HMRC accidentally published details of its amendments to the Qualifying Recognized Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) legislation last week.
These details didn’t contain any real surprises and will be finalized in the coming couple of weeks. What they do however is confirm that the window that allowed people to access 100% of their pension money via a New Zealand QROPS has been firmly closed.
This is obviously bad news for those who were looking to get their hands on their pension money early. However, for those that wants to use QROPS for the purposes in which they were originally intended (i.e. better managing their currency risk, mitigating inheritance tax and having a greater degree of investment choice) then it is good news as it reduces the risk of HMRC going to war with the sector as a whole.
