The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals ……………………………………………………………Policy News Journal
Countdown bulletin 23 has been published by HMRC and includes an update on improvements to waiting times for Pension Scheme Administrators.
Scheme Reconciliation Service (SRS) HMRC continues to experience high volumes of queries in relation to scheme reconciliation. Significant numbers of slots for clerical processing have been filled however the influx of queries has led to an extended wait time between submission to HMRC by PSAs and HMRC starting their review. The Customer Relations Management (CRM) team are working with PSAs to ensure everyone is aware of this delay prior to the submission of the queries and we would encourage you to contact them using the CRM hunt group number of Telephone: 03000 550315 in advance of query submissions to discuss expected timescales. Once data is received by HMRC via Shared Workspace, the CRM team will again contact the PSAs by phone and a follow up confirmation email with the expected HMRC reply timescales. Following a streamlining to internal administration processes the CRM team are currently contacting PSA’s within approximately 2 days of submission of queries to confirm expected timescales and have improved our customer waiting time by 25% when responding to queries.
Should automation of SRS queries result in slots being released, the team will allocate a revised timescale on a first in first out basis, and will contact the relevant PSAs to update them.
The Countdown Bulletin also includes information on:
Scheme reconciliation - active members Automation of SRS queries Schemes that ceased to contract-out before April 2016 Pension forums Distribution details – send your details (name, company and email address) Mailbox.newstatepensionenquiries@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk if you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive the Countdown bulletins. Useful links including links to previous Countdown bulletins and previous articles Contact details
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Tax-free Pension Advice Allowance 13 February 2017
The new Pension Advice Allowance will enable people to withdraw £500 on up to three occasions from their pension pots tax-free to put towards the cost of pensions and retirement advice from April 2017.
Following an 8 week consultation, the government’s response confirms that the £500 Pension Advice Allowance:
can be used a total of three times, only once in a tax year, allowing people to access retirement advice at different stages of their lives, for example when first choosing pension or just prior to retirement will be available at any age, allowing people of all ages to engage with retirement planning can be redeemed against the cost of regulated financial advice, including ‘robo advice’ as well as traditional face-to-face advice will be available to holders of “defined contribution” pensions and hybrid pensions with a defined contribution element, not “defined benefit” or final salary type schemes. can be combined with the £500 employer-arranged tax-free pensions advice. The use of one exemption does not prevent an individual from accessing the other
HMRC has published draft regulations and draft explanatory memorandum for a technical consultation. More information can be found in the tax information and impact note .
Comments on the drafts should be sent by email to pensions.policy@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk by 28 February 2017.
Interaction of the allowance with the tax exemption for employer arranged pensions advice From 6 April 2017 the government is also introducing a new income tax exemption to cover the first £500 worth of pensions advice provided to an employee in a tax year. It will allow advice not only on pensions, but also on the general financial and tax issues relating to pensions. The changes replace existing provisions which limited the exemption solely to pensions advice and was capped at £150 per employee per tax year.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Policy News Journal
cipp.org.uk
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