Guidance

Newsletter 185 — September 2026

Published 24 September 2026

Pension scheme return — wound up schemes

If your scheme has wound up

Submitting an event report to tell us that your pension scheme has wound up does not always remove the need to submit a pension scheme return.

If the scheme wound up in the current year

You may still receive a notice requiring you to submit a pension scheme return for that year.

You must submit the return within 3 months of the date on the notice.

If you do not submit the return on time, the pension scheme administrator will be charged a £100 penalty. They may also be charged daily penalties of up to £60 a day until the return is submitted.

If you have an outstanding return for a previous year

If the scheme completed winding up before 31 October in the following tax year, the usual filing deadline does not apply.

Instead, you must submit the outstanding return within 3 months of the date the winding up was completed.

If you do not submit the return on time, the pension scheme administrator will be charged a £100 penalty. They may also be charged daily penalties of up to £60 a day until the return is submitted.

Lump sum death benefits process

The government will legislate to simplify the taxation of certain lump sum death benefits paid in excess of the lump sum and death benefit allowance.

Any tax due on these payments will still be charged at the beneficiary’s marginal rate of Income Tax. However, the amount above the allowance will no longer count as pension income for other tax purposes.

This change will:

• give beneficiaries more certainty about how these payments are taxed
• make administration simpler
• keep the current tax policy outcome

This change does not affect the reporting requirements for:

• pension schemes
• legal personal representatives

Pension schemes online service is closing — action needed to migrate pension schemes

The pension schemes online service will close in April 2027.

As we get closer to the closure date, some service limitations may affect how you manage your pension schemes. To avoid disruption, you should migrate all open pension schemes to the managing pension schemes service by 31 December 2026.

Migrating now will help you continue to:

• manage your pension schemes
• meet your reporting obligations

If you have open schemes

If you have any pension schemes with an ‘open’ status on pension schemes online, you should:

• enrol for the managing pension schemes service, if you have not already done so
• migrate your open schemes as soon as possible

You can get help with enrolling and migrating by watching the managing pension schemes YouTube video.

If you need to wind up a scheme

If a scheme needs to be wound up instead of migrated, follow the guidance in pension schemes newsletter 180.

What happens next

Act now to make sure your schemes remain compliant before the pension schemes online service closes.

HMRC is working on the operational and customer support arrangements needed for the closure of the service. We understand that scheme administrators and practitioners will want to know how these processes will work after the service closes.

We are finalising the details and will provide further guidance and support in future pension schemes newsletters and on GOV.UK as soon as it becomes available.

Relief at source

Annual return of information

The deadline for submitting your annual return of information and APSS590 declaration for the 2025 to 2026 tax year has passed.

However, some pension scheme administrators who submitted interim repayment claims in 2026 to 2027 still have outstanding returns.

If your return is outstanding

If your scheme still has an outstanding annual return of information for 2025 to 2026, we will not make any further interim repayments until we receive both:

• the outstanding annual return of information
• the APSS590 declaration

Use the correct file naming convention

When you submit your annual return of information for 2025 to 2026, you must use the correct references in:

• the file name
• the annual return

If you use the wrong references, our systems will reject your submission. You will then need to correct and resubmit the return.

You can find the file naming requirements in:

• the registered pension scheme relief at source spreadsheet
• guidance about how to complete your annual return of information for pension schemes operating relief at source