The 1 March list of recognised overseas pension schemes, referred to now by HMRC as Rops rather Qrops, showed there were 113 compared to 83 on 15 February.
In July last year, HMRC removed all Australian Qrops, around 1,600, from the list leaving only 1 public sector pension scheme.
This was due to Australian schemes failing HMRC’s ‘Pension Age Test’ , introduced from 6 April 2015, as there were circumstances such as serious financial hardship where these schemes could pay benefits before the member reaches age 55.
In September 2015, a second Australian Qrops was added to the HMRC list, which Paul Davies, director of UK-based Global Qrops, said was significant as this was an Australian ‘Self-Managed Super Fund’.
He said these funds are established for an individual member, who was already over 55 years old.
“As the individual member was already over 55 years old, the scheme could, therefore, not fail the Pensions Age Test. Now this solution has been established, the Self-Managed Superfund trust structure has been replicated over 100 times and is an increasingly popular Qrops advice option, from expert advisers, for those retiring to Australia.”
