The Registered Pension Schemes and Overseas Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 were made on 6 September 2013 and come into force on 14 October 2013. They increase the reporting requirements of Qualifying Registered Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) and include provisions for the following:
- the QROPS manager will be required to renew the QROPS status of their scheme by notifying HMRC of this status every five years. Failure to do so will result in the scheme losing its QROPS status;
- overseas QROPS and former QROPS must report payments made out of funds that have been transferred from a UK pension scheme;
- a penalties regime will be established for non-compliant former QROPS; and
- HMRC will be able to remove QROPS status in wider circumstances, including when QROPS do not have a scheme manager or provide materially incorrect or false information concerning the scheme's compliance with applicable legislation.
HMRC will be able to issue a notice for information to a third party in respect of a QROPS, for example, to confirm the member's tax position, without needing either the consent of the member or the tribunal.
HMRC has published new versions of the following QROPS forms to reflect the amendments made by the regulations:
- APSS 262 – Transferring UK tax-relieved pension assets: the form that a Scheme Administrator should use to report fund or asset transfers to a QROPS; and
- APSS 263 – Member information: the form that a member should use to provide information to your Scheme Administrator to transfer funds or assets to a QROPS.
