Transferring defined contribution pension when moving back to the US

Morning all,

I bet something like this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything on the first few pages.

I'm currently on a Tier 2 General visa and have just moved to the UK. As I won't get indefinite leave to remain for at least 5 years, and have no clue what will happen with my employment by then, I have to think about what will happen with my company pension if I have to go back to the US.

I've read that the UK will allow you to move it to a recognized overseas pension scheme (ROPS), but the IRS won't? I am not sure if that was reliable information. The other problem with ROPS is that the HMRS lists 2 schemes in the US that count as ROPS, and I can find absolutely no information on them online.

I want to contribute to my company's scheme, as the employer makes very generous contributions. But I don't want to do it if it requires me living the rest of my life in the UK, as that may be out of my hands, or if I get taxed punitively on it for moving back overseas.

Can you just keep the account in the UK if you reside in the US? Or do you have to be a UK resident to maintain the account? Or if there is something I've missed, is there some way of fairly moving the funds abroad? I'm just a small-time working guy, not a millionaire, so I assume there is some way of doing it.....

Hope I didn't ramble too much! Thanks for any and all advice!

Cheers,
Max

QROPS for US citizens have significant issues. The QROPS companies will deny them or seek to minimize them, but IMHO they are best avoided because of the US taxation uncertainties around the transfer.

You can certainly keep your UK pension fund once you move back to the US. The situation right now is that if you move back to the US and take income from a UK private pension it will only be taxable in the US.......and given the change to UK pension rules you could arrange thing so that only 75% of the income would be US taxable.

You can keep you UK pension should you move back to the US.  I have 2 small UK pensions from companies that I worked at for 6 years in one instance and 7 years the other.

I am have been drawing one pension for 8 years now and will start to draw the next one in 18 months time.  I still live in the US and the UK pension is paid to me gross, no UK tax.  I declare it as income on my US tax return and pay US tax on it.