Now pensioners are no longer obliged to buy an annuity, Guardian Money considers your options. This week we look at the pros and cons of heading to somewhere in the sun
It sounds a brilliant wheeze: if you take all your pension pot at retirement under the new freedoms that come into force next April, the tax bill could be massive, with HMRC pocketing 45% of everything over £150,000; but what if you hop off to some sunny, low-tax location such as Gibraltar, Cyprus or even Australia, transfer the pension money over to the new country, and draw it down there, avoiding almost all the tax in the UK? Pop back a year later, and you'll have managed to take your pension pot almost tax-free, or so the story goes. It's an idea that has been doing the rounds in the online comment section below our recent stories on the new pension freedoms. Trouble is, it's not anywhere near as easy as people make out.
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