If you’re an expat working for Qatar Airways, the decisions you make today about your Qatar Airways International Savings Plan, will make a substantial difference when you hit retirement.
It’s not just about how much money goes into your plan. It’s also the investments you choose – the default options simply aren’t designed to maximise your money.
And once you reach retirement, or separate from the company, it’s important to carefully navigate both the retirement options, and tax consequences.
This guide will explain everything you need to know – in plain English.
What is the Qatar Airways International Savings Plan
The Qatar Airways International Savings Plan is an investment-linked savings plan, provided by Zurich International based in the Isle of Man.
Zurich provide the investment infrastructure for the plan, and it’s held in trust by Equiom Limited in the Isle of Man to safeguard the benefits held for employees.
It’s a common misconception that the plan is a pension. Despite its appearance it is not a recognised pension structure. Instead it’s treated as an investment-linked life assurance policy – the tax treatment is quite different.
It’s a ‘defined contribution’ plan, which means how much you get depends on the level of contributions and investment performance.
How much does your Qatar Airways contribute to the plan?
The contribution from Qatar Airways to your plan, depends on how long you’ve been in service.
- For the first 5 years of service Qatar Airways pay in 12% of your basic salary.
- For 5-10 years of service, Qatar Airways pay in 13% of your basic salary.
- And after 10 years, Qatar Airways pay in 15% of your basic salary.
To qualify for the ISP, you are required to contribute 5% of your basic salary. So the total contributions range from 17-20%.
How much can you pay into the plan?
Beyond the mandatory 5% contribution you have to pay, you can make additional voluntary contributions up to a maximum of 15% of your basic salary.
Between your contributions and your employers contributions, that makes the maximum 30% of your basic salary – but that still might not enough for retirement.
Before deciding whether additional voluntary contributions to your plan are a good idea or not, you need to consider:
- The limitations on accessing your funds.
- And, how much your money is likely to grow.
How is your money invested?
By default, the contributions paid into your plan are invested in low-return cash based investment funds. These include the:
- CS (Lux) Qatar Enhanced Short Duration fund – for ordinary investors
- BB Money Market SP fund – for Sharia investors
Whilst these funds aren’t volatile, like higher growth investments, they are unlikely to grow beyond inflation over the long-term.
The table below compares the growth of $10,000 invested in these two funds, to a well diversified stock market investment.
This low growth makes the Qatar Airways International Savings Plan a poor solution to fund your retirement, as it’s likely you need your wealth to actually grow beyond inflation to support your future life.
| Investment Strategy | Last 1 Year | Last 3 Years | Last 5 Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS (Lux) Qatar Enhanced Short Duration fund | 3.86% | 9.52% | 12.95% |
| BB Money Market SP fund | 3.87% | 8.72% | 16.50% |
| MSCI World Index | 19.14% | 60.60% | 63.39% |
*As of 2nd April 2026, total returns in USD. For illustrative purposes only, and not a personal recommendation or financial advice.
Can you change your investment options?
Yes, but only with part of your money. Your employers contributions will always be invested in the default low-growth options.
You can change how your employee contributions are invested, but the fund range is limited to around 10-20 different options. This can make finding the ideal investment for your needs challenging.
Will Zurich provide advice on your investment choices?
No. Zurich will not provide any investment advice on how your funds are invested.
Will the plan alone be enough to fund your retirement?
If you rely on the savings with your plan for retirement, with nothing else, it’s unlikely to be enough. Let’s look an example:
Your contributions are based off your basic salary, so this will vary from employee to employee.
Let’s assume that your basic salary is $7,500 per month, your total income is $15,000 per month, and your living costs are $10,000 per month.
At the maximum contribution level of 30% of your basic salary (15% from your employer, and 15% from you) you’re saving $27,000 per year.
Because the default investment options are low-return investments, your money will at best keep pace with inflation.
So after 30 years of saving, you’d have around $783,000 (in today’s value of money).
A safe spending rate in retirement is typically 4-5% of your investment capital, depending on how it’s invested.
So this $783,000 could support around $39,150 per year of retirement spending – a long way off the $120,000 of assumed annual living costs.
That’s why it’s essential to understand how your savings are really growing to support your future.
Can you withdraw your contributions at any time?
No you can’t. You can only access the funds within your plan once your employment with Qatar Airways ends.
This means you need to be certain investing within the plan is the best solution for you, not just in terms of flexibility but also investment options. Once the money is paid into your plan, you can’t change your mind.
Is there a minimum amount you’ll receive at retirement?
The ISP is an employee benefits plan, offered in lieu of any end of service gratuity, which you might otherwise be entitled to as an employee of Qatar Airways.
Irrespective of market conditions, you should always be entitled to receive no less than your final end of service benefits value which you would have been entitled to, if you had not joined the ISP.
The exact amount you’ll receive from the employer contributions to your plan depends on the length of your service with Qatar Airways:
- Less than 1 year – you will not be entitled to any of the value of the employer contributions account.
- 1 to 5 years – you get 75% of the value of the employer contributions account or your end of service benefit entitlement, whichever is greater
- More than 5 Years – you get 100% of the value of the employer contributions account or your end of service benefit entitlement, whichever is greater.
What are your options at retirement?
When you either retire, or stop working for Qatar Airways, you have 3 options for your savings:
- You can take the full value of your ISP Account as a cash lump sum.
- You may be able to transfer the full value of your ISP Account to another savings plan.
- You may have the option to use your ISP Account balance to purchase an annuity.
Unless you move to an employer which also offers an employee benefits plan provided by Zurich, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to transfer your benefits. So in practice your options are to take a cash lump sum, or buy an annuity.
There is no options to keep your funds invested with Zurich.
What are the tax implications at retirement?
Whilst Zurich who provide the Qatar Airways International Savings Plan are based in the Isle of Man, and don’t pay tax locally, this does not automatically make your plan tax-free.
The tax treatment of both employer contributions to your plan, withdrawals from your plan, and the purchase of an annuity, all depend on your tax residence at the time.
To avoid any unwelcome surprises, it is best practice to ensure you surrender your savings plan, whilst still resident in a tax-free jurisdiction like Qatar.
Let’s look at a few examples:
1. You end your employment in Qatar, and become a UK tax resident before surrendering your plan for a cash lump sum – Your plan would be treated as a non-qualifying life assurance policy. This means any gain in value of your plan (relative to the contributions) would be assessed for UK Income Tax at rates of up to 45%.
2. You end your employment in Qatar, and become a UK tax resident before surrendering your plan purchasing an annuity – At the time of purchasing an annuity, any gain in value of your plan (relative to the contributions) would be realised to tax purposes and taxable under UK Income Tax rules. The income then paid to you from the annuity would be in part taxable, and in part a return of your own capital.
3. You become tax resident in the UK whilst continuing to work for Qatar Airways – Your plan is not a recognised pension scheme in the UK, so any employer contributions would be considered taxable income and assessed for UK Income Tax.
4. You end your employment in Qatar, and surrender your plan for a cash lump sum whilst still resident in Qatar – As a tax resident of Qatar the proceeds from your plan can be taken free of tax. These can then be reinvested in a structure that is tax efficient when you move.
Should you use your plan to buy an annuity?
You have the option to buy an annuity with your plan once your service ends, however it may be a poor trade off considering the alternatives.
Where you purchase an annuity, you hand over your cash to an insurance company who offer a guaranteed income stream for life.
It means the income you receive will stay the same, it doesn’t allow for flexibility around spending more in the early years of retirement, and less in later life.
Also, when you die the income will usually die with you, or be significantly reduced if you have dependents still alive. This can lead to challenges supporting your family when you’re no longer around.
The alternative is to invest the money to support your future, using investment growth to fund your spending in retirement.
For all but the most cautious investors, this typically leads to higher spending capacity and greater flexibility.
What could you expect if you invest the funds instead?
It depends on how you invest the funds, and also how markets perform over time.
Our latest ebook “What does a £500,000 retirement look like?” takes a deep dive into how to make the most out of a lump sump, that needs investing for retirement.
It looks at historical scenarios, using real asset class return data, to see what the probabilities of success would have been.
As a rule of thumb, if the money is invested in a mix of stocks and bonds, you should be able to spend 5% per year (increasing with inflation) without worrying too much about running out of money.
Looking for help to invest your wealth for retirement?
Are you an expat with over £150,000 to invest? Arrange your complimentary initial consultation today.
