Expat Pensions USA, as the company will be known, aims to solve the pension problems US expats will face when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act comes into place on 1 July.
Boniface will run the company with Angela South, managing director at Expat Pension Providers, a company which provides similar tax solutions to expats from around the world.
FATCA is part of the US Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. It aims to ensure that US persons, wherever they are located and in whatever investment vehicle they hold their assets, are paying the correct amount of US tax.
When the act comes into force, those who are not compliant will suffer a 30% withholding tax on income and gross proceeds.
The main product offered by the company will be a qualifying non UK pension scheme (QNUPS) called the Expat Pensions USA Pension Plan, which is recognised for US tax purposes.
“It is a Maltese contractual pension plan established under advice from US Tax Attorneys and recognised as a qualifying pension under Malta/US taxation agreement,” said South.
“Growth of assets is not subject to any Maltese taxes. Only the growth of the fund, not the original investment, is potentially subject to US tax, and the scheme is set up to legally minimise any potential tax liabilities.”
Boniface said: “If you are an expat US taxpayer living or working outside the USA you are obliged to report all worldwide income and investment gains, and pay appropriate taxes, to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“It is estimated that half a million US expats are currently US tax compliant, but from July they will still face considerable extra tax and expenses.
“More than six million are not US tax compliant, and additionally face considerable IRS sanctions.”
'Minimise potential tax liabilities'
The company will also offer a qualifying recognised overseas pension (QROPS), domiciled in Malta, which can accept transfers from non-US pension schemes.
QROPS holders will be able to take up to 30% of their fund as an initial tax-free lump sum, even if they are in the US at the time.
Members will also be allowed to take money out of the fund from the age of 50, a decade younger than the age which current US pension rules allow benefits to be taken.
The company said it would initially focus on US expats located within the UK and Europe.
'Poker player and grumpy old man'
Boniface “retired” from the industry in January, after he sold his offshore pensions business, Agility Pensions, to fiduciary services provider Confiance.
While Boniface’s LinkedIn profile at the time showed his title as “poker player and grumpy old man” he told International Adviser that he “may well be involved in the setting up of new businesses within the industry”.
Boniface became a well-known figure in the industry after he co-founded Brooklands International in 2009 with Paul Evans, three years after the major overhaul of UK pensions known as “A-Day”.
Brooklands quickly became an important provider of self-invested personal pensions.
Then, after HM Revenue & Customs stunned the QROPS industry in April, 2012, when it delisted all but three of Guernsey’s 313 then-existing QROP schemes in an unexpected crackdown, Boniface and Evans, in Boniface’s words, “amicably split” the Brooklands business, so that each could pursue his own interests.
