In principle, HMRC appear to have agreed that pension schemes that are established in Malta and regulated by the MFSA may be considered as QROPS. However, as with pension providers in all other jurisdictions, a scheme administrator of each scheme has to apply to the UK’s HMRC for QROPS approval.

For UK expat pension members, a new jurisdiction for QROPS funds is always an interesting development and for specialist QROPS advisers, such as Global QROPS Ltd, QROPS schemes in Malta would be an additional consideration in their advice process.

At the time of the writing of this news item, there are currently no QROPS in Malta on the HMRC QROPS list. As soon as Global QROPS Ltd are aware of specific schemes that have become available, we will of course keep potential clients up to date, as when schemes are approved.

Moving forward, it will also be interesting to establish the benefits that are potentially available from QROPS in Malta and if the local rules can benefit QROPS clients.

Every QROPS provider, in countries throughout the world, has benefits that could be specific to their scheme and favourable by comparison with UK pension benefits. It will be interesting to see what unique benefits Maltese QROPS have to offer.

Malta as a Jurisdiction for QROPS is a post from: Global Qrops

However, UK based independent financial advisers, Global QROPS Ltd (specialists in advice on pension transfers to Australia), often get asked whether a pension in payment can be transferred to Australia.

For UK migrants settling in Australia, pensions that are being paid to them in the form of an annuity or by way of an employer’s final salary scheme pension payment, a transfer of their benefits to a QROPS are not possible. However, for those funds in drawdown (commonly known as unsecured pension since April 2006) a transfer of these benefits to an Australian QROPS  can still happen.

One of the main attractions of an Australian scheme is the tax free lump sum benefits that are available. If an individual is looking to take those types of benefits from an Australian superannuation scheme – in respect of their UK pension transfer in – they would need to have been overseas from the UK for 5 complete UK tax years first. In the meantime, if they took their UK pension benefits via an Australian pension scheme, they would have to do so in line with UK legislation.

Is it possible for a UK Pension transfer to Australia if the scheme is already in payment? is a post from: Global Qrops

What are the major changes?
With the introduction of the upper accrual point from 6th April 2009, an individual’s entitlement to state second pension (S2P) is now based on their earnings between the lower earnings limit (£4,940 per annum 2009/10) and the upper accrual point, (£40,040 per annum – frozen from 2008/09) rather than on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.(£43,875 per annum 2009/10)

A side effect of this alteration is that, from 6th April 2009, earnings between the upper accrual point and the higher upper earnings limit have been subject to the full contracted in rate of national insurance contributions (NIC’s) although they do not qualify for any additional state pension benefit in respect of that payment. As a result, those contracted out, through employer or stakeholder/personal pension schemes, are only receiving rebates calculated up to the upper accrual point.

The second major change is the Government announcement, in the Pensions Act 2007, that all money purchase contracting out, for both employer defined contribution (DC) schemes and stakeholder/personal pension schemes, is to be abolished. This is expected to come into effect from 6th April 2012.

Global QROPS Ltd will keep all of their QROPS clients informed of any further developments.

Global QROPS Ltd – Clients with Contracting Out pensions (3) is a post from: Global Qrops

Contact Form for Home Page is a post from: Global Qrops