Shirley

Hi, I am a South African citizen and my husband is a British Citizen now living permanently in the UK for over 3 years. We tax emigrated from South African in 2022. In terms of the Emigration act we can withdraw any pension annuity funds from South Africa (even though we are under 55 years old) so that we can bring it over to the UK as we want to purchase a property. I have been told that if I need to declare the income on a UK self assessment as a resignation from a pension, but that it will be taxed as an "unauthorised payment" here because we are under 55yrs and we will have to pay the 40% tax + 15% surcharge on the value (less any tax that was paid to the South African Revenue Service). Is this correct? Thank you.