Pension Payments

[Hawkfall]

I am considering a move to Singapore on a local contract and I have a question regarding pension payments. In particular, my question relates to what would happen to these pension plan payments if I were to move on from Singapore to another location (e.g. US) after a few years.

If I understand correctly, only PRs can make payments into the CPF (in fact they are obliged to). Therefore, if I work for some years as a PR I presume that I can take my CPF contributions with me if I leave. However, if I do not take PR status what are my options? Can I make contributions to a private pension fund?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Sure, you can put you money in any type of fund you want, even continue to put it into dying 401K's if you want. But none of the contributions are deductible from your income tax in Singapore. Only your contributions to CPF are deductible from income. When you leave Singapore, you CAN withdraw it all, including the Employer's contributions and interest, Medisave, in fact, everything.

HOWEVER, if you give up your PR and withdraw your CPF you will, in all probability, never be allowed to take up PR in Singapore again. Although, the ability to allow you to is there. They claim that if you return to Singapore, before you would be allowed to take up PR again, you would have to replace ALL the CPF withdrawn AS WELL AS any interest that would have accrued since it was withdrawn.

[Hawkfall]

Thanks for the reply, that's very clear. I expect that my company would expect me to apply for a PR if I relocate. That's fine, but I just want to understand what would be my options if I don't get the PR (or if the applications process drags on) as I understand that the PR isn't automatic anymore.

I expect that if I were to relocate from Singapore after a few years, then I would not be returning in the future, so the scenario you're describing regarding starting from scratch with the CPF shouldn't apply.

[sundaymorningstaple]

In any case, PR wouldn't happen for at least a minimum as the current ground is very much causing a slowdown in PR applications being granted. You would come over here on an EP initially and would probably have to work for 2 years before they would even entertain your application.

You can apply after 6 months, but the trend for the past 18 months, is to get a letter from MOM requesting you to apply again in two years. This makes approximately 2.5 years BEFORE they will accept your application for PR and possibly 4 to 12 months before you receive an answer either yeah or nay.

[Hawkfall]

So if I understand correctly, a PR would take at least 3.5 - 4 years? I didn't realise that. I obviously need to start looking into setting up some fund in the interim.