Investment Cons and Misleading Deals

In September 2017, it was announced that the Portuguese Government, following pressure from Sweden and a number of other European countries, was looking to water down the country’s non-habitual residency (NHR) tax regime, potentially bringing to an end a programme that has worked in the interests of expats since 2009. The uncertainty this proposed move provoked certainly threatened to put a dampener on the financial plans of quite a number of expats and would-be expats as they moved into 2018.

However, the budget proposal presented by the Portuguese government in November seemed to allay these fears. There was not a single mention of the scheme, which would have seen the introduction of a flat rate of tax of either 5% or 10% on income drawn from the pensions of NHRs.

In all probability any such move would have seen the pensions of existing expat NHRs unaffected; however, it would have presented a significant stumbling block to the retirement plans of many looking to move both their wealth and their residence status to the country.

It has just become more straightforward for those looking to transfer their pensions into a QROPS in France, with many pension providers promising to drastically reduce their exit charges in the wake of comments from Chancellor George Osborne saying he will introduce legislation to cap costs.

This comes in the wake of concerns that some savers have been discouraged from making the most of flexible pensions access because of exit charges of between 5% and 10%.

Osbourne commented, “The government will not allow financial firms to rip off customers who have spent their working lives saving hard for retirement.”