The HMRC list, which contains pension schemes that have told the UK taxman that their product meets the criteria for inclusion, was suspended on 13 April.
The suspension followed a shock announcement by chancellor Philip Hammond to impose a 25% charge on pension transfers outside of the EEA if the Qrops destination is not the same country in which the retiree plans to live.
Hammond added an additional caveat, where the charge could be applied retroactively if the retiree moves out of the EEA or to another non-EEA country within five years of the transfer.
Schemes were given until 13 April to notify HMRC that they were compliant with the new rules.
New list
Nine countries fell off of HMRC’s list completely when it was republished on 18 April: the Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Jamaica, Kosovo, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and Turkey.
The only country to be added was the United States, although HMRC was only notified of one scheme.
The total number of schemes listed fell by 30% to 935 from 1,339 in the previous list.
Downward trend
Almost all jurisdictions experienced decreases in the number of registered schemes.
Australia remains the largest single Qrops destination with 353 schemes, despite having had 442 schemes on the list prior to the suspension.
When HMRC dropped thousands of Qrops from its list in 2015, Australia fared worst dropping from around 1,600 schemes to one. The main sticking point for Australian schemes was the ability for people to access their funds before the age of 55 in cases of serious ill health.
The Isle of Man remains the second most represented jurisdiction with 241 schemes, a drop of only 15 compared with the previous list.
Guernsey lost around 100 schemes and now has 52 on the list, while Jersey dropped from 84 to 48.
The Netherlands experienced a sharp decline, falling from 57 schemes to 13, with South Africa also continuing its downward trend and now has just three Qrops.
Gibraltar and New Zealand both lost six schemes and have 45 and 30 on the list, respectively.
There was little change, however, for Malta and Hong Kong.
After all Canadian schemes were removed from the list in November 2016, the country did not notify HMRC of any new Qrops for the latest update.
