HM Revenue and Customs has been left embarrassed over another QROPS bungle that saw 432 pensions suspended in error.
Shocked QROPS providers across the world found that their schemes had been mysteriously knocked off the HMRC official QROPS list for no apparent reason.
Worried investors and financial advisers harried providers and HMRC to find out what had happened, but HMRC made no comment for almost 24 hours.
Who is to blame and why the QROPS were suspended is still not known.
In fact, no one currently knows whether a QROPS is recognised, suspended or excluded until HMRC publishes another list.
QROPS glitch
“It is a glitch and we are investigating what happened,” said an HMRC spokesman. “We will publish an updated list as soon as we can.
“I can’t say when the list will go live, but we are working on the problem and hope to resolve the issues as soon as we can.”
While QROPS schemes are missing off the HMRC list, UK pension companies cannot transfer funds offshore.
From analysing the list, HMRC seems to have deleted any scheme that applied for recognition as a QROPS since April 2012.
HMRC publishes the QROPS list at fortnightly intervals. The list is a database of QROPS schemes certified by the providers as meeting HMRC regulations.
The problem is one of many issues that have led to QROPS problems for HMRC.
Last year, another technical glitch saw HMRC publish draft updated QROPS regulations in error.
Top-level QROPS review
Then, a technician was blamed for ‘pressing the wrong button’. The draft was pulled off the web, but not before copies were downloaded and circulated around providers and financial advisers.
Only a week ago, HMRC lawyers divulged a ‘top-level review’ into QROPS was underway when asking to withdraw from a High Court challenge from 120 disgruntled Singapore ROSIIP QROPS investors.
They were battling an HMRC demand for tax on their pension fund transfers by arguing HMRC failed to keep them informed about the status of the scheme and allowed them to move their money illegally before imposing penalties.
Lawyers must present a QROPS policy statement to the court to withdraw from the case.
Many industry experts suspected HMRC suspended the 432 schemes as a result of the impending statement.
