Closing accounts and pensions when you leave a country

Yuki, I haven't left the UK, but I've helped two friends leave it, so here's the list we built together, in rough order.

• the workplace pension usually stays where it is, and you keep the right to it. Get the latest statement, update your address, and make sure the provider has an email that will still work after you leave
• tell the tax authority you're leaving, because it affects how the final year is taxed, and sometimes you get a refund
• keep one UK bank account open if you can, at least for the first year, for refunds, the last salary and anything that arrives late
• close the phone contract last, or move to a cheap plan, because banks and the tax office will still text you
• council tax, utilities and the rental deposit need final readings and a forwarding address

The thing both friends wished they'd done earlier: collecting every document about their time in the UK, payslips, tax statements and pension letters, in one digital folder before the last month, when everything becomes chaos.

Almost identical to the list we made for leaving Sweden, and the phone-contract-last point saved us from a locked bank app.

When I left Italy, the thing I forgot was the tax registration in my old town, which kept sending letters to my parents' house for two years. My mother still has a box of them. Tell every official body you're leaving, even the ones that seem not to matter.

Rajesh's list is a very good template. How pensions, final-year tax and benefits are handled when you leave depends on the country you're leaving and sometimes on where you're going next, especially if there's a social security or tax agreement between the two. The Leaving section for the UK covers the departure checklist and links to the official services.

Thank you, this is exactly the list I needed. I'm starting the digital folder this weekend.

The box of letters at Paolo's mother's house is my greatest fear, one day.

A forwarding address that will still work in a year is the part people forget.

One more thing, Yuki: if you might come back one day, keep your records of years worked, because they can matter for pensions and residency later.

Leaving well is its own skill, and nobody teaches it.

Adding to Rajesh's last point: if you've worked in more than one country, the years can sometimes count together for a state pension through agreements between countries, but only if you can document them. Keeping payslips and contribution records from every country you've worked in is worth the space in the folder.