Ginolard
22-01-2009, 7:59 PM
Hi everyone,
I'm hoping someone can give me some simple, plain advice. I am British expat working as an IT contractor within the EU. For several years I have worked through a management company who have handled my invoicing and split payments between my country of residence and the Channel Islands. They told me today that they are no longer willing to do this because the tax authorities are starting to seriously clamp down on this and, should I continue as I am, I may be serious danger of an audit and severe penalties.
They have advised that I, instead, set up a scheme with them using a Luxembourg-based Life Assurance company and pay the "offshore" funds into an investment portfolio that would be my pension. Now, I am completely clueless when it comes to financial investment. I have no idea what the difference is between a bond, an equity, a unit trust and a share etc. They were using words like "non contractual agreement" and "no exit penalties".
Eseentially, what I want is this. I want to set something up that allows me to pay whatever I want into, whenever I want. If I am out of work I should be able to not pay into it without incurring any penalties. I would also need access to the money without paying any penalties. Ideally, I would just keep paying money into this scheme until I retire and it would then provide with a decent income during my retirement (in about 25 years).
1) Is this sort of thing even possible?
2) Does it sound like the sort of thing my management company were offering (non contractual Life Assurance blah blah)?
3) Is it even safe to go with Life Assurance companies (like Scandia, Generali) at the moment?
I would really appreciate any advice you can give as I'm a little worried about all this and just want to make sure that the funds I have available for saving at the moment can be safe and invested well for my retirement
I'm hoping someone can give me some simple, plain advice. I am British expat working as an IT contractor within the EU. For several years I have worked through a management company who have handled my invoicing and split payments between my country of residence and the Channel Islands. They told me today that they are no longer willing to do this because the tax authorities are starting to seriously clamp down on this and, should I continue as I am, I may be serious danger of an audit and severe penalties.
They have advised that I, instead, set up a scheme with them using a Luxembourg-based Life Assurance company and pay the "offshore" funds into an investment portfolio that would be my pension. Now, I am completely clueless when it comes to financial investment. I have no idea what the difference is between a bond, an equity, a unit trust and a share etc. They were using words like "non contractual agreement" and "no exit penalties".
Eseentially, what I want is this. I want to set something up that allows me to pay whatever I want into, whenever I want. If I am out of work I should be able to not pay into it without incurring any penalties. I would also need access to the money without paying any penalties. Ideally, I would just keep paying money into this scheme until I retire and it would then provide with a decent income during my retirement (in about 25 years).
1) Is this sort of thing even possible?
2) Does it sound like the sort of thing my management company were offering (non contractual Life Assurance blah blah)?
3) Is it even safe to go with Life Assurance companies (like Scandia, Generali) at the moment?
I would really appreciate any advice you can give as I'm a little worried about all this and just want to make sure that the funds I have available for saving at the moment can be safe and invested well for my retirement