Retirement in France

Tenez

Also if you are no longer resident in the UK why are you reluctant to move your pension out of the UK? ======================================
I don't trust the Euro. And clearly it seems I was/am right.

 I recently moved to France and moved my pension to a HMRC compliant QROPS in Malta where my pot now remains invested much the same as it was in the UK and I am allowed to take drawdown as I want. ====================================
How much did that cost you? Apparently that's expensive. is your pot still in GB £? 

 The only thing you have to watch is your tax free lump sum as that is not classes as completely tax free in France and you will have to pay around 7.5% social charges on it. So you need to take your 25% lump sum prior to becoming resident in France. The other option that someone mentioned is taking all your pension pot in the UK and only paying the 7.5% social charges in France and if you are non-resident in UK there is no UK tax liable. Not completely sure how it works but many advisors can advise you on the possibility of this. But the best advice would be to seek professional advice from a professional. It may cost a bit but could save you money in the long run.
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Ok thanks. 
Does anyone have any experience with Alexander Beard as professional advice? Are they reliable as a company? 

nigelbb

Tenez said:

Also if you are no longer resident in the UK why are you reluctant to move your pension out of the UK? ======================================
I don't trust the Euro. And clearly it seems I was/am right.

 I recently moved to France and moved my pension to a HMRC compliant QROPS in Malta where my pot now remains invested much the same as it was in the UK and I am allowed to take drawdown as I want. ====================================
How much did that cost you? Apparently that's expensive. is your pot still in GB £? 

 The only thing you have to watch is your tax free lump sum as that is not classes as completely tax free in France and you will have to pay around 7.5% social charges on it. So you need to take your 25% lump sum prior to becoming resident in France. The other option that someone mentioned is taking all your pension pot in the UK and only paying the 7.5% social charges in France and if you are non-resident in UK there is no UK tax liable. Not completely sure how it works but many advisors can advise you on the possibility of this. But the best advice would be to seek professional advice from a professional. It may cost a bit but could save you money in the long run.
============================
Ok thanks. 
Does anyone have any experience with Alexander Beard as professional advice? Are they reliable as a company? 

If you are not tax resident in the UK then you pay no tax on your pension or on any pension lump sum. In France there is a special tax rate of 7.5% if you totally liquidate your pension pot. If you don't liquidate the whole pot then any lump sum will be taxed as regular income.

bostonerimus

Is the difficulty in getting UK pension funds to make payments to foreign residents confined to the EU? This sounds more like an issue with UK pensions and their inflexibility. If I was the OP I'd take a lump sum, pay the French low tax rate and reinvest the money in France. I would not be tempted by QROPS, International SIPPs or anything involving Malta.

dshart

Tenez said:

Also if you are no longer resident in the UK why are you reluctant to move your pension out of the UK? ======================================
I don't trust the Euro. And clearly it seems I was/am right.

 I recently moved to France and moved my pension to a HMRC compliant QROPS in Malta where my pot now remains invested much the same as it was in the UK and I am allowed to take drawdown as I want. ====================================
How much did that cost you? Apparently that's expensive. is your pot still in GB £? 

 The only thing you have to watch is your tax free lump sum as that is not classes as completely tax free in France and you will have to pay around 7.5% social charges on it. So you need to take your 25% lump sum prior to becoming resident in France. The other option that someone mentioned is taking all your pension pot in the UK and only paying the 7.5% social charges in France and if you are non-resident in UK there is no UK tax liable. Not completely sure how it works but many advisors can advise you on the possibility of this. But the best advice would be to seek professional advice from a professional. It may cost a bit but could save you money in the long run.
============================
Ok thanks. 
Does anyone have any experience with Alexander Beard as professional advice? Are they reliable as a company? 

You can still have your account in your currency of choice. I am still in Sterling in the QROPS but I am considering changing to Euros as I believe long term it will be more stable than Sterling.

The costs of moving to a QROPS were similar as moving to any other pension scheme in the UK and ongoing charges are similar too. Most of the advisers in such areas will only deal with you if your pot is greater than £250k and some have higher limits.

dshart

nigelbb said:

Tenez said:

Also if you are no longer resident in the UK why are you reluctant to move your pension out of the UK? ======================================
I don't trust the Euro. And clearly it seems I was/am right.

 I recently moved to France and moved my pension to a HMRC compliant QROPS in Malta where my pot now remains invested much the same as it was in the UK and I am allowed to take drawdown as I want. ====================================
How much did that cost you? Apparently that's expensive. is your pot still in GB £? 

 The only thing you have to watch is your tax free lump sum as that is not classes as completely tax free in France and you will have to pay around 7.5% social charges on it. So you need to take your 25% lump sum prior to becoming resident in France. The other option that someone mentioned is taking all your pension pot in the UK and only paying the 7.5% social charges in France and if you are non-resident in UK there is no UK tax liable. Not completely sure how it works but many advisors can advise you on the possibility of this. But the best advice would be to seek professional advice from a professional. It may cost a bit but could save you money in the long run.
============================
Ok thanks. 
Does anyone have any experience with Alexander Beard as professional advice? Are they reliable as a company? 

If you are not tax resident in the UK then you pay no tax on your pension or on any pension lump sum. In France there is a special tax rate of 7.5% if you totally liquidate your pension pot. If you don't liquidate the whole pot then any lump sum will be taxed as regular income.

Thanks, I understood that, but the issue I had when I took my lump sum was that the pension company Quilter Plc messed up and delayed so much that they ended up documenting paying out my lump sum when I was resident in France and thus I had to declare it and currently have a €7700 tax bill due to the social charges which Quilter are refusing to cover. The issue is currently with the ombudsman.

The special tax rate of 7.5% is the social charges and I do believe it can be advantageous for some people to access their whole pension pot and only pay 7.5% rather than take a tax free lump sum and later pay tax when they drawdown or take a pension from the remainder. But it can only be done if you have an uncrystallised pension and have not taken any tax free lump sum already. I do not believe they allow it done in parts.