Guidance

Pension schemes newsletter 92 – October 2017

Published 31 October 2017

Pension flexibility statistics

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

Further to this, we 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 July to 30 September 2017 we processed:

• P55 = 8,489 forms
• P53Z = 5,944 forms
• P50Z = 1,735 forms

Total value repaid: £36,875,395

Figures for the period 1 October to 31 December 2017 will be published in January 2018.

Registration statistics

For the period 6 April 2017 to 30 September 2017 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received in total 1,169 applications to register new pension schemes. This is a 17% reduction compared to applications received in the same period last year.

Of these applications, 60% have been registered and HMRC has currently refused registration for about 13% of applications. No decision has yet been made on the remainder.

Relief at source for Scottish Income Tax

a. Technical Specification for the Notification of Residency Status

We have now finalised the Technical Specification for the Notification of Residency Status report that Pension Providers will be receiving from HMRC from January 2018.

In readiness for this, if you would like to receive a copy of the specification please email us at pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘RAS Technical Specification’ in the title. If you would like the document to be issued to a different or additional email address, please include the details in your email.

b. Relief at source draft regulations

In Newsletter 91 we told you that we would be publishing draft regulations in the autumn. This is to let you know that we aim to publish draft regulations and the draft explanatory memorandum for a technical consultation in November.

Drawdown pension tables

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 84 we included an article about the extended drawdown pension tables we published on 18 January 2017.

We explained that for calculations undertaken after 1 July 2017, these new tables should be used. Please note that this date should not be confused with the nominated date that the scheme administrator uses to perform the calculation. Please refer to the example in the Pensions Tax Manual at PTM062540 for further information.

New pensions online service

a. Moving existing scheme administrator details to the new service

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 90 we explained that we had decided to bring forward transferring existing scheme administrator data onto the new Pensions Online Digital Service to April 2018. This is to allow existing pension scheme administrators to register new schemes on the new service.

To ensure we have enough information to move existing scheme administrators to the new service we asked scheme administrators to log into Pension Schemes Online and check that their details are complete and up to date.

Thank you to those who have now logged into Pension Schemes Online and updated their details.

We know that there are still a lot of scheme administrators who have not logged onto the current online service since April 2015. If you haven’t done so already you should log on and check your details are complete and correct. If you don’t, we may not have enough information to move you to the new service. If we can’t move your details across you may have to register as a new user on the new service from April 2018.

b. User research

In previous Newsletters we have asked scheme administrators to volunteer to take part in our ongoing user research. Thank you to all of you who volunteered and participated so far.

Over the next 6 to 8 weeks we will start work on building prototypes for the new service.

If you haven’t volunteered to take part in our user research but would like to, or would like to get involved in user testing of the prototypes as we build them, please email pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Pensions Online – User Research’ in the subject line of your email. Our user researcher, Cay Green will then contact you.

This is your opportunity to let HMRC know what your needs are as users of our new pension online digital service. Your feedback will help us to build the best possible service.

Paying tax to HMRC

We have experienced a number of issues recently with payments of tax being made without the relevant charge reference. Where this is occurring demand notices are being issued by our Debt Management team, interest is accruing on the outstanding payments and late payment penalties may potentially become liable.

This is a request to ask you as scheme administrators to make sure that all payments you make contain the relevant charge reference number. If you ask the bank to transfer monies electronically please ask the bank to include the charge reference within the transfer. This will ensure all payments are suitably matched to the relevant charge.

The charge reference is provided on screen once you have successfully submitted an Accounting for Tax Return. It is also available on the scheme summary page 24 hours later. If any interest has accrued, we will issue a letter containing a separate charge reference for the interest.

For more information on paying HMRC see methods of payment

Where a charge is showing on our systems as unpaid you will be contacted by our colleagues in Debt Management. If you have paid the charge you will be required to provide us with the following details to enable us to match up your payment:

• method of payment
• exact amount of payment (including pence)
• date the payment was made
• date the funds left the account
• reference number used when making payment
• the actual name of the account the money was paid from

If you have any queries about Accounting for Tax payments please email us at pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Accounting for Tax – Payment Query’ in the title.

Lifetime allowance service

The lifetime allowance online service is still currently unavailable through the personal tax account. This means that scheme members who log onto their personal tax account to apply for lifetime allowance protection, won’t be able to do this through their personal tax account.

If you get any questions from members about this, please explain that they can still apply to protect their pension savings using the link to the lifetime allowance online service in the GOV.UK guide Pension schemes: protect your lifetime allowance - GOV.UK

Members can also still view details of their protection using the link on the Pension schemes: protect your lifetime allowance - GOV.UK The lifetime allowance scheme administrator look-up service is unaffected.