Paul Davies, director at Global QROPS, said HMRC has been “very guarded” so far about its processes regarding the handling of the responses to their QROPS confirmation letters.
“What I hope is that the appearing on 1 July will give us a realistic idea of who the Revenue are happy to continue as QROPS going forward,” he said. “There are still a few creases to be ironed out but it will be out best indication to date as to who is and isn’t a valid scheme; a lot of the speculation around Australia should be cleared up by then.
“I don’t know if a lot of the larger Australian schemes will mean few QROPS clients will be off the list, we will have to see.”
Reminiscent
Sean Gillease, sales & marketing manager at Concept Group, said the only time he has previously seen HMRC suspend the entire ROPS list, as opposed to an individual scheme, was in April 2012 when a large number of Guernsey schemes were removed.
He said that the suspension will create an “inconvenient position” for pending clients where UK-registered pension schemes will be unable or unwilling to transfer to schemes which continue to comply with all conditions during the temporary suspension.
“This is due to the fact that as part of their own due diligence checks, they are supposed to refer to the HMRC published list and if the scheme is listed, they are supposed to take a print out of the list to keep on their file. This forms one part of their reference/due diligence on the proposed receiving QROPS, which is ultimately to try and ensure no unauthorised member payment is made.
“When the list is suspended in this manner, UK registered pension scheme providers are, quite reasonably, nervous and ultimately reluctant to transfer until such time as the list is republished.
“This could result in short-term delays for anyone looking to transfer from a UK-registered pension scheme to a QROPS. Even where the QROPS continues to meet all necessary conditions, with the UK registered pension scheme providers carrying out a check of the list as a standard part of their transferring out process, they are unlikely to be comfortable progressing a transfer whilst the list is suspended.”
