Paying £2880 into SIPP as an expat

Tassie_Devil

Is it possible for me as an expat (and not currently resident in the UK for tax purposes) to pay the £2880 into my SIPP and receive the £720 from HMRC?
Or do I need to wait until I return to the UK to live?

BoGoF

No, you need to be resident in the UK.

TBC15

I thought you could do it for the first 5 yrs, or am I thinking of something else.

[Deleted User]

Yes you can within the first 5 years of leaving as long as you were UK tax resident. (you leave and then you can put it in for 5 full tax years)
However you might have to do the numbers as you will be probably be putting in net of your destination countries tax and receiving UK tax uplift at a different rate

Johnnyboy11

From here:

"If a customer doesn’t have relevant UK earnings on moving abroad (i.e. they’re being paid and taxed overseas), then they will only be able to receive tax relief on personal contributions of up to £3,600 gross pa for five full tax years following the tax year in which the person moves abroad."

I recall that to qualify, you need to have had a Personal Pension in the tax-year that you left the UK, maybe even before you left the UK, can't remember which.

[Deleted User]

Johnnyboy11 wrote: »

From here:

"If a customer doesn’t have relevant UK earnings on moving abroad (i.e. they’re being paid and taxed overseas), then they will only be able to receive tax relief on personal contributions of up to £3,600 gross pa for five full tax years following the tax year in which the person moves abroad."

I recall that to qualify, you need to have had a Personal Pension in the tax-year that you left the UK, maybe even before you left the UK, can't remember which.

Slightly different wording to gov.uk
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm044100#overseas

Members who move overseas
An individual who is a member of a registered pension scheme and is no longer resident in the UK is a relevant UK individual for a tax year if they were resident in the UK both:

at some time during the five tax years before that year
when the individual became a member of the pension scheme.
These individuals may also qualify for tax relief on contributions up to the ‘basic amount’ of £3,600.

(No mention of non UK earnings - by reading the gov.uk one I think it means you can put in UK pension income which has been taxed in the destination country into a UK pension, by reading the Aegon one it doesn't sound like you can)

WarrenStean

That is 100% correct you need to have been a member of an existing scheme when you left and you may get relief on contributions up to 3,600 for 5 years. i.e. you cant set up a new scheme once you have left and get relief, you need to have been a contributing member of the scheme prior to leaving the UK to qualify. I hope that clarifies it for you.