Guidance

Managing pension schemes service newsletter – January 2020

Published 14 January 2020

1. Introduction

Over the last year we’ve been developing the Managing pension schemes service for pension scheme registration and administration.

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 111 we explained that, after delivering Phase One of the service covering pension scheme and scheme administrator registration, we’re now working on delivering Phase 2 to bring:

• pension scheme reporting and practitioner registration
• authorisation to a pension scheme onto the service

In this newsletter we’ll give you more information about our programme for delivering Phase 2 of the service, as well as information about migrating schemes across from the Pension Schemes Online service. We’ll also let you know how you can help us as we design and develop new features for the Managing pension schemes service.

2. Phase 2 timeline

We’ll be delivering Phase 2 over a number of releases throughout the next few years and we’ve already started to design and develop the features that we’ll introduce first.

In sections 2.1 to 2.6 we’ve outlined the key features we’ll deliver over the next few years, in the order that we’re currently planning to deliver them. We cannot give you the specific dates for each release yet and the order may be subject to change. In future newsletters we’ll give more specific information and updates on our progress in designing and developing features for each release.

2.1 Accounting for Tax (AFT) return

We’ll bring AFT onto the service so that you can create, compile, submit, view and amend AFT returns on the Managing pension schemes service.

This means that for the quarter beginning 1 April 2020, for all schemes registered using the service, you’ll have to compile and submit the AFT return through the service.

You’ll be able to:

• compile your AFT return in quarter (although you’ll only be able to submit this once the quarter has ended)
• amend AFT returns that were submitted through the service, on the service

Following this release, you’ll still have to enter AFT details directly onto the Managing pension schemes service in the same way that you may do on the Pension Schemes Online service.

Once you’ve submitted your AFT return, you’ll receive an online notification confirming receipt of this.

You can find more information about the current process for pension scheme reporting for pension schemes with a pension schemes tax reference (PSTR) beginning with ‘2’ in section 7 of this newsletter.

For schemes registered on the Pension Schemes Online service, you’ll continue to submit the AFT through Pension Schemes Online and there are no changes to this process.

2.2 Financial information for schemes and scheme administrators

Once you’ve submitted your AFT return, you’ll be able to view financial information both for your schemes and for you as pension scheme administrator. We’ll give more details on this in future newsletters.

2.3 Practitioner registration

Following this release, all new practitioners will be able to register as a practitioner on the service. As with scheme administrator registration, practitioners will only get one practitioner ID for each Corporation Tax UTR or National Insurance number. These practitioners will be able to view their details through the service.

Existing practitioners that are registered on the Pension Schemes Online service will also be able to enrol on the Managing pension schemes service and keep their existing practitioner ID.

As scheme administrator you’ll be able to authorise these practitioners to act on your behalf through the service and de-authorise them as practitioners from your schemes.

Practitioners registered on the service will be able to create, compile, submit, view and amend the AFT return for a scheme and view the financial information for a scheme they’re the practitioner of.

Only practitioners registered on the Managing pension schemes service will be able to report for schemes that are on that service. We’ll give details of what to do in cases where the scheme, scheme administrator or practitioner are registered on different services.

As before, section 7 of this newsletter gives more information about the current process for pension scheme reporting for pension schemes with a PSTR beginning with ‘2’.

We’ve also included more information about how we can help practitioners with multiple practitioner IDs in section 6.

2.4 Pension Scheme Return

We’ll then introduce the Pension Scheme Return (PSR) on the service so that if you receive a notice to file a PSR, you’ll do this on the Managing pension schemes service for a pension scheme registered on the service.

The questions on the PSR will change and more detail including details of scheme members will be included. As is currently the case, you’ll only need to submit a PSR for a pension scheme if you receive a notice to file one from HMRC.

As well as creating and compiling your PSR through the service, you (or a practitioner acting on your behalf) will be able to submit this for a scheme once complete and amend this as necessary.

2.5 Event reporting

We’ll introduce event reporting onto the Managing pension schemes service, so you and your practitioners will be able to create and compile event reports for schemes that are registered on the service.

We’ll tell you if monies are owed as a result of charges on the event report and we’ll include the scheme sanction charge and fixed charge member tax in the financial information for the scheme, so you’ll know the charge reference to pay against.

Based on feedback we received, we’ve currently prioritised the AFT return. We’ll keep you updated on when the event report will be made available and for which tax year, in a future newsletter.

In the meantime, you can find more information about the current process for pension scheme reporting for pension schemes with a PSTR beginning with ‘2’ in section 7 of this newsletter.

We’ll also include the Master Trust event (event 20A) on the event report so that if your scheme becomes or stops being a Master Trust, you can tell us through the service.

In the meantime you should use the APSS578 form if you need to tell us that your scheme has become or stops being a Master Trust.

2.6 Retirement annuity contracts and deferred annuity contracts

We’re aiming to update the service so that you can declare yourself as the scheme administrator of a retirement annuity contract (RAC) or deferred annuity contract (DAC). We’ll give you the PSTR for the RAC or DAC through the service.

As with other schemes registered on the Managing pension schemes service, you’ll be able to invite a practitioner to act on your behalf for a RAC or DAC. You or your practitioner will also be able to submit reports for these schemes.

Once we’ve introduced this feature onto the service, we’ll remove it from the Pension Schemes Online service as you’ll only be able to do this through the Managing pension schemes service.

For ease of reference we’ve summarised this timeline at Appendix 1 of this newsletter.

3. How you can help us

We’re still looking for people to help us improve the Managing pension schemes service. If you have not yet applied to register a scheme using the service, you can take part in user research and give us feedback by joining the Managing pension schemes user panel.

As a member of the panel, we’ll only contact you about the Managing pension schemes service. You can also email us with your feedback, putting ‘Managing pension schemes service – feedback’ in the subject line of your email to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

4. Scheme administrator enrolment

We’ll only be able to migrate schemes attached to a scheme administrator ID that is already registered on the Managing pension schemes service, so you’ll need to enrol on the service ahead of migration. You can sign into the service at any time and complete your enrolment information to successfully complete your new online pension scheme administrator record.

You’ll only need to do this the first time you sign into the service. Make sure that you sign in with the username and password for you as pension scheme administrator. You’ll then be asked to enter some information about you as scheme administrator. Make sure you enter the details that match to the account you have signed in with.

Once you’ve completed your enrolment, you’ll get an online confirmation message that you’ve updated your details successfully.

5. Giving access to the service to business tax account administrators and assistants

Once you’ve enrolled for the Managing pension schemes service, make sure that you assign the service through your business tax account to any of your other business tax account administrators or assistants, that use the same scheme administrator ID. You must do this before they sign in to use the Managing pension schemes service.

Assigning the service to your administrators before they sign in will help prevent the service from treating them as a new scheme administrator and asking them again for the enrolment information that you’ve already completed. If they complete a second enrolment under the same scheme administrator ID, it could prevent you and any of your users from being able to access the service.

To assign the Managing pension schemes service through your business tax account, you should select Pensions Online Digital Service HMRC-PODS-ORG from the assign services page.

6. Migration of pension schemes to the Managing pension schemes service

Whilst we’re delivering the features outlined in section 2 onto the service, we’ll migrate live pension schemes to the Managing pension schemes service. We’ll give you more information about this, including when we plan to migrate schemes, in future newsletters.

6.1 Multiple scheme administrator IDs

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 109 we explained that scheme administrators with multiple scheme administrator IDs will need to move their schemes under one scheme administrator ID on the Pension Schemes Online service ahead of pension scheme migration to the Managing pension schemes service.

To help you with this we can check:

• your scheme administrator IDs
• the schemes for which you are the administrator

You must send us a separate request for each of these and give the following information.

For a list of your scheme administrator IDs you must give your:

• scheme administrator name
• scheme administrator address, including postcode
• contact telephone number and email address

You should email this information and put ‘List of my scheme administrator IDs’ in the subject line of your email to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

For a list of registered pension schemes attached to your scheme administrator ID you must give your:

• scheme administrator name
• scheme administrator ID
• contact telephone number and email address

You should email this information and put ‘List of my registered pension schemes’ in the subject line of your email to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

We’ll validate the information you give and may ask you for more information before we give any scheme or scheme administrator details.

You should use the information to check your records and tell us of any scheme administrator IDs or schemes that you no longer need.

Scheme administrators operating with more than one Corporation Tax UTR can have a scheme administrator ID for each Corporation Tax UTR held.

Once you have a list of your schemes and scheme administrator IDs and you have decided which scheme administrator ID you want to keep, you can contact us if you need help with moving your schemes under your chosen scheme administrator ID.

Email and put ‘Help with scheme admin IDs’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

6.2 Multiple scheme practitioner IDs

Like scheme administrators, practitioners will only be able to use one practitioner ID for each Corporation Tax UTR or National Insurance number.

If you’re a pension scheme practitioner with one Corporation Tax UTR but multiple scheme practitioner IDs, you’ll also need to move your schemes under one practitioner ID on the Pension Schemes Online service ahead of pension scheme migration to the Managing pension schemes service

To help you with this we can check:

• your scheme practitioner IDs
• the schemes for which you are the practitioner

You must send us a separate request for each of these and give the following information.

For a list of your scheme practitioner IDs you must give:

• your scheme practitioner name
• your scheme practitioner address, including postcode
• your contact telephone number and email address

You should email this information to pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk and put ‘List of my scheme practitioner IDs’ in the subject line of your email.

For a list of registered pension schemes attached to your scheme practitioner ID you must give your:

• scheme practitioner name
• scheme practitioner ID
• contact telephone number and email address

You should email this information and put ‘List of my registered pension schemes’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

We’ll validate the information you give and may ask you for more information before we give any scheme or scheme practitioner details.

You should use the information to check your records and tell us of any scheme practitioner IDs or schemes that you no longer need.

Scheme practitioners operating with more than one Corporation Tax UTR can have a scheme practitioner ID for each Corporation Tax UTR held.

Once you have a list of your schemes and scheme practitioner IDs and you have decided which scheme practitioner ID you want to keep, you can contact us if you need help with moving your schemes under your chosen scheme practitioner ID.

Email us and put ‘Help with scheme practitioner IDs’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

6.3 Winding up inactive schemes on the Pension Schemes Online service

To help prepare for migration of pension schemes from the Pension Schemes Online service, check your schemes and report any pension scheme wind ups to us so that we do not move these across to the Managing pension schemes service. Scheme wind ups can be reported using the Event Report, however to make this easier, you can also email us, putting ‘scheme wind ups’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

You’ll need to include:

• the pension scheme tax reference (PSTR)
• the name of the pension scheme
• your pension scheme administrator ID
• the date of wind up

We’re writing to scheme administrators of inactive pension schemes to encourage the reporting of wound up schemes if applicable.

6.4 Outstanding Accounting for Tax (AFT) charges

As we’ve explained in previous newsletters, we’ve identified some outstanding AFT charges on the Pension Schemes Online service. Check if you have charges that are still outstanding, and if so, arrange to pay the outstanding amount. If your payment is or was late, we may charge you penalties under Schedule 56 of Finance Act 2009 and you’ll have to pay interest on the late payment.

If we’ve written to you setting out any outstanding AFT charges and you think you’ve already paid these charges, you’ll need to give us details of the payment you made. You will need to give us the following details to allow us to match up your payment:

• method of payment
• exact amount of payment (including pence)
• date the payment was made
• date the funds left the account
• reference number used when making payment
• the actual name of the account the money was paid from

Once we have these details, we’ll allocate your payment against the right charge.

If you have any queries about AFT payments, email us and put ‘Accounting for Tax – Payment Query’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

You can help us with this by making sure that all payments you make contain the relevant charge reference number. Details on how to find the charge reference can be found in The Pension Schemes Online user guide.

6.5 Historical versions of reports and returns and details of past charges

We will not migrate historical versions of returns and reports or details of past charges to the Managing pension schemes service, however, we’ll still have copies of these. We’ll give you more information including manual workarounds for how you can access and amend these in future newsletters and guidance.

7. Pension scheme reporting

7.1 Reporting for schemes with a PSTR beginning with ‘2’

Until we’ve updated the Managing pension schemes service to include scheme reporting, if you need to file a return or report for a pension scheme with a PSTR beginning with ‘2’, email: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

You will need to put the name of the return or report (for example AFT, Event Report or PSR) followed by Managing pension schemes service’ in the subject line of your email.

If your pension scheme has a PSTR beginning with ‘0’, you must continue to file reports and returns for your scheme using the Pension Schemes Online Service.

7.2 Pension Scheme Return (PSR)

You only need to submit a PSR for a pension scheme if you’ve received a Notice to file a PSR from HMRC.

You can find more information about the PSR in the Pensions Tax Manual at PTM163000.

8. Lifetime allowance

Before we decommission the Pension schemes online service we’ll update the Protect Your Lifetime Allowance service so that scheme members can apply for existing lifetime allowance protections, such as enhanced international protection, through the service.

Members will be able to view all relevant lifetime allowance protections that they’ve successfully applied for online or by previous correspondence with HMRC.

We’re also aiming to improve the pension scheme administrator lifetime allowance look-up service to give you more details about your members, the protections they hold and any relevant lifetime allowance enhancement factors.

9. Decommissioning the Pension Schemes Online service

As we’ve explained in previous newsletters, we’ll decommission the Pension Schemes Online service once we have delivered all features under Phase 2 onto the Managing pension schemes service, migrated all live schemes from the old service and are confident that you’re able to:

• successfully manage your pension schemes
• successfully fulfil your reporting requirements
• receive notifications of all your assessments, charges and penalties
• view your charges online
• view lifetime allowance protections for your members online

10. Further help and information

We’ll give you more information and help in our business as usual Pension Schemes Newsletters and we’ll publish further bespoke newsletters about the Managing pension schemes service when we add features onto the service.

We’ll also continue to update our GOV.UK guides and the Pensions Tax Manual.

If you have any questions or concerns about the Managing pension schemes service, you can send an email, putting ‘Managing pension schemes service’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

The information we’ve given in this newsletter is correct at the time of publication. However, as you’ll appreciate, we’re still designing and developing the new service, so we’ll tell you if there are any changes as soon as we can.

11. Appendix 1 – Table of updates to the Managing pension schemes service

This table summarises the key features we’ll deliver at each release. We cannot give you the specific dates for each release yet and this order may be subject to change.

	Features to be introduced onto the Managing pension schemes service
1	Accounting for tax return (create, compile, submit and amend)
2	Financial information for scheme and scheme administrator
3	Practitioner registration Authorise practitioners to act on your behalf through the service and remove them as practitioners from your schemes Practitioner reporting
4	PSR notice to file PSR create, compile and submission PSR amendments
5	Event Report create and compile Event Report submission Event Report amendments Master Trust event reporting
6	RAC and DAC scheme administrator declarations Reporting for RACs and DACs