RE: Viewpoints on possibilities/plausibilities31 Jan 2021 17:04
The lifetime allowance question, 1.074m is a bit of a pain... But as others have said, good problem to have.. I did similar 944, moved a DB to a DC SIPP and managed to make it grow significantly, fa more than i ever expected... And this past 12 months really has been shooting fish in a barrel...
Options... Always get financial advice - i recommend Blevin Franks in particular, but you can use them on a call down basis only rather than a percentage. I had to pay a percentages on some of my transactions and one in particular was very painful, £16k for two documents..
Anyway, your options can include QROPS, or calling it down as income and only pay 45% but with limits to avoid higher rates taxes, or as a crystallisation event and take it as the lump sum with 55% as you suggested...
QROPS if an option can include relocation to the EU which is still possible for high net worth and investments in businesses or property. So for example, crudely, you could move it to Malta, pay 25% crystallisation on the excess, whilst you move to Portugal, and only pay 10% tax on income from it. In addition, malta i believes allows a 30% lump sum... This is all a very crude summary, not advice and may well be different to the last time i spoke with an advisor, indeed, the 10% tax rate is new, it used to be 0% on pension income.... You may find a mix and match approach works and abroad isn't for everyone. Cyprus used to be attractive, as you could upto about a decade ago, do a qrops, pay a charge, then get it all as cash... HMRC didn't like that one...
Anyway, best idea, get preliminary advice now, and closer to the time, confirm it and put it in place. Damn rules changing all the time, and it may well be that the above is out of date, and i've also read some quirky hmrc rules about moving abroad and still being liable for u.k. tax rates, for 6 years after, to stop some of these workarounds...