Private pension when living abroad

Iecrawfc

Wondering if anyone is in a similar situation? Have a private pension fund in ireland but living in Australia, a good way off retirement yet but wondering if it's better to leave the pension there or try transferring it across to my Oz super account? Has anyone done this and is it a painful process? Or would it be best to do it when retired?

Victor

Where do you expect to retire to? Up to about 10 years before retirement, your pension can be denominated in any currency, provided that you are happy that currency fluctuations won't be a problem.

At and after retirement, you want the core part of the pension (the part you can't do without) to be denominated in the currency you are spending.

Talking to a tax advisor and a pension advisor would be important. Pay these people, so they aren't incentivised to sell you something / motivated to give you poor advice. You don't want a situation where moving the pension creates a large tax bill.

Peregrinus

Irish tax treatment of retirement savings arrangements is much more generous than Australian, so even if you could do this I'm not sure that it would be in your interests to.

But, in any event, I don't think you can do it. You get very generous tax treatment on contributions to an Irish pension arrangement, and on investment earnings within an Irish pension arrangement, on the basis that (a) the funds are locked in until you die or retire, and (b) when one or other of those events happens, the payout will be subject to Irish tax. "I've emigrated" is not a reason why you can move your money out of your pension arrangement earlier than would otherwise be possible.

If they ever change the law to make it possible, you can be damn sure they will also make it possible to collect Irish tax on the money on the way out (and I think it would be subject to Australian tax on the way into an Australian superannuation fund and/or on earnings within the superannuation fund). So, as I say, probably not a good idea.