HM Revenue & Customs has published the June QROPS update at last – two days later than promised.
Although retirement savers and QROPS professionals feared the worst and another massive cull of providers, the count of offshore pensions clicked up to 932 – six more than on May 15, when the last list was released.
Drilling down into the figures, some QROPS financial centres fared better than others.
- Australia, which was expected to suffer most casualties put on 55 pensions to move from a total of 358 in May to 413.
- Rising offshore pensions star Gibraltar saw nine QROPS close, moving down from 40 to 31 schemes
- Guernsey lost 20 QROPS and has seen 125 pensions close since April 6, dropping to 27 pensions from 152 in nine weeks.
- The Isle of Man, which has the second largest head count of QROPS, saw three schemes delisted, taking the total to 231.
- Jersey saw 17 QROPS close, losing 55 pensions since April 6 – with the total slipping from 84 to 29
HMRC declined to discuss why the publication of the QROPS List was late or why specific schemes were delisted.
“The April and May Pension Schemes Newsletters set out the planned changes to the scheduled publication of the ROPS notification list this month,” said an HMRC spokesman.
“This has allowed for an update for the removal of schemes that either have notified us that they no longer meet the requirements due to the regulations that took effect from April 6 or did not reply to the information notice we sent out. The list was published as soon as possible.”
Since April 2006, about 110,000 retirement savers have switched more than £8.8 billion from UK pensions to QROPS, according to HMRC figures.
The next HM Revenue and Customs QROPS List is scheduled for June 15, 2017.
Click here for more information about recent QROPS changes
For more information about QROPS and the benefits it provides, download the iExpats QROPS Guide or complete the Get Advice form.
QROPS List By Financial Jurisdiction
| Financial Centres | No of QROPS |
|---|---|
| Australia | 413 |
| Austria | 6 |
| Barbados | 1 |
| Belgium | 1 |
| Bulgaria | 3 |
| Denmark | 1 |
| European Union | 1 |
| Finland | 1 |
| Germany | 9 |
| Gibraltar | 31 |
| Guernsey | 27 |
| Hong Kong | 21 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| India | 13 |
| Ireland | 51 |
| Isle of Man | 231 |
| Jersey | 29 |
| Kenya | 1 |
| Latvia | 3 |
| Liechtenstein | 1 |
| Luxembourg | 2 |
| Malta | 34 |
| Mauritius | 2 |
| Netherlands | 13 |
| New Zealand | 30 |
| Norway | 1 |
| South Africa | 3 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
| Total: | 932 |
Source: HMRC
The table shows the net number of schemes, accounting for new listings and removals since the publication of the last list.
