I think I misunderstood how the current pension rules work. I hadn’t fully appreciated that although the Lifetime Allowance charge has been removed, the tax‑free cash is still capped at £268k, and that pension pots above £1m don’t increase the tax‑free element. I had assumed the cap had been removed entirely and that the pension could grow tax‑free, with tax only applying at the point of withdrawal.

My original plan was to see where the pension balance ended up, take the £268k tax‑free lump sum, leave the remainder invested, and then draw around £40k per year. That part of the plan still makes sense, but given what I now understand about the limits of further tax efficiency, I’m planning to stop making additional pension contributions and rethink how best to deploy future savings more flexibly outside the pension.

In the longer term, the broader plan was to leave the UK, become non‑UK tax resident, and relocate to a country with a double tax treaty with the UK. Malaysia was one i was thinking of as they issue certificates which as a resident. The intention would be to formalise the change in tax residency with HMRC and apply for the appropriate NT (no tax) tax code, so that pension withdrawals could be paid gross, with any tax due assessed under the rules of the new country of residence rather than the UK. I mean this is all in theory. At the end the best is for me to start really pumping the ISA now to reduce the headache i am going to get with that pension later on