SIPP into overseas pension scheme

sultan123

HMRC have a list of overseas pension schemes. Can a UK tax payer invest into these overseas pension schemes and get same benefits as ones here?

Marcon

sultan123 said:

HMRC have a list of overseas pension schemes. Can a UK tax payer invest into these overseas pension schemes and get same benefits as ones here?

Check the scheme details to see if you are eligible to invest and what benefits you'll get, which are unlikely to include any sort of UK tax relief. Why do you want to invest in these rather than UK schemes? Your title is "SIPP into overseas pensions" - are you talking about transferring?

Linton

I think you will find there are very few people here who would have detailed knowledge of international pension transfers.

What I believe....
 - they are complex and can have different tax effects depending on the country concerned
 - if you want to do this you should be talking to a well qualified, regulated and probably expensive advisor.  In the past the area has been highly lucrative for scammers and there have been many reports of people losing their pensions this way.
 - People may use this option if they have international employment arrangements or are migrating.  It would not be normal for a typical UK resident ermployed in the UK with no intention of moving elsewhere.
 - you can't, as a UK citizen resident and working in the UK with a UK SIPP, set up something similar in say Australia and ask for your UK SIPP to be transferred-in in the same way as can be done within the UK.

So what are your circumstances and what benefits do you believe transferring your SIPP to another country will provide?

sultan123

Marcon said:

sultan123 said:

HMRC have a list of overseas pension schemes. Can a UK tax payer invest into these overseas pension schemes and get same benefits as ones here?

Check the scheme details to see if you are eligible to invest and what benefits you'll get, which are unlikely to include any sort of UK tax relief. Why do you want to invest in these rather than UK schemes? Your title is "SIPP into overseas pensions" - are you talking about transferring?

Because the UK SIPP investments seem more risky in terms of growth.

Not transferring - paying in

sultan123

Linton said:

I think you will find there are very few people here who would have detailed knowledge of international pension transfers.

What I believe....
 - they are complex and can have different tax effects depending on the country concerned
 - if you want to do this you should be talking to a well qualified, regulated and probably expensive advisor.  In the past the area has been highly lucrative for scammers and there have been many reports of people losing their pensions this way.
 - People may use this option if they have international employment arrangements or are migrating.  It would not be normal for a typical UK resident ermployed in the UK with no intention of moving elsewhere.
 - you can't, as a UK citizen resident and working in the UK with a UK SIPP, set up something similar in say Australia and ask for your UK SIPP to be transferred-in in the same way as can be done within the UK.

So what are your circumstances and what benefits do you believe transferring your SIPP to another country will provide?

What do you mean cannot be transferred same way as UK? 

Circumstances are wanting to make contribution into SIPP

Marcon

sultan123 said:

Marcon said:

sultan123 said:

HMRC have a list of overseas pension schemes. Can a UK tax payer invest into these overseas pension schemes and get same benefits as ones here?

Check the scheme details to see if you are eligible to invest and what benefits you'll get, which are unlikely to include any sort of UK tax relief. Why do you want to invest in these rather than UK schemes? Your title is "SIPP into overseas pensions" - are you talking about transferring?

Because the UK SIPP investments seem more risky in terms of growth.

Not transferring - paying in

Pick less risky funds - and get some professional advice, as repeatedly suggested in response to your many other threads on this topic. 

Suhusa

sultan123 said:

HMRC have a list of overseas pension schemes. Can a UK tax payer invest into these overseas pension schemes and get same benefits as ones here?

Are you talking about tax benefits? If yes, then that's gonna be difficult. Just going by how equivalent pension schemes work in Germany (where I've transferred my pension to because I moved there) you'd only get tax breaks if you submitted a German tax return, which you wouldn't be able to as a UK tax payer, or if you were working in Germany (which of the two applies depends on the precise type of pension scheme). You'd also have to transfer the payments out of your salary after tax and you'd have to take variations in exchange rates and also fees for transfers in another currency into account. Depending on the country, the equivalent schemes may be less flexible than in the UK.

Reading around there seem to be schemes tailored to, ahem, optimise tax. But as far as I'm aware even those assume that you have a pension pot to transfer, so they're not designed to be started from zero. Also, the reason that the ruleson overseas transfers change every few years is because the UK government is trying to plug loopholes (thus making overseas transfers bloody difficult - it took me the better part of a year to have my pension transferred).

bostonerimus

Forget about ROPs and QROPS. You can invest however you like inside UK based pension wrappers and tailor your risk and you get all the protections of UK regulation and tax advantages. Going overseas will be expensive and you'll have the added risk of foreign regulation and dealing with cross boarder taxation. You'll also be swimming in shark infested waters. If you are considering this you need to read and understand the applicable Double Taxation Treaty and that should put you off doing it.

dunstonh

Because the UK SIPP investments seem more risky in terms of growth.

SIPPs are whole of market for investment choice.  That is over 30,000 different investments available.   So, there isn't much logic in your argument there.

sultan123

dunstonh said:

Because the UK SIPP investments seem more risky in terms of growth.

SIPPs are whole of market for investment choice.  That is over 30,000 different investments available.   So, there isn't much logic in your argument there.

Yeah but they are always risky?

sultan123

bostonerimus said:

Forget about ROPs and QROPS. You can invest however you like inside UK based pension wrappers and tailor your risk and you get all the protections of UK regulation and tax advantages. Going overseas will be expensive and you'll have the added risk of foreign regulation and dealing with cross boarder taxation. You'll also be swimming in shark infested waters. If you are considering this you need to read and understand the applicable Double Taxation Treaty and that should put you off doing it.

So no overseas pension pot gets you tax relief? E.g. reduced net income, 20% back etc??