Effective Date: 6 April 2015
All Australian super funds that are also a Qualifying Registered Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) must satisfy new requirements including:
- Broadly restricting members aged under 55 from accessing benefits transferred to a QROPS, unless the member satisfies the ill-health condition as defined under UK law.
Should a fund wish to maintain QROPS compliant it must notify Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that it can meet the UK pension age test requirement in one of two ways:-
- State that Australian law prevents payments to members under age 55 unless the member is retiring due to ill health (as defined under UK law); or
- If Australian law does allow such payments that the fund has rules in place to prevent such payments.
The consequence of not being a registered QROPS fund is that any UK pension transfers made into the fund could carry up to a 55% tax on the value of the transfer.
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