How To Make Overseas Pension Transfers

If you are an expat with a pension in your home country, you might be thinking there is no point in moving your funds offshore. After all, the money is secure, you might not need it for a while and you trust your pension pot back home. Today, we invite pension expert Sofia Kluge, Web Editor & Community Manager at OPP award winning foreign exchange comparison site MyCurrencyTransfer.com to provide some tips on making overseas pension transfers. 

Why It Pays To Transfer Your Pension

What you may not know is that by transferring your pension to your new home country, you will be free of the restrictions and tax laws governing your pension right now. By transferring your pension you could potentially be thousands of pounds better off and have better control over what happens to your money once you retire. You’ve worked hard for the money in your pension so doesn’t it make sense to transfer your pension without risk?

Pension Transfer Requirements

In order to transfer your UK registered pension, you will need to transfer it to a Qualifying Registered Overseas Pension Scheme (QPROPS). The trustees of your current pension scheme will check that the scheme you are planning to transfer is a QPROPS and that it complies with HMRC requirements. 

What You Need To Know About QPROPS

QPROPS is a set of regulations set down by the HMRC. It is essential that the overseas pension scheme you select for your transfer comply with these regulations. If it doesn’t, you may be liable to pay a huge 55% unauthorised transfer charge. You won’t usually need to pay any UK tax fees because you will not be living in the UK when your QPROPS payments are made to you. 

QPROPS was first introduced in 2006 and was designed to give people living in the UK to emigrate to another country and to take their pension with them. Whether you are going to be drawing your pension in a couple of years or you plan to continue paying into your pension for many years to come, transferring it to your new home country makes a lot of sense. 

The QPROPS Process

Once you have decided that you would like to transfer your pension, you can speak to a QPROPS advisor to discuss the money transfer and the best way of organising everything. 

Your QPROPS service will usually include the following:

• A free initial consultation to ascertain your personal circumstances.
• If you decide to proceed with the QPROPS transfer, your advisor will give you a personalised report detailing their recommendations.
• Your advisor will then go over the recommendations to ensure you are clear on all points and have everything you need to make an informed choice. 
• If you are happy to proceed, your advisor will issue the relevant forms to you so that you can complete and sign them. 
• Your QPROPS advisor will then arrange the transfer of money from your UK scheme into your new QPROPS scheme overseas. 
• Once the money transfer has taken place, your QPROPS advisor will make all of the arrangements to ensure your monies are made available to you upon your retirement date.

Choosing The Right Pension Transfers Company

Before you decide to go ahead with your pension transfer, it pays to shop around for the right advice. The HMRC website offers plenty of advice on QPROPS transfers and your pension transfers broker will also give you all the information you need about the process. 

Shop around for an international money transfer broker with years of experience in transferring pensions to a broad spectrum of different countries or choose a broker that is experienced in the country you are emigrating to. Ensure the FCA regulated currency broker is authorized and regulated. They will be aware of the rules and regulations that are specific to that country and ensure a swift and smooth transfer. 

Only Trust The Top Tax Firm For Your Serious Tax Issues

Any person who encounters tax problems should certainly consider consulting with a professional Canadian tax firm. With the intricacies of Canadian tax law being what they are, a taxpayer may be better served in hiring the services of a tax firm to ensure that they are on target with actions to resolve any issues. A tax firm works with taxpayers to resolve their problems with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). In fact, tax firms generally focus on tax-related problems and relief. If you are looking for help with Canadian tax problems, tax professionals provide a wide range of services that helps a taxpayer in trouble go through an audit successfully, have liens removed, fines reduced and navigate through the minefield of self-employment and business tax issues.

Tax-related problems, such as tax evasion and late tax filling, can be serious problems with very serious consequences. It is not a good idea to deal with the Canada Revenue Agency without legal assistance. It is crucial to hire a top tax firm, because they can provide you with the best tax professional. They employ some of the most knowledgeable and experienced tax experts available and handle both personal and business tax issues with ease. Most business owners consider tax firms to be as important as accountants, helping you to eliminate tax problems before they even show up. An experienced tax person can detect potential trouble spots and can advise you how to avoid the problems. Canadian tax law can change at any time, so make sure you hire someone who is informed on the latest changes and will advise clients accordingly. Any taxpayer who is looking for a tax specialist should research properly in order to find a good one. The taxpayer should find a representative with a lot of experience in providing help with Canadian tax problems like dealing with the tax department, resolving debt issues, and representing real live taxpayers. It is also important to make sure that they are a member of the professional association.

If you’re looking for a tax firm to help you with your tax problems, make sure that the firm is permitted to act on your behalf with the CRA. Find out what kinds of cases they have worked on previously and make sure that they have experience in handling your type of case. When it comes to tax issues Tax911 Now! is knowledgeable, experienced and makes you feel comfortable. Canadian tax fines tend to snowball and it's always advisable to take care of problems before they become big issues. Delaying in seeking help could be very costly and might lead to undesirable situations for you. The money you invest in getting tax help can certainly be considered a smart investment.

Author Bio:

As a taxpayer you can trust the blogs of Doug Mathly to provide sound advice on tax rules and seeking help with Canadian tax problems. Doug had the opportunity to work with the professional team at Tax911 Now! recently and he suggests that before you get in over your head you should contact them and find out how to approach your tax issues.

The Benefits of Renewable Energy: Your Wallet and Your Community

In this day and age, is is crucial to find ways of protecting the environment and its resources to ensure that future generations can thrive on Earth. Fortunately, using renewable energy does not only help the environment but can ultimately save you money as well. In fact, here is a more detailed look at 4 benefits of renewable energy:

1. Unlimited supply

Strong winds, plant residues, fast-moving water, sunshine, and heat from the planet are all examples of energy sources that are limitless or can be replenished. Such sources can easily supply future populations with the energy they need without worry (with the exception of plant residues and fast-moving water if such resources are not taken care of properly).

2. Availability

One of the best things about using renewable energy is that doing so allows for more local control of energy to best benefit the country and individual communities. Using renewable energy helps everyone to become involved and shape energy use for the future.

It is also believed that energy pricing can be stabilized with the use of renewable energy. Many natural resources, such as uranium and oil, experiences pricing fluctuations based on a number of factors. However, renewable energy will not be affected by the increased costs of international resources and its cost will be mostly related to repaying invested capital. In fact, you can see how much money such a service costs by checking out renewable energy providers through services such as Alberta Energy.

Another important thing to note is that the cost of installing energy efficient systems are decreasing. In fact, the cost of a solar panel has decreased by nearly 60% since 2011 while the cost of generating power from wind has dropped by about 20%. In windy areas such as Texas, wind power can directly compete with the use of fossil fuels.

3. Environmentally friendly

Renewable energy is excellent for the environment due to the fact that the systems produce little to no greenhouse gas emissions while in use. Furthermore, only small amounts of emission is produced during the manufacturing of fuels and equipment. Renewable energy sources also produce fewer water and air pollutants, land disruption, and waste.

4. Job creation

Localizing the use of renewable energy produces jobs all over the country (and world). In fact, according to a fact sheet provided by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), in 2012 alone, over 110,000 green jobs were created.

Fortunately, there are plenty of jobs available dedicated to helping the world become more green. In fact, sectors with energy efficiency include:

• Public Mass Transit 
• Energy-saving Building Materials 
• HVAC and Building Control Systems 
• Green Architecture and Construction Services 
• Professional Energy Services 
• Appliances 
• Energy-saving Consumer Products 
• Battery Technologies 
• Smart Grid 
• Electric Vehicle Technologies 
• Lighting 
• Water Efficient Products 

As you can see, there are many benefits for using renewable energy. With vigilance, you can do your part to help the world and also put more money back into your wallet.

Dale Hooper has worked as an electrical engineer in Both the US and Canada, where his wife is from. He also enjoys sharing his knowledge on the topic online.

Finding Funds: All About Structured Settlements

Structured settlements are one way that courts and insurance companies make sure that not only is justice done, but that payments go toward their intended purpose. When you're involved in an accident, medical malpractice suit, or you're just retiring from work, a structured settlement provides for periodic, guaranteed, monthly or quarterly payments. But, sometimes, it's better to just take the cash. How do you choose the right payment option?

Understand What A Structured Settlement Really Is

A structured settlement is nothing more than an insurance annuity. An annuity is a contract that requires an insurance company to guarantee monthly, quarterly, or annual payments to an annuitant (the policyholder) for a set period of time.

Sometimes, the annuity specifies payments for a set number of years (i.e. 10 years). These types of annuities are called "period certain annuities." The other type of settlement option available is a life payment annuity. These annuities make payments for the life of the policyholder.

For example, let's say that you win a lawsuit. The defendant must pay you $1 million. A period certain annuity settlement option would require an insurance company to pay the $1 million out to you over a period of 10 years, with interest. The life payment option would require the insurer to pay that same $1 million out to you over your entire life.

Why choose the life option? Because payments continue regardless of how long you live - even if you would have otherwise spent all of the million dollars. So, it's possible that you could end up getting more than what you would receive under the 10 year payment option, if you live longer than you life expectancy calculated by the insurance company.

Why They Are Beneficial For You

Structured settlements have a huge benefit over lump sum payments: certainty. With a lump sum payment from a retirement plan, personal injury claim, or medical malpractice suit, you are on your own to manage the funds.

If you run out of money before all of your medical expenses are paid, or before you die, you're out of luck. With a settlement option that's structured, you will never run out of money before the contract expires. For lifetime payments, it's impossible to run out of money before you die.

Why You Might Want To Sell One

With structured settlements having a seemingly unbeatable advantage, why would you ever choose a lump sum payment? One reason: you have immediate expenses that require cash right now. But before you sell your structured settlement payment, keep in mind that any company willing to buy your payments won't give you the full value of your structured settlement.

Companies, called factoring companies, buy structured settlements for a discount. A discount factor of 8 to 14 percent is common. On the high end, at 14 percent, you will receive only a small portion of your total structured settlement option. For example, a $1 million settlement option can quickly turn into a lump sum of just $250,000 or less.

Why so little? Because of the time value of money - a $1 today is worth a lot more than $1 20 years from now. Even though it seems like a small amount of money to accept in lieu of the full settlement payment, it's not always a bad deal. As always, consult with an attorney or financial planner before you sign anything.

Melissa Rudd is a financial consultant with several years experience. When she's not in the office, she enjoys sharing her insights by blogging online.

How Much Home Can I Afford?

Obviously, everyone wants to own a home, and this can be easier as long as there is sufficient money to buy a new one. However, there are many ways and options to consider in buying and owning a home. The first thing that comes in mind when planning to buy a home is the amount of the house. If you are thinking of getting a home loan, then you should first determine how much you can afford for the home loan.

There are several factors to consider in getting a home loan since the payments can be on par. This makes sense in considering your current financial situation before deciding to buy a house. Likewise, you should also take into account your income, the credit history, debts and the cost of the house. In this way you can easily determine how much home you can afford to loan. Before making your final decision, it is important to consider some pointers.

Down Payment

One of the important pointers to consider in determining the amount of home that you can afford to buy is the down payment. Usually, home loan would require paying 20% down payment from the total house cost. However, you can also opt for non-standard loans that require lower amount of down payment. The downside of getting non-standard loan is the higher interest rates. This makes sense of asking for calculations before making your decision.

Income and Monthly Obligations

In determining how much home you can afford, you need to consider the monthly income and obligations. The mortgage company would require you to furnish the income details as well as the monthly obligations. These details will help the company in identifying the mortgage amount in which you can qualify. In calculating your loan capability, the mortgage company will check your credit card debts.

Interest Rate

Another factor to consider in determining the amount of home that you can afford to buy is the interest rate. Obviously, if the interest rate is lower, most likely you can afford buying bigger house. That is why home buyers should be aware about the prevailing interest rates in the area. It is also necessary to ask for quotes from different mortgage companies. In this way, you can compare which mortgage company can give you the best deals. In addition, you should also consider fixed rate mortgage than a variable rate mortgage. It is because the latter would impact your monthly obligations.

Location

The cost of the property that you want to buy also depends on the location. If you want to own a home in a commercialized area, then you should expect for higher cost. You need to conduct thorough research if you want to find a property located in your chosen area yet with the price that you can afford. Usually, if the property is of close proximity to the city it would be more expensive.

Indeed, it is very challenging to find affordable property. Nevertheless, St. Louis real estate can help you in finding the home that you can afford. If you cannot afford to buy a home, there are other options to consider. All you have to do is to seek advice from mortgage companies.

Flexible Finance for Modular Office

office setup (Photo credit: Rob 'n' Rae)

Modular office systems fall under the category modular buildings which are also referred to as prefabricated buildings. It can be used for various applications such as medical clinics, restaurants, banks, schools, day care centers, and office buildings. If you are interested in modular offices, you can look into the different finance options.

Some of the benefits of modular offices are the following:

•      Flexible

•      Low cost

•      Fast delivery

These are also the reasons why a lot of companies and establishments prefer modular offices in comparison to the traditional buildings. As the name suggests, modular offices are able to stand alone based on the ‘module’ construction method. Depending on your preference, you can have a modular office that is one or two stories high which includes stairwells and elevators. Some manufacturers also offer four stories or even more, as per requirement of the client.

The modular buildings are manufactured in factories and the materials used as the same as the regular buildings. However, instead of constructing the building as a whole, it is broken down into smaller or individual modules. These modules will be shipped into your site. When all the modules are delivered on site, it will be assembled into one structure based on the customer’s design specifications.

Earlier occupancy is also possible with modular offices because site and preparation works can take place simultaneously. The workers will not be exposed to harsh weather because the modules are constructed inside the factory.

Flexible finance is also available for modular office depending on your location. If you are interested in constructing a new modular office building, you can check with your bank about the financing options. You can also inquire with the manufacturer to find out which banks or lending institutions offer financing for modular buildings.

Many financial institutions can help you in securing your preferred modular building because this type of structure also involves a considerable sum of money. There is a need to look for reliable companies that can finance your building. The application process is usually quick and it involves less paperwork or documents.

With the less cumbersome procedures when you obtain financing from lenders or banks, it is easier to secure the needed money to put up a modular office. These buildings are top quality and will last a long time. Manufacturers of these modular structures can be of great help and they can give you a list of potential institutions that can extend the needed money.

A lot of offices and establishments are now choosing modular buildings over the traditional structures. You can save money on your new office, but you must do your homework if you want to find flexible financing options. Conduct a thorough research and be sure to compare the rates and fees involved in obtaining financial assistance for your new office. This is the best way to find the best deal. It would also help if you compare several manufacturers of prefabricated buildings. By doing so, you can order the modular buildings from a reputed manufacturer or supplier. Secure financing today for your modular office systems!