Guidance

Pension schemes newsletter 117 – February 2020

Published 28 February 2020

1. Relief at source

a. Scottish Income Tax rates

On 6 February 2020, the Scottish government published its budget setting out the Scottish Income Tax rates for the 2020 to 2021 tax year. The Scottish Income Tax rates are the same as for 2019 to 2020.

For 2020 to 2021 the Scottish rates are as follows:

• the starter rate will be 19%
• the basic rate will be 20%
• the intermediate rate will be 21%
• the higher rate will be 41%
• the top rate will be 46%

You can find more information about Scottish Income Tax in our guide Income Tax in Scotland.

b. Welsh Income Tax rates

The Welsh government have confirmed that for 2020 to 2021 the rates of Income Tax paid by Welsh taxpayers will continue to be the same as those for 2019 to 2020.

For 2020 to 2021 the Welsh rates are as follows:

• the basic rate will be 20%
• the higher rate will be 40%
• the additional rate will be 45%

You can find more information about Welsh Income Tax in our guide Income Tax in Wales.

c. Members’ residency status for relief at source – 2020 to 2021

You should now have received your annual notification of residency status report.

You should use the look up residency status for relief at source service to check a member’s residency status if:

• they do not appear on your notification of residency status report
• they are unmatched

Use the rest of UK residency status if:

• you cannot check a member’s status before you apply relief at source for them
• they do not appear on either the annual report or the look up service.

You must apply the same tax rate for a member for the whole of the tax year, even if their residency status changes.

d. Annual return of information for the tax year 2019 to 2020

To make sure that we can process your annual return of information, you should always use the versions of the spreadsheet and electronic flat text file specifications that are currently on GOV.UK and not a version that you’ve saved from a previous year.

If you’re submitting an annual return of information for the tax year 2019 to 2020 you should use:

• the 2019 version of the relief at source spreadsheet
• the 2019 version of the electronic flat text file specifications

It’s important that you also make sure that you use the correct naming convention when you submit your annual return through the Secure Data Exchange Service and that the file name reference matches the sub reference included in the return.

You can find details of how you should name your files in the links above.

APSS590 annual return of information declaration

You must also submit the APSS590 – Annual return of information declaration as part of your return. Without the APSS590, we will consider your return to be outstanding and this could lead to future relief at source interim repayments being stopped.

You can send the APSS590 annual return of information declaration either by post or email to us at reliefatsource.administration@hmrc.gov.uk and put ‘APSS590 – Annual return of information declaration’ in the subject line of your email.

e. Updates to GOV.UK pages and the APSS106 form

We’ve updated some of our GOV.UK guides on relief at source to include information on member declarations and scheme administrator playback of information. We’ve also added more information to explain when you need to submit the APSS106 and made some small cosmetic changes to the form as a result.

2. Guidance from The Pensions Regulator on Pension Scams

The Pensions Regulator has published a scheme transfer checklist, that you can use if your members request a pension transfer.

The Pensions Regulator’s website also has more information on pension scams including other templates that you may find useful.

You can find more information about the pension tax rules on transfers in our GOV.UK guide Transfer a pension scheme member’s savings and in the Pensions Tax Manual at PTM100000.

3. Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) Equalisation Newsletter – February 2020

As you may be aware, we’ve published the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) Equalisation Newsletter – February 2020 with guidance to supplement existing guidance in the Pensions Tax Manual on benefit adjustments for registered pension schemes with periods of contracted out pensionable service between 17 May 1990 and 5 April 1997.