UK - public service pension.

[Northern Light]

I have a small UK public service pension which should deliver around £5000 lump sum and £2000 annual pension when I reach 60 (I am 52). In addition I understand that I may be able to commute £1 of annual pension to £12 of additional lump sum - this is subject to restriction but theoretically I can get up to £24000 additional lump sum by foregoing the annual pension giving a total potential lump sum of £29,000.

My lump sum from my time in Ireland should be approx €110,000 (at 60). My question is - does the UK lump sum (both the £5,000 and potential £24,000) qualify to be considered within the €200,000 tax free allowance? Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Marc]

There's possibly no need to commute the lump sum.

If it is a UK Government pension, HMRC have the right to tax the income.

However, it should be within your annual UK personal allowance and therefore tax free plus you would get the benefit of indexation and spouse benefits.

The UK pension doesn't count towards your Irish lifetime allowance so you can have €2m of Irish pension benefits in addition to the UK pension.

You should also obtain a U.K. State pension forecast using form BR19 and see if you can enhance your U.K. State Pension which, again, would be payable in addition to your Irish state pension and would also benefit from indexation and spouses benefits.

http://globalwealth.ie/services/foreign-nationals/

 

[Northern Light]

Thanks for that - I had assumed that the UK pension would be amalgamated with my Irish pension for tax purposes.

In relation to the state pension I worked in the UK (Scotland) for 4 years 3 months finishing end 1994. I understood that there is now a minimum limit of 10 years on eligibility for UK state pension?