If you have made two of these moves, you are not alone. If you have made four, the cost of acting now is still far smaller than the cost of waiting another year. Each of the 12 entries names the mistake, the intention behind it, and the consequence most people do not see for 18 to 36 months.
Most of these mistakes do not show up on a statement. They show up later, when you try to sell a property, draw a pension, prove non-residency or restructure an investment, and discover the move you made last year quietly closed an option.
This checklist was built from two decades of advising cross-border families. It covers the moves we see most often across UK, Australian, US, Portuguese, Spanish and South African expats: pension transfers timed wrong, accounts closed for the wrong reason, property gifted too early, assets sold one tax year on the wrong side of departure. Each item names the rule that catches you, and roughly how reversible it is.
If you are partway through one of these decisions, stop here and read it before you complete the move. If you have already made it, a short conversation with one of our advisers can often soften the damage - sometimes substantially.
