HMRC Suspends International Pension QROPS List

HMRC Suspends International Pension QROPS List.

Yesterday, HMRC withdrew their qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme list (QROPS).

QROPS or pension schemes outside the United Kingdom that have been approved by HMRC to accept pension transfers from UK pension schemes for British expatriates and foreign nationals who used to live and work in the UK and have now moved overseas and wish to transfer their pension out of the United Kingdom.

Given the huge changes to UK pension law and the requirement of HMRC for these international pension transfers to comply with UK retirement rules for a period, many overseas pension schemes that did have approval by HMRC, no longer qualify.

HMRC suggests that it will make a revised list available from first of July 2015 and it is expected that many international pension schemes, particularly Australia and New Zealand schemes will fall off the list.

This may of course present problems to people who are already in the process of transferring their pensions to a QROPS and we suggest you suspend any works until the new list is published just in case the scheme that you were transferring to is no longer approved as a recognised overseas pension scheme.

As ever, if you are on expatriates or planning to leave the UK and wish to take your pension scheme with you, you should seek full independent financial advice both in the UK and in the country that you live in or are moving to. This hopefully, should mean that there are no hiccups when you transfer.