Next time you post the question before you act. What you did was utterly, utterly stupid. You will lose 45% income tax.

Go to a good tax advisor to see if the situation can be salvaged. If he charges you £5,000 to fix it, thats dirt cheap compared to paying £150,000 in taxes. Normally 25% of cashed in pension are tax free but some forms need to be filled out before taking the money. Hopefully that’s fixable. Then the next £37,700 a year cost 20% income tax. So all you had to do was spread the cash withdrawal over several years. If that can be fixed you’d have to return the money.

But there is a worse case: A scammer making you invest your pension in a fake investment fund. So you are promised 20% if you invest your £300,000 with them. The scammer told you no tax would be paid to get your money. With your money, he does a runner. So your pension money is gone. HMRC doesnt care that your money went to a scammer, they want your taxes, so now your pension is gone and you owe HMRC.

Next time you post the question before you act. What you did was utterly, utterly stupid. You will lose 45% income tax.

Go to a good tax advisor to see if the situation can be salvaged. If he charges you £5,000 to fix it, thats dirt cheap compared to paying £150,000 in taxes. Normally 25% of cashed in pension are tax free but some forms need to be filled out before taking the money. Hopefully that’s fixable. Then the next £37,700 a year cost 20% income tax. So all you had to do was spread the cash withdrawal over several years. If that can be fixed you’d have to return the money.

But there is a worse case: A scammer making you invest your pension in a fake investment fund. So you are promised 20% if you invest your £300,000 with them. The scammer told you no tax would be paid to get your money. With your money, he does a runner. So your pension money is gone. HMRC doesnt care that your money went to a scammer, they want your taxes, so now your pension is gone and you owe HMRC. (One police officer lost his complete pension fund to a scammer and now owes HMRC £150,000, that was quite widely publicised.)

Next time you post the question before you act. What you did was utterly, utterly stupid. You will lose 45% income tax.

Go to a good tax advisor to see if the situation can be salvaged. If he charges you £5,000 to fix it, thats dirt cheap compared to paying £150,000 in taxes.

Next time you post the question before you act. What you did was utterly, utterly stupid. You will lose 45% income tax.

Go to a good tax advisor to see if the situation can be salvaged. If he charges you £5,000 to fix it, thats dirt cheap compared to paying £150,000 in taxes. Normally 25% of cashed in pension are tax free but some forms need to be filled out before taking the money. Hopefully that’s fixable. Then the next £37,700 a year cost 20% income tax. So all you had to do was spread the cash withdrawal over several years. If that can be fixed you’d have to return the money.

But there is a worse case: A scammer making you invest your pension in a fake investment fund. So you are promised 20% if you invest your £300,000 with them. The scammer told you no tax would be paid to get your money. With your money, he does a runner. So your pension money is gone. HMRC doesnt care that your money went to a scammer, they want your taxes, so now your pension is gone and you owe HMRC.