Guidance

Pension schemes newsletter 89 – July 2017

Published 27 July 2017

1. Pension flexibility statistics

The quarterly release of official statistics on flexible payments from pensions for the period 1 April to 30 June 2017 has now been published.

Further to this, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) can now provide more information on the number of tax repayment claim forms (P55s, P53Zs and P50Zs) processed in respect of pension flexibility payments.

From 1 April to 30 June 2017 we processed:

• P55 = 6,070 forms
• P53Z = 3,408 forms
• P50Z = 1,098 forms

Total value repaid: £26,835,357

Figures for the period 1 July 2017 to 30 September 2017 will be published in October 2017.

2. Relief at source for Scottish Income Tax

a. Residency tax status look up service for pension scheme administrators

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 88 we explained that we’re providing access to an external test environment to help you develop and test Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) in readiness for when you use the look up service early next year. We offered you the opportunity to access the test environment and the draft API technical information and asked you to provide your email address to HMRC so we could give you access to the test environment.

Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in accessing the test environment. You should now have received an email from our Software Developer Support Team (SDST) with a link to the test environment.

If you haven’t received this email and still want access to the test environment, please email pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Relief at source - access to test service’ in the subject line of your email. If you haven’t responded but want access to the test environment you can still email us and we’ll give you access.

b. Secure data exchange service enrolment

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 88 we explained that:

• in January 2018 HMRC will be sending you a notification of residency tax status of your individual members using the secure data exchange service (SDES)
• from April 2019 all scheme administrators must submit the annual return of individual information electronically through SDES

We explained that if you don’t currently submit your annual return electronically, you must contact us with some details so that we can help to enrol you onto SDES.

We wrote to all scheme administrators of relief at source schemes asking you to send this information to us by 31 July 2017, so that we have enough time to coordinate your enrolment with our SDES project team.

If you haven’t already done so, you must send us the information in Appendix 1 by email to: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. Please put ‘Relief at source - SDES enrolment details’ in the subject line of your email.

Our SDES project team will then use this to enrol you for SDES from autumn 2017.

Once we’ve received and processed your enrolment details we’ll send you a letter containing your unique reference number and known fact to the registered office address provided on your enrolment form. This will enable you to complete enrolment.

Once you’ve enrolled onto SDES you’ll be able to receive the notification of residency tax status of your individual members that we’ll send you using SDES in January 2018 and you’ll be able to submit your annual return of individual information through SDES.

You can find more specific information about using SDES in Appendix 2 of Pension Schemes Newsletter 88.

3. Annual return of individual information

a. Reminder to submit annual return of individual information

In January 2017 HMRC issued notices requiring pension schemes operating relief at source to submit their annual return of individual information (also known as the RPSCOM100(Z)) for tax year 2016 to 2017 to HMRC by 5 July 2017.

If you’ve failed to submit this information by 5 July 2017 any subsequent interim repayments will be held pending receipt of the outstanding information.

If you submit your annual return of individual information but your return fails processing, we’ll still deem this to be outstanding and will stop any subsequent interim repayments pending successful re-submission.

If your submission fails for a third time we’ll stop all future interim repayments to your scheme until a further re-submission is received and is deemed successful.

If you’re a pension scheme administrator operating a relief at source pension scheme but have yet to receive a notice requiring you to submit this information for 2016 to 2017, please email pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Relief at source’ in the subject line of your email.

You can find more information about the annual return of individual information and the member information that we need in our GOV.UK guide relief at source annual information returns.

b. Reporting requirements

We’ve received a number of queries from pension scheme administrators asking in what circumstances an annual return of individual information should be completed.

You must report to HMRC details of all contracts for individuals during the tax year relating to the return where there is an amount greater than zero in any one or more of the following:

• individual contribution
• employer contribution
• national insurance rebate
• term assurance contribution
• total amount of transfer payment received
• value of member’s fund

For the value of the member’s fund, you should show the total value of monies, assets and investments held for the member under the scheme at a particular date determined by the scheme (provided this date falls in the 12 month period beginning on 6 July of the tax year that the return relates to). You must report the date of the fund valuation. Where an individual has more than one contract under the same pension scheme, you should aggregate these to provide a single figure.

4. Qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes (QROPS) transfer statistics

We published the first annual release of official statistics on transfers to QROPS on 6 December 2016.

As this was the first publication, we included statistics for tax year 2006 to 2007 to tax year 2015 to 2016 inclusive. In Pension Schemes Newsletter 83 we explained that we’ll publish these statistics in July each year from July 2017 and will include information from the previous tax year.

The figures for the tax year 2016 to 2017 have now been published.

You can find more details at updates for HMRC statistics and statistics at HMRC

5. Lifetime allowance look up service for pension scheme administrators

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 88 we explained that we are continuing to work on the lifetime allowance pension scheme administrator look up service.

We had hoped to launch the lifetime allowance look up service in early summer, however delivery of this has been delayed. We know that this may be disappointing but we will keep you updated on when the service will be available for you to use.

6. Reporting of non-taxable death benefits

We’ve received a number of questions from pension scheme administrators asking about the reporting of non-taxable death benefits.

In Pensions Schemes Newsletter 85 we explained that we were working to resolve the problem of P6 tax coding notices being issued in error for death benefit payments that are entirely non-taxable. We referred back to our guidance in Pension Schemes Newsletter 78 on how to report these non-taxable death benefits.

You should continue to follow the guidance we gave you in Pension Schemes Newsletter 78 as we continue to work on a solution. We hope to be able to resolve this by April 2018 and will keep you updated in future newsletters.

7. New Pensions Online service

From April 2018 we will move pension scheme registration and administration onto a new digital platform – Pensions Online Digital Service so that we can improve the service for pension scheme administrators.

The new service will hold everything relating to scheme administration in one place, from pension scheme details to accounting.

Our new service will:

• provide a new digital platform for you to register and manage your pension schemes
• provide a digital account for all pension schemes and reporting
• issue all HMRC notifications regarding registration through the new service
• hold details of existing pension schemes, pension scheme administrators and pension practitioners following migration from the existing Pension Schemes Online Service

We’ll roll out the end to end service in 2 phases.

a. Phase One - April 2018

During Phase One we’ll move pension scheme registration and registering as a scheme administrator onto the new service.

Phase One will affect:

• new scheme administrator registrations
• new pension scheme registrations
• existing scheme administrators registering new pension schemes
• scheme administrators associating other administrators to old and new pension schemes
• new practitioners registering as a practitioner and applying for a practitioner ID
• scheme administrators authorising a practitioner for old and new pension schemes

So, if you want to register as a new scheme administrator from April 2018, you’ll do this through the new service. You’ll also use the new service to submit applications to register new pension schemes.

Existing pension schemes and pension scheme administrators

If you registered as a pension scheme administrator before April 2018 and/or your pension scheme was registered before April 2018, you will see no immediate change and should continue to submit reports as you currently do.

You should still use the existing Pension Schemes Online Service to manage existing schemes and submit your online reports in 2018 to 2019. We’ll migrate your existing registered pension schemes as well as your scheme administrator IDs across to the new service from April 2019.

You can help with the move to the new service by making sure all your scheme administrator IDs are all still used and that the details are all up to date. We’ll provide more information on how and when you can help us with this in a future newsletter.

b. Phase Two - April 2019

Phase Two will affect pension scheme administrators and registered pension schemes that were registered with us before April 2018.

During Phase Two we’ll:

• introduce online reporting through the new service
• send all notifications and notices from HMRC through the new service
• issue Penalties and Assessments through the new service
• migrate existing pension schemes from Pension Schemes Online Service to the new platform
• decommission Pensions Schemes Online Service once we have delivered the new service

We want to make the transition to the new service as smooth as possible and we know that there will be a transitional period where you will have to use both systems, if you have existing schemes and register new schemes after April 2018.

We’ll provide you with guidance and support to help you move to the new service so that you can meet your reporting obligations for 2018 to 2019 during the transitional period.

As you’ll appreciate, currently we’re focussing on the design of Phase One of the new service, but we know that you may have questions about Phase Two. If you have any questions or want to contact us about the new service, please email pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Pensions Online’ in the subject line of your email.

User research

We’ll continue to keep you up to date with progress through our newsletters and we’ll tell you about opportunities to get involved in our user research and testing the new service.

Our user researcher, Cay Green, is looking to speak to different pension scheme administrators and pension practitioners as part of our ongoing user research. This is your opportunity to let HMRC know what your needs are as users of the new service and your feedback will help us to build the best possible service.

If you’re interested in participating in this user research please email pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Pensions Online – User Research’ in the subject line of your email.

Appendix 1 - SDES enrolment information and contact details for the support team

I wish to enrol onto SDES. Please find the required details below:

An asterisk (*) denotes mandatory information

Organisation name*

Organisation registered address* (as per the information registered under Companies House)

Primary contact details:

Name*

Role*

Main contact number*

Additional contact number

Email address*

Primary Security/IT Contact (if different to above)

Name

Role

Main contact number

Additional contact number

Email address

Secondary Contact

Name

Role

Main contact number

Additional contact number

Email address

Secondary Security/IT Contact (if different to above)

Name

Role

Main contact number

Additional contact number

Email address