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Be Cyprus Wise: Essential advice from UK Expat Professionals for UK Expats Living in Cyprus

Be Cyprus Wise: Essential advice from UK Expat Professionals for UK Expats Living in Cyprus

When many chose to work or retire abroad it is easy to forget about the long term and concentrate on immediate issues, such as what to take and choosing a home. Many forget about the long term and often important aspects which have a profound effect on our lives or the lives of the ones we love. Although some have been on holiday to Cyprus before moving permanently, it is often not enough to prepare UK expats for the differences in lifestyle, services and legal aspects they encounter once they have make the move. The following article, written by UK expat professionals, explores some of the differences you may encounter as a UK expat in Cyprus. It includes some useful information that you may not already be aware of and will need to know in order to save and make money as well as prepare for your future life and even your death.

Retiring in Cyprus

Steve Griffin (Cert PFS) is a UK expat dedicated to providing UK expats with specialised financial advice regarding pensions and investments for UK expats. Steve has provided financial planning solutions for over 23 years, with the past 12 years as an Independent Financial Advisor in the UK and Europe. Cyprus is one of the most popular destinations for Britons to retire overseas. Although retirees can benefit from the warm climate, fantastic food and excellent healthcare on offer, many pensioners are not aware of the many benefits available to them as retirees with regards to their pension. Below are some tips for those already retired or retiring in Cyprus in the near future:

Speak to a well reputed Independent Financial Advisor regarding your pensions and investments. Everyone’s cases are different and it is important for all UK expats to seek specialist advice in order to ensure they maximise their pension benefits whilst living in Cyprus.

Tax-conscious UK expats are now recognising the benefits of Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) in ensuring that they will be viewed as non-domiciled by HMRC. UK pensions, including Final Salary or Occupational Pension Schemes (if not in payment), can be easily transferred to a tax neutral QROPS in well regulated jurisdictions such as Guernsey and New Zealand. Not only is this more tax efficient, but individuals will also have a say as to where they want their funds invested rather than being allowed no input at all whilst their funds remain in the UK.

Transferring your private and group pension funds to one of our recommended Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes or QROPS can benefit you and your family in a variety of ways. You are able to gain complete control over your money, avoid the Annuity Trap, leave 100% of your fund to your nominated beneficiaries on death and take your lump sum free of UK income tax. If you plan to be an expat for 5 years or more, you may be surprised at the many benefits you and your family can reap by transferring to a QROPS.

Law in Cyprus

Mark Tilden (B.A. Hons; P.G.C.E; F.Inst.Pa.) is a well respected. British expat living in Cyprus. Mark had his own Solicitor’s practice in Plymouth, UK, for Twenty years before deciding to move to Cyprus in 2007. Mark now operates in Cyprus, offering specialist advice to UK expats regarding Cypriot and British Wills and Probate. Below are some of Mark’s top tips for living in Cyprus:

Many UK expats are under the assumption that they do not have to make a Will in Cyprus if they already have a Will in the UK. This may not be the case depending on your individual circumstances.

There is no estate duty or inheritance tax for Cyprus domiciles, but if you are domiciled in the UK then you will be taxed 40% on your worldwide estate, including your property in Cyprus. It is important to speak with a legal professional about the subject of domicile to establish where you are currently domiciled.

In Cyprus, a house or flat owned jointly by two people, such as a husband and wife, will not automatically be passed to the survivor as it would have in the UK under “joint tenancy” law, even if there may be two names on the purchase contract. This is even the case for joint bank accounts in Cyprus. Making a Will in Cyprus can solve this problem.

Death and bereavement is a difficult time for those left behind. Make it less stressful by ensuring you have made a valid Will before you die to ensure your loved ones are looked after when you are gone.

Taxation in Cyprus

John Horton F.C.A. is a UK Chartered Accountant and had a successful practice in Birmingham for 30 years prior to relocating to Cyprus with his wife Sue in 2005.  John has extended his business qualifications by becoming a Certified Public Account in Cyprus and is currently practicing in Limassol, Paphos and Larnaca areas. Below are a couple of important tax points especially for retired people living in Cyprus:

It can be beneficial to discuss your tax situation with a qualified account as Cyprus has a generous tax structure especially for pensioners.  For example, pensioners are able to choose whether to pay a flat 5% rate on their income in excess of a small personal allowance, or to be allowed a larger allowance or tax-free band and then pay tiered rates of tax up to 30% on income in excess of the threshold.  For example:-

If you receive up to € 19,500.00 per annum, you may pay no tax at all,

€ 19,500.01 to € 28,000.00 you will only have to pay 20% tax,

€ 28,000.01 – € 36,300.00 you will pay 25% tax, and

€ 36,300.01 and above expect to pay 30% tax.

The Double Taxation Treaty between Cyprus and the UK means that for all pensioners who are tax resident in Cyprus, all forms of British pensions may be paid without the deduction of British tax.  This includes the state pension, company or group pensions and private pensions.  Many expats are unaware of this and may find they have been paying tax twice unnecessarily.  If this is the case for you it is advisable to contact a qualified accountant as it is possible to recover any tax you may have overpaid.

If you are interested to find out more from our expat professionals, you are invited to our FREE CYPRUS WISE seminar at 10:30am on the 3rd July at the Captain’s Bay Restaurant and Bar in Pissouri Bay.

Benefit from learning how to make the most of your life and your money and improve the lives of both you and your loved ones here in Cyprus. Enjoy a complementary drink with sea, sun, sand and a seminar! Take the opportunity to talk with our professionals about your personal circumstances and any queries you may have.

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Millions of British pensioners are going without food to pay their heating bills.

1 in 5 British pensioners, from a 12 million generation live in poverty, with many pensioners dying and starving to death through the winter months because they cannot afford to heat their homes, or to eat properly. Please go to this web page-link-age-countrywide.synthasite.com People who wish to phone me can ring after 7pm any evening, 01803-857020 or they can e.mail me at the following,- michaelthompson533@btinternet.com Why are our politicians getting away with saying that an ever ageing population and diminishing workforce is to be blamed for not increasing the basic state pension, but encouraging the further means testing of our pensioners ? It is a crime in our country that the basic State pension is so low. It is a crime in our country that means testing pensioners is the “in thing”. And it is a crime in our country that we have winter deaths among the elderly that are becoming more and more excessive, yet none of this genocide ( which is what it is ) ever makes the headline news. And what young people cannot seem to grasp, is it’s all coming to them Please leave a comment.
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How To Arrive And Thrive In The Uk.

How To Arrive And Thrive In The Uk.
The constantly up-to-date guide to UK immigration. Learn safely how to successfully emigrate, live and work in any part of Britain. From your visa options, to jobs, to housing, to moving, it has everything you need to know from start to finish.
How To Arrive And Thrive In The Uk.

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How do pensions work?

How do pensions work?

The first thing to remember is that if you are working and paying National Insurance, then you will be eligible for a basic state pension.

However, a basic state pension is often not enough to give you the standard of living that you want.  

The stats for 09/10 state that if you are a single person then you can expect to receive £95.25 a week, which equates to £4,572 a year.  A couple will receive £152.30 a week or £7,310.04 a year – so is that enough?

Although a basic state pension will give you a solid foundation it is also worth considering another source of income for when you finish working.

There are other types of pension that you can have running alongside your basic state pension and given that the government aren’t being overly generous, it is definitely something to consider.

Your employer might offer a pension scheme or if this is not an option, then you can start your own.

A pension is a long term investment that you pay into up until the time that you retire.  If you have a company pension, then your employer will make a contribution too, helping to build you a greater pot for your retirement.

The money that you pay into your pension will not be taxed, but instead it is put into in stocks, shares and other investments, which enables the pot to grow.

When you decide to retire, your pension fund will be converted into an income that you will receive until the day that you die.

It is worth knowing that you don’t have to stop working to start receiving from your stakeholder or personal pension.  In some cases you can even continue working for your employer whilst taking your pension.

What is important to consider is that you could be retired for as long as 30 years.  With this in mind, you need to make sure that you are provided for as your pension will become your income.

The longer that you have a scheme for, the better off you will be, although you cannot take money from your pension until you are 55.  Knowing the basics will help you to save for a better future.

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Why you should review your pension before it’s too late

Why you should review your pension before it’s too late

Your pension is probably the most important asset you have, hopefully enabling you to enjoy your retirement in the comfort and security that you enjoyed during your working life. The way a pension works is simple, the contributions you make during your working lifetime along with any employer contributions are invested in one or more of a range of professionally managed funds. Any UK resident under the age of 75 is eligible to receive income tax relief at their highest marginal rate on annual contributions to private and occupational pension schemes, up to 100% of UK earning with an annual allowance limit of £255,000 for 2010/11. Because of the favourable tax advantages, pensions have traditionally been seen as an ideal means of providing income in retirement, however, for millions of savers, their retirement plans have been ruined by years of poorly performing pension funds. With the current single state pension in 2010/11 being a maximum of £97.65 and some people receiving less than this, it is important that you are aware of the kind of income you can expect in retirement. According to the annuity specialist Partnership, between 2004 and 2009, 9 out of 10 people who retired had amassed a pension pot of less than £50,000 while 77% of people had less than £30,000, the group saying that a £30,000 annuity in today’s rates would provide an income of just £2000 a year.

With this in mind there has never been a better time to find out how your pension is performing and whether it’s on target to produce the income that you had hoped for in retirement. An easy solution is to find an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). Independent Financial Advisers are authorised and regulated by the financial services authority. This allows you to check their credentials with the Financial Services Register. They will offer you written advice and recommendations, based on your particular personal and financial circumstances. This will usually be a fee free service without obligation although you will be given the option. A successful IFA firm will work on the basic tenant of offering an advised based process and not a sale’s driven process. If they cannot illustrate to you that they can add significant value to your pension then they do not deserve you as a client. They know that by offering you advice without up front fees, they can demonstrate their commitment of excellence to you and history has shown that this is the best way for them to further their business, putting their clients first.

When first meeting with your IFA, they are required to provide you with information about the products and services they provide and about the costs to the client. They will tell you the nature of the services they provide and the types of products they offer. They will tell you whether the products are sourced from the whole of the market or from a specified sector of the market. They will explain whether they offer advice and recommendation. They will tell you the details of ownership and regulation of the firm. They will tell you how to complain to the company and, how if not entirely happy, to the Financial Ombudsman Service. They will explain to you how to obtain compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. They will explain the different options that you have for meeting the cost of the advice and whether the firm charges fees, takes commission or offers a choice between the two and where a firm does take commission, they will tell you the amount of commission and how that compares with the market average for similar transactions. All this information will then be given to you or sent to you in the post in the form of an Initial Disclosure Document.

In order for your IFA to offer you advice they will need to fully ascertain your financial and personal circumstances relevant to the services which they are to provide. This is likely to be in the form of a confidential client questionnaire or fact find. They will need to know personal information such as, name, address, date of birth, marital or relationship status, number of dependants and state of health. They will need your employment details, occupation, employer, income and benefit details and any pension arrangements. They will need to know your assets and liabilities, for example any property owned, savings and investments or personal belongings along with any mortgages, loans or credit cards. They will also need to understand your household expenditure including loan repayments, household expenses, regular savings, holidays and luxuries. They also need to ascertain your attitudes to risk, your objectives and goals and your knowledge and experience of investment in the particular product in which you are interested. In the case of a pension plan, your adviser will also need full details of your pension and provider and your authority to approach them in order to obtain all the relevant information.

Once your pension provider has provided your full pension details to the adviser, they will then carry out a full and detailed review which covers your current provider’s product charges and the investment performance of your current fund options as well as the full range of fund options, flexibility of terms, financial strength of the provider, and any on going policy administration. The resultant report they provide to you will show you how well your pension is performing relative to other products in the market and the relative charges incurred and will also provide you with a projected benefit statement for your chosen retirement age. Having obtained all this information, your adviser will then be a position to recommend that you either stay with your existing provider, contract and choice of funds, stay with your existing provider changing contracts and or funds or move to a new provider, contract and fund options.

For any recommendation given by your adviser, you will be issued with a suitability report for the specific product chosen, explaining why the product recommended is suitable to you based on your particular personal and financial situation, your needs and priorities and your attitude to risk. The report will also identify any possible disadvantages to you and will be written in clear and concise English. Once you’ve received your report your adviser will call you to make sure that you fully understand it and to point out what the implications are of following or not following the advice. Don’t forget that you are under no obligation to follow any of the advice that has been offered.

Regular reviews and fund switches can lead to a greater performance and a reduced investment risk. Many IFAs will offer a regular pension review service with a fund management service at an annual charge of between 0.5% – 1.0% of fund value. These reviews will take place either once a year or for more aggressively managed pensions, every three months. By working in this way any renumiration received by the IFA is directly linked to your pension’s performance and your IFA will be actively working to increase your pension’s growth.

Don’t neglect your pension; find out what improvements could be made to help you to retire in the comfort and security that you had hoped for.

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Reform Aimed At Personal Finance And UK Savings

Reform Aimed At Personal Finance And UK Savings

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) has issued a report which supports the Pension Commission’s recent demand for reform in the structure of the basic state pension. In fact the report goes further than simply backing the report, it calls for reforms to be implemented more rapidly than the Commission has recommended.

Essentially, the reforms that are proposed are for simplifications to be made to the current variations in available state pensions for those who are eligible. Means testing, currently used in determining eligibility and the extent of the pension available, would be dropped in favour of an across the board pension rate. Additionally, tax breaks for those who try to save for a personal pension would be put in place to encourage saving.

These reforms would serve to make pension availability, and budgeting for retirement, much clearer to understand and buy into, thereby preventing nasty surprises for the individual late in life, or the government as a generation becomes dependant on a state pension. A recent survey by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) concluded that very little provision is being made for the future by those aged 18-40 and that a very large number of UK citizens could well become dependant on state pensions.

Personal finance has become a boom sector amongst that same generation, with online access to personal finance databases such as Moneynet (http://www.moneynet.co.uk ) and Motley Fool (http://www.fool.co.uk ) providing a wealth of options for UK consumers. However despite the fact that many of those options include savings and pension schemes, it appears that they are rarely taken up, with consumers opting for credit card deals, mortgages, insurance, and personal loans instead.

Pension experts have showed their backing for the proposed Pension Commission reforms with their overwhelming response in the PPI report, and it is to be hoped that the simplifying of the state pension will bring the importance of the issue to the attention of the age range identified by the FSA.

Disclaimer

All information contained in this article is for general information purpose only and should not be construed as advice under the financial Services act 1986. You are strongly advised to take appropriate professional and legal advice before entering into any binding contracts.

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Why it pays to Start Early When it comes to Pensions

Why it pays to Start Early When it comes to Pensions

Whichever career path you choose, whether it be lawyer, hairdresser or postman, there is one issue you must be aware of: your pension. Indeed, it is never too early to start thinking about making provisions for your retirement. However, according to research a massive 52 percent of Britons are not paying into some form of pension scheme. This, say the experts, is worrying.

Considering your retirement period can constitute as much as a third of your life, it is considered essential that you start saving early on. In fact, the earlier you begin, the higher the financial payouts will be when you are retired, thus making for a much more comfortable life post-employment.

Nevertheless, many people avoid the issue because it can appear confusing and retirement can seem like a long way off when you first start working. But, with the average state pension only amounting to £4,953 per year, it definitely pays to plan ahead and make sure that you can afford to live the lifestyle you became accustomed to throughout your employment.

The experts advise that even if you can only afford to save a few pounds a month in the beginning, this is a good start since any money you put aside will earn interest. Not only that, but as your earnings increase, you can always up the amount you pay into your chosen pension plan.

One of the best ways to start saving for your pension is to join a company scheme. Generally speaking there are two types available: salary related pensions and defined contribution schemes.

The first plan is directly related to your pay and the number of years you contribute to it. Offering you a proportion of your salary when you retire, you can expect to receive around a sixtieth of your annual wage, which is then multiplied by the time you spent at the company.

A defined contribution scheme, on the other hand, sees both employer and employee contribute money each month, which is then invested. Consequently, the amount you receive at the end will depend on how much was paid in, as well as how well the investment performed. This type of pension is the most popular since it offers more flexibility than a salary related pension and is still valid even if you change employers.

So remember, a bit of planning now can make a big impact on the future and can save you from the stresses brought on from financial hardship. And, regardless of where you work and what you do for a living currently, it is important that you start thinking about your pension as early as possible.

In doing so, you will be positively working towards financially safeguarding your future post-employment.

Warnings

The value of your investment may go up as well as down and the fund value at retirement may be less than the payments you have made.

This article has been written for information and interest purposes only. The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author only, and should not be construed as advice or used to make financial decisions. Expert financial advice should always be sought and any links contained within this article are included for information purposes only.

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Contractor Pensions

www.tarpon-uk.com 0845 643 1580 Info@tarpon-uk.com Contractor Pensions What is a pension? A pension is a long-term investment to provide a source of regular income when you retire. Contributions are made into a pension fund while you are working which will then give you regular payments once you have retired based on the amount you have contributed. A pension is one of the most cost effective ways of saving for retirement as the government gives you tax relief on contributions made. For example, a basic rate taxpayer can contribute £78 to their pension scheme; this is then “topped up” by the tax man meaning you actually have £100 contributed to your fund. Less than half of people are currently saving enough for when they retire and nearly a quarter of people are not saving at all. When you retire, you’ll still have bills to pay and will also want a regular income so that you can enjoy and make the most of your retirement years. Why do I need one? A lot of people may think that retirement is a long way off for them, and so put off setting up a pension fund. But people are living longer meaning your retirement years could equal a third of your life, so the earlier you begin making contributions to a pension fund the better. The State Pension gives a basic income when you retire, but it is wise to set up a private pension as well so that you can live the lifestyle you want. Types of pensions • The Basic State Pension How much you get will depend on how much you have paid in …
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How to find IT Job in the UK – 4 Guidebooks for non-Uk nationals

How to find IT Job in the UK – 4 Guidebooks for non-Uk nationals
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