Guidance

Managing pension schemes service newsletter – July 2020

Published 21 July 2020

1. New accounting for tax features added to the Managing pension schemes service

Today we’ve updated the Managing pension schemes service so that scheme administrators of schemes on this service can:

• submit an Accounting for Tax (AFT) return
• make amendments to returns that you submit on the service
• see the what’s changed from the previous submitted version of the return
• search your returns for a member
• request payment refunds or reallocations relating to AFT returns you submitted through the Managing pension schemes service

1.1 Submitting your AFT return

If you’ve compiled and saved an AFT return for the quarter 1 April – 30 June 2020 on the Managing pension schemes service, you can now submit this return to meet the filing deadline of 14 August 2020. Once you’ve submitted your AFT return, you’ll receive an online notification confirming receipt of this.

You’ll also be able to make amendments to any AFT returns that you submit through the service.

1.2 Starting new AFT returns

From today, you’ll also be able to start to compile and save new AFT returns for the quarter 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020 and once the quarter has ended you’ll be able to submit these too.

You can find more information on submitting accounting for tax returns through the Managing pension schemes service, in our new guide, Submit an Accounting for Tax return using the Managing pensions schemes service.

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

2. Payments relating to accounting for tax returns submitted using the Managing pension schemes service

For now, you will not see a charge reference on the online confirmation when you submit an AFT with a tax charge on it through the Managing pension schemes service. Before you make a payment you should send an email for a charge reference, putting ‘Accounting for Tax – charge reference’ in the subject line to: pensions.administration@hmrc.gov.uk.

Contacting us for a charge reference means that we’ll be able to allocate your payments correctly. However if you do need to make a payment using your pension scheme tax reference (PSTR) you must contact us so that we can make sure the payment is properly allocated.

You’ll be able to see charge references on the Managing pension schemes service when we add financial information features to the service later in the summer.

2.1 Requesting refunds or reallocations

You can request a refund or reallocation of an AFT payment that you’ve made relating to an AFT return submitted on the Managing pension schemes service by providing details on the reallocation and refund spreadsheet.

Email your completed spreadsheet for:

• reallocations put ‘AFT reallocation request’ in the subject line of your email and send to pensionschemes@hmrc.gov.uk
• refunds put ‘AFT – refund request’ in the subject line of your email and send to pensions.administration@hmrc.gov.uk

You can only request a refund if you have an overall credit on your pension scheme account.

3. Phase 2 timeline

In previous newsletters we’ve provided information about our delivery timeline for Phase 2 of the Managing pension schemes service and explained that the order for delivering features onto the service may change.

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 119 we explained the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on our delivery timeline. We’ve revisited and update this and we currently plan to deliver in the following order.

3.1 Financial information for schemes and scheme administrators

We’ll deliver financial information features onto the service later in the summer so that 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.

3.2 Practitioner registration and reporting

We’re planning to deliver practitioner registration and reporting for practitioners in mid-2021, so that new practitioners can register on 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. 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. Scheme administrators will be able to authorise and de-authorise practitioners through the service and practitioners will be able to deauthorise themselves from a scheme they were authorised to.

As we’ve previously explained, in line with the current HMRC-wide model for digital services, practitioners will only be able to use one practitioner ID for each Corporation Tax UTR or National Insurance number. We’ve received feedback from practitioners of multiple schemes about problems that this may pose in managing access within practitioner organisations to different pension schemes.

We’ve considered this feedback as part of the work we’re doing to design and develop practitioner features for the service. We’ve changed the design of the service so that individuals logged into the Managing pension schemes service under a practitioner ID, will not see a summary page listing all the pension schemes connected to that practitioner ID. Instead to help organisations manage access to their pension schemes, practitioners will access scheme details by searching for a scheme using the PSTR.

We’ve also included more information about how we can help practitioners with multiple practitioner IDs in article 4.

3.3 Retirement annuity contracts and deferred annuity contracts

Alongside practitioner registration and reporting, we’re aiming to update the service in mid-2021 so that you can declare yourself as the scheme administrator of a retirement annuity contract (RAC) or deferred annuity contract (DAC). We’ll provide you with 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 authorise a practitioner to act on your behalf for a RAC or DAC.

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.

3.4 Event Report and Pension Scheme Return

In the Managing pension schemes newsletter - April 2020 we explained that we planned to introduce Event Reporting onto the service in mid-2021. However we’ll now deliver this later than planned alongside the Pension Scheme Return.

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

We’re still reviewing how and when we’ll migrate scheme details. We’ll give you more information about this, including when we plan to migrate schemes, in future newsletters.

4.1 Multiple scheme administrator IDs

As we’ve previously explained, 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
• 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
• 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 provide and may ask you for more information before we provide 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.

4.2 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 provide the following information.

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

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

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

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
• 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 provide 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, putting ‘Help with scheme practitioner IDs’ in the subject line to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

5. Signing in to online services

HMRC will soon start an ongoing programme of deleting credentials (user ID and password) for users who have not signed in to a service for 3 years.

If you’re a pension scheme administrator or pension scheme practitioner and you have not signed onto either the Pension Schemes Online service, the Managing pension schemes service or other tax services for a while, make sure that you log into your Business or Personal Tax Account as soon as you can so that your credentials remain active and are not deleted.

If you’re the practitioner of a registered pension scheme, encourage your scheme administrator to do this.

If you’re a pension scheme administrator and you regularly use the Pension Schemes Online service, the Managing pension schemes service or other tax services through your Business Tax Account or Personal Tax Account, your credentials will remain active and we will not delete these.

For now this work has not started but we’ll provide guidance on what to do if your credentials are deleted, in a future newsletter.

6. How you can help us

We’re still looking for people to help us improve the Managing pension schemes 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 to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

7. More help and information

We’ve created a new guide to help you Submit an Accounting for Tax return using the Managing pensions schemes service to reflect the new features we’ve added to the service.

We’ve also made some changes to the Manage a registered pension scheme guide to help scheme administrators get to the right service and guidance.

We’ll continue to give you 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 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, put ‘Managing pension schemes service’ in the subject line of your email and send to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gov.uk.

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