New QROPS rules
From Aprl 2012 new rules were announced by HMRC relating to transfers to QROPS pension schems effective from 6th April 2012.
In summary, a QROPS policyholder must now have been non UK resiedent for 10 full tax years in order to fully benefit from the tax adavnatages of QROPS schemes. In addition, scheme must now have the same tax treatment for income as the residents of the country in which the schemes are based. This has made schemes such as Guernsey based schems temporarily unattractive, although the Guernsey pension authorities are currentlylobbying hard with HMRC to try to resolve matters.
QROPS remains perfectly good advice and a very attractive solution in the right cicumstances for certain UK pension scheme holders, and offers many signifcant advantages over UK pension schemes.
The new QROPS rules should not be seen as a deterrent for those who have genuine intentions with regard to their UK pension schemes.