Tax on Overseas Pension Money

I started work with a company in Switzerland in 2015. In 2016, I moved with the same company on an international assignment to the UK from Switzerland. Starting upon my move to the UK, the company maintained an overseas pension account on my behalf at SwissLife (in Switzerland) where all employer pension contributions were made from September 2016-September 2022. I left the company in September 2022. Upon leaving the company, I was obliged to withdraw my pension which SwissLife then transferred in full directly into my UK bank account. Upon enquiring with pension administrator, they mentioned that it is there own responsibility to report this money transfer to HMRC and they had already done it. They claimed that there is no tax to be paid as all what this payment would have done is reduce my lifetime pension allowance. The responsibility to report this was with the pension administartor (i.e. SwissLife) I was hoping if you can help clarify if I need to report this payment on my tax return or not (given the pension administrator already informed HMRC)? Thanks

Hi,

PTM045000 would suggest this payment is an 'authorised payment' and is taxable.  

PTM045000 - Contributions: refunds of contributions

For more information, I would suggest contacting the pension schemes team for more advice. 

Pension schemes

Thank you.