Sidney Smith

My wife and I each have Traditional IRA’s in the US from when we lived there. We expatriated from the US back to the UK many years ago and are UK citizens and tax payers. I have looked at the posts on this forum on this subject and regrettably find the responses ambiguous and am still confused about our UK tax situation should we take a complete, lump sum withdrawal (distribution) from our IRA’s. Consequently I am going to ask what I hope is a simple question. To date we have taken nothing out of our IRA’s but intend to take a full one-off lump sum withdrawal (distribution) from them and close them with a zero balance. As the manager of these IRA’s in the US has stated they will withhold 30% of this withdrawal (distribution) will we have to declare and pay UK tax on the money we bring back to the UK? I am aware we will also have to complete US tax returns. Thank you.