SIPPS and BTL

[dazalock]

A day is upon us with SIPPS, that means you can use your residential investments as part of your pension.

Anyone (Mr Yardley?) have any thoughts opions or facts to share on the complexity of doing this?

[Yardleystar]

The day isn't up on us until April 6 2006 i believe

The underlying criteria for investing in residential property via a pension vehicle has not been released by the IR

Personally, my feeling is you lose control of your assets when you place them in a pension fund despite the tax advantages. The other issue is how do you draw your profits from the fund on retirement - if you are only allowed a % lump sum and have to reinvest the rest of the proceeds in an annuity as at present, then I can't see the point of racking up property profits and losing them against poor investment return products.

[Tax Accountant]

The whole purpose of a SIPP is that you will not be forced to buy an annuity at retirement. Instead, you will be able to drawdown upto a certain amount (say upto 70% of what you could have got from an annuity) each year.

The SIPP will continue with your heirs after you die.