British people risk up to 55% taxation if pension funds go over the UK lifetime allowance (LTA), but expatriates can take steps to limit exposure. Are your UK pension funds safe from lifetime allowance (LTA) penalties? If you have several pensions, have been saving for many years or have a generous company pension, you could be in the firing line for 25% or 55% tax without realising it. What is the lifetime allowance? Since 2006, the UK government has capped how much you can hold in combined pension benefits without paying extra tax. Originally £1.5 million, the LTA peaked in 2011 at £1.8 million before gradually dropping to £1 million Read more…

Investing in Offshore Investment Bonds provides a tax wrapper that allows you to invest flexibly and tax-efficiently in the extensive global range of mutual funds that the bond provider offers through trusted fund house partners. Relationship Managers will use their knowledge of your wider portfolio, to select which funds to hold in your Offshore Bond. Designed as medium to long term investment solution, an Offshore Bond can offer a combination of potential growth and income, as well as the freedom to switch funds within the wrapper without tax liability. What is an Offshore Investment Bond? An Offshore Bond is a single premium insurance policy written outside the UK. It also Read more…

If you are an overseas buyer, you may be considering buying UK residential property as an investment whilst the value of the pound sterling is down. Before you decide to invest, read our explanation of the UK property purchase process Getting started- your objectives Before looking for potential UK investment property, you would have to get a clear idea of what you are hoping to achieve with your investment. Are you looking to invest for the short term and achieve good levels of rental yields, or are you looking to hold on to your investment for a longer time for capital growth? Many agents are selling UK investment property so Read more…

10 Reasons To Make A Will If you do not leave a Will, the law decides how your estate is passed on and this may not be in line with your wishes. This may lead to your spouse having to share your estate with your children whom you may not have intended to benefit straight away. In England and Wales, if you are married with children, you might assume that all your assets would go to your spouse. However, if you die without a valid Will and your estate is worth more than £250,000, your partner will only get the first £250,000. If you do not leave a Will, your Read more…

When it comes to taxes, not even death stops the taxman from collecting. Once seen as tax targeting the rich, rising house prices have dragged thousands more into the IHT net, leading to a record £5.2bn haul for HMRC in 2017/2018. With inheritance tax advanced planning could save you up to 40%. If you are not fond about the idea of HMRC receiving a large chunk of your estate when you die. This March, HMRC reported a staggering 44.4% increase in inheritance tax (IHT) receipts to £5.4bn, compared to the previous month. That’s up £200m on the previous year and £600m more than the £4.8bn collected in the year ending Read more…

UK Inheritance tax (IHT) is the tax which is paid on an estate when the owner of that estate dies. Depending on certain criteria, the tax may also be payable on gifts or trusts made during that person’s life. Typically, UK Inheritance Tax  is paid by the executor using funds from the estate of the deceased. Trustees with assets in a trust are usually responsible for the payment on IHT in that trust and sometimes people may have to pay IHT on gifts received. However, the payee of IHT is dependent on a number of factors, and each circumstance may affect who should pay the IHT owed. British expats and non-residents Read more…

The UK is finally moving away from a decade of austerity, as the 2020 spring budget has seen spending soar across many different sectors. The newly appointed chancellor, Rishi Sunak, spent a large part of his speech targeting the current and future impact of the coronavirus and how the government could help people affected. But the rumoured inheritance and pension tax relief reforms were given much less attention, if any. Reports that the chancellor could drastically overhaul the inheritance tax (IHT) system by reducing it to 10% with a £30,000 lifetime gifting limit came to nothing. Little airtime was also given to pensions, with the only measure taken by the UK government being Read more…

Companies could slash UK pension promises to 11 million employees, potentially knocking thousands of pounds off the incomes of people in retirement, if proposals in a government consultation paper are approved. Unions are likely to react furiously to the proposals, which would allow companies to save £90bn by providing annual increases in their retired employees’ pensions based on the consumer price index, rather than the retail price index. As CPI is generally lower than RPI, the impact on pensioners is likely to be significant over time. Analysis by advisers Hargreaves Lansdown suggests that for every £1,000 in pension income in 1988, under RPI it had increased to £2,586 this year, Read more…

Property Development Loans – From UK Expat Pension Reviews Property Development Finance and  Property Development Loans are short-term funding options, used to develop either an existing building, i.e. refurbishment, conversion, or a new build development. They can also be for residential houses, shops, offices, industrial buildings. It can be for investment purposes or owner occupied. Development Loans are usually taken over a period of between 6-18 months. This really depends on the type of Development; with a light refurbishment it would be as little as 3 months, and with a larger scheme up to 18 months. Bridging finance for development is used to build a new building or convert an existing Read more…