tax.
The pension schemes, I believe, do permit you to take the remaining (75%) amount as a one off effectively cash payment.
But whether that is seen within the Irish tax law as an "overseas lump sum" is debateable and I am hoping Revenue will give me a straight answer, all in the fullness of time.
It may be that "overseas lump sum" is interpreted as being just the local tax free element of the full pot.
Thanks Max