Hello All,

I was wondering what rules are with regard to taking your 2nd pillar out of CH and taking it into UK. I suppose with the new tax treaty you would have to either declare it or put it into a UK pension fund.

Or can you just have it paid into your swiss bank account and bring it into the UK at will?

Any advice on this is appreciated.

thanks

Assuming you're a UK citizen and returning to the UK and not another nationality going to the UK as a third country, you cannot transfer the pension because there is a Pension treaty between the UK and Switzerland. You'll receive your pension income in the normal way on retirement. There are some exceptions to this.

Swiss pensions consolidated summary

Your 2nd pillar is in two parts - the mandatory element and the extra-mandatory element.

The mandatory element (sometimes referred to as 'in accordance with BVG') may no longer be paid out in cash to someone who leaves Switzerland for an EU/EFTA country which has mandatory occupational benefits for old age. This mandatory element is the contributions you made at the mandatory age-related percentage against the 'coordinated' salary, that salary I believe is limited to approx. 85,000 sfr.

Anything more you contribute (ie a higher percentage of salary, or a higher insured salary) becomes part of the extra-mandatory element. This usually is less secure, less regulated and attracts a different (read lower, variable) return in the pension. However, assuming your pension policy allows it (and some may impose their own restrictions), it is possible to make early withdrawal of this money when leaving Switzerland, even if moving to an EU/EFTA state. If there are early withdrawal restrictions on your policy, you may be able to circumvent these by transferring the pension to a Freizügigskeit account which has no such restrictions when your employment is terminated. This can be advantageous anyway, as you can choose a Freizügigskeit account whose 'Stiftung' (trust) is located in a lower tax Kanton. The tax you will pay when cashing in the pension from abroad will be based on this location instead of your location of residence (as you are no longer Swiss resident). You should plan for this tax - if your extra-mandatory element is large (100,000+) the taxes can start to become large also, and may not be paid out of the money withdrawn (ie you must pay the tax first, before you receive the pension money - at least that is the rule if withdrawing pension money for house purchase within Switzerland).