Bringing Super back

[jamescookson]

Hello. I moved back from Sydney 2 months ago. I want to transfer my Super back to the UK. I understand that this will be taxed at 35% but I also thought (and cant seem to find where I read/heard this) that this could be avoided if the super was transferred into an 'approved fund'. Is this true or am I imagining it?!

 

Thanks a lot

 

 

James

[Guest guest74886]

Hi

I would think that the first port of call should be your super fund here in Australia and then a pension provider of your choice in the UK to get their opinions and, possibly one of the offshore? pension providers, if you can access them without having an account.

The other option is to leave it here in Australia where interest rates are more than europe, but you are at the mercy of the exchange rate and legislative changes here in Aus which happen more frequently than the UK.

I would guess, and its no more than a guess, that it will be under QROPS which is the acronym for international pension transfers and provision .:rolleyes:

 

How are you finding it being back in the UK , is it living up to expectation or was it always the plan to go back.

[fourcorners]

Depends on whether you are of retirement age yet and whether you are a permanent resident of Australia or not. If you were on a permanent visa and under retirement age, there isn't really any straightforward way of getting at your super. You can only really get it as cash (and taxed) if you are on a temporary visa.

 

Either way there are a lot of threads on here discussing transferring super, and we'd need to know a little more about your situation if you want any specific advice.

[Guest guest74886]

Hello. I moved back from Sydney 2 months ago. I want to transfer my Super back to the UK. I understand that this will be taxed at 35% but I also thought (and cant seem to find where I read/heard this) that this could be avoided if the super was transferred into an 'approved fund'. Is this true or am I imagining it?!

 

Thanks a lot

 

 

 

 

James

 

Hi there

I assume tho that you are wanting to transfer it to another UK pension fund which may be different to actually accessing the fund before pension age.

[Sydney]

I was in the bank the other day asking similar questions here in the UK and the bloke wasn't too sure. Opening a pension/retirement plan with a UK bank and transferring it would in my opinion be the most simple way of doing it. The tax rules though appear a bit cloudy. I have to go back and see this financial genius in a couple of weeks and if he sheds any light on the question I'll post something.

On another note, I decided to open an ISA trading account which allows me to deposit double the amount of an ISA cash deposit account and isn't a bad long term alternative to pension accounts which few people seem to trust over here. Think you can put in around £11,500 per annum, and the gains are tax free for the life of the account. The bank manage the portfolio. Cash ISAs don't return much at all and this is just a long term option that might be useful to some of us.

i also manage my own retirement fund in Australia which is presently locked away in a term deposit where as someone mentioned the interest is much healthier than the UK. When I asked an accountant friend about moving the money to the UK should I chose not to return to Oz he suggested transferring it and not worrying about the implications if I'm not coming back. Perhaps that's a solution to some for getting their money out without the heavy tax. Get your accountant to set you up a self managed super account whereby you are the trustee and have your present superannuation balance transferred to it. Then simply take it with you. Mind you it burns bridges for returning to Australia, but some of the posters on here are definite they don't want to go back to Oz. It also depends on your age because you can get it legally at 60 which suits me fine as I only have four years to wait. I'm not encouraging anyone to do anything illegal but when I first arrived in Australia in the late 70s, tax dodging was the national past time. Don't think things have changed all that much really. Good luck... Syd.

[NicF]

Hello. I moved back from Sydney 2 months ago. I want to transfer my Super back to the UK. I understand that this will be taxed at 35% but I also thought (and cant seem to find where I read/heard this) that this could be avoided if the super was transferred into an 'approved fund'. Is this true or am I imagining it?!

 

Thanks a lot

 

 

James

 

Things might have changed since but when my Australian OH was looking at moving his super in to his UK pension fund it just was not allowed at all. Our financial advisor before we left the UK said pretty much the same thing. I believe if you were in Australian on a temp visa then you can complete some paperwork to say you have left the country permanently and you can get your super back but I'm not sure you can access it at all if you were on a PR until you retire. I could be wrong though, or the rules may have changed, so I suggest you get yourself some advice from someone who knows the Australian system.

[Guest guest74886]

Hello. I moved back from Sydney 2 months ago. I want to transfer my Super back to the UK. I understand that this will be taxed at 35% but I also thought (and cant seem to find where I read/heard this) that this could be avoided if the super was transferred into an 'approved fund'. Is this true or am I imagining it?!

 

Thanks a lotJames

 

 

SORRY, I have checked by googling this issue and learnt that unlike other countries Australia does not allow for the transfer of pension funds into another country's pension schemes even if you renounce your citizenship, or at least what I have just read