Moving Retirement plans to Australia from the US

[Guest toshie_5@hotmail.com]

I worked in California for a number of years, and moved back to Australia 10 years ago. I am now 51 and want to move my TSA and Plan B into my retirement plan here in Australia. What is the quickest, most effective way to do this? The employee is huge so should be well-versed with this, but I have constantly been surprised with international transactions, and sometimes feel that I have to re-invent the wheel everytime! I have tax advice here, and still choose to move it now. Thanks.

[Guest andrei.dana@yahoo.com]

You got it just perfect, reinventing the wheel is just about the thing to do every time we deal with stuff like that...

[Guest Kabert]

I think the amount will be subject to 30% withholding by the retirement plan at the time of payment, unless there's a tax treaty between the US and Australia that provides for a lower withholding rate. You might want to start with this -- tab down to Payments Outside the United States:

http://www.unclefed.com/IRS-Forms/2001/HTML/p15a11.html

[david rigby]

Tax treaties on the IRS website:

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/internationa...d=96739,00.html