Guidance

Pension schemes newsletter 120 – May 2020

Published 27 May 2020

1. Temporary changes to pension processes as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19)

In Pension schemes newsletter 118 and Pension schemes newsletter 119 we provided guidance on temporary changes to some pension processes to help scheme administrators during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We’ve set out some further temporary changes and we’ll continue to keep you updated via the pension schemes newsletters.

a. Relief at source and suspension of the process for applying for a National Insurance number

From the end of March 2020, as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19), HMRC suspended the process for applying for a National Insurance number.

We have suspended this process for the next 3 months. We’ll review the position at the end of 3 months and provide an update in the June 2020 newsletter.

Please email reliefatsource.administration@hmrc.gov.uk if:

• you’ve submitted or need to submit a relief at source repayment claim
• the claim includes tax relief you gave to a scheme member, and the member is unable to get a National Insurance number because we have suspended the process

In your email subject line put ‘Suspension of NI number application process’. We’ll contact you for further information.

b. Submitting the APSS107 Registered pension schemes annual statistical return without a signature.

As a result of coronavirus (COVID-19) we know that it may be difficult for scheme administrators to obtain signatures on the APSS107 Registered pension schemes annual statistical return. For now, HMRC will accept APSS107 returns without a signature.

You can email these to reliefatsource.administration@hmrc.gov.uk or post them to:

Pension Schemes Services
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1GH

2. Contacting HMRC’s Pension Schemes Services

We want to remind pension scheme administrators and practitioners of the correct routes for raising queries with Pension Schemes Services.

If you have a question about the pension tax rules you should first refer to our published guidance on GOV.UK and in the Pensions Tax Manual.

Pension scheme administration pages provides guidance for pension scheme administrators, pension scheme practitioners, trustees and members.

The Pensions Tax Manual provides in-depth guidance on the pension tax rules. It helps you to deal with the most common questions about the rules and legislation. It also tells you how you can provide feedback on the manual.

If you still have questions on pensions tax rules

After reading our guidance, if you still have questions about the pension tax rules that are not answered in our published guidance we can help clarify pension legislation. You will need to tell tell us:

• which guidance pages you have considered
• which part of this area of the guidance is unclear

What we cannot do

Please note that we are unable to discuss individual or scheme specific information if we do not have the appropriate authority. We cannot provide financial or tax planning advice or answer hypothetical questions.

How you should contact us

If you have a general question not covered by the guidance

You should contact Pension Schemes Services. We do not provide a list of named contacts because people move between different topics and roles. If you email individuals directly:

• your query could get overlooked or stuck in an individual’s mailbox
• it may take longer for us to answer while we reroute this through the correct channel

If your question relates to a specific scheme or transaction

After reading the guidance, if you are still not clear you should go through the clearance process. Please note that under the clearance process we will only answer enquiries:

• in cases of genuine uncertainty
• where you have provided all the information required under the clearance service

3. Relief at source

a. Annual return of information for 2019 to 2020

We want to remind scheme administrators that the deadline for submitting the 2019 to 2020 annual return of information is 5 July 2020. If you do not submit this on time it will hold up

• interim claims for the tax month ending 5 July 2020
• any claims for subsequent months until we receive your annual return of information

Please also make sure that you submit the APSS590 Annual return of information declaration when submitting your annual return of information, as this forms part of your return. Without it your return will fail.

If you submit your annual return of information but this fails processing, we will:

• still consider this to be outstanding
• stop any subsequent interim repayment claims until we receive a re-submission

If failure occurs on the third submission we will stop all future interim claims until we receive a further re-submission that is considered successful.

You can only submit your 2019 to 2020 annual return of information through the Secure Data Exchange Service.

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

b. Small changes to the APSS107 Registered pension schemes annual statistical return

We’ve made some small cosmetic changes to the APSS107 which include to:

• correct an email address on the form
• remove the reference to the archived registered pension schemes manual