# UK Pensions



## happydaze (Jan 25, 2015)

I read recently that in UK budget new rules were coming in for final salary public pension transfers, also from 2015, taking all pension pot out after 55.
Does anyone know if they are going ahead on the proposal to allow a full payout of private pensions to people residing in NZ from April 2015?


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## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

I understood it to be that from April 2015, transferring of final salary type pensions out of the UK into an approved QROPS scheme here would become more difficult and may become impossible. The proposal is going ahead as far as I know.
We've been progressing the transfer of both of our final salary UK pension schemes over to NZ since Oct 2014 before the cut off date as they can take a while. NHS ones take around 6 months!!!
All tax free also as we've been in NZ under 4 years.

We cannot dip into the funds until we are 55 years old which as far as we know is the same rules as our UK pension ?

Think we'll feel a lot happier when they are finally transferred next month and the money finally invested in the country that we'll be living in for many years to come.


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## mikejf12 (Jun 30, 2015)

I moved over to NZ from the UK in 2010, Im just thinking about moving my pensions over. I wondered whether anyone had experience of this. What are the general percentage costs of (a) moving the money and (b) buying into a new pension ? Ive had some quotes but I wanted to hear other peoples experiences.


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## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

mikejf12 said:


> I moved over to NZ from the UK in 2010, Im just thinking about moving my pensions over. I wondered whether anyone had experience of this. What are the general percentage costs of (a) moving the money and (b) buying into a new pension ? Ive had some quotes but I wanted to hear other peoples experiences.


You're a bit late. You'll be hammered in tax since you are transferring outside of the 4 year migrant window, but nothing you can do about it now 

We paid 1.25% of the transferred amount in commission to the transferring agent and that money was actually taken out of the pension fund on transfer so we didn't have to dip in to our pocket to pay the fees, which was good for us. We can make up what we've lost in the next 25 years of work.
That fee was half the normal price - should have been 2.50%.

Didn't cost anything to start the new scheme although there are the usual tiny ongoing management fees on the new NZ pension account, however this is negligible.


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## chc4me (Jun 10, 2013)

escapedtonz said:


> You're a bit late. You'll be hammered in tax since you are transferring outside of the 4 year migrant window, but nothing you can do about it now
> .


A transfer of a pension fund can be completed after the 4 year tax free window, but some tax will need to be paid to the NZ IRD. The amount increases with each passing year. As an example, if you moved to NZ in January 2010 and transferred your pension savings in October 2015 you would pay tax on the first 9.45% of the transferred amount. The other 90.5% is tax free.

Value of pension in NZD X Percentage (based on number of years), then X by your marginal tax rate (maximum of 33%).

EG: $50,000 pension x 9.45% = $4,725 x 33% = $1,559 tax to pay.

One of the main advantages of paying tax now is at retirement no further tax is required. Compared to the UK where tax is required on withdrawals and income, this could be a huge difference.

Depending on the month that you arrived in NZ, the amount could be less. Approximately the first 4.75% for each year after the 4 year tax free window is calculated for NZ tax. Best to gather all the information and then make an informed decision.


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