Latest news

The Pensions Regulator has issued its annual funding statement, setting out its expectations of valuations with effective dates between 22 September 2014 and 21 September 2015. Managing risk The Regulator expects trustees to understand their scheme’s sensitivity to different risks, including the likelihood of those risks occurring and the resultant impact on the scheme, and […]

The Finance Bill received Royal Assent on 26 March.  This Act includes details of the changes to the distribution and taxation of defined contribution benefits on the death of a member.  However, the reduction in the Lifetime Allowance to £1 million, that George Osborne announced in the Budget on 18 March, will appear in a […]

In the case of the Trustee of the Singer & Friedlander Ltd Pension and Assurance Scheme v Corbett, the High Court has ruled that trustees may assign a section 75 debt to another party. Background The Singer & Friedlander Scheme was a defined benefit (DB) occupational pension scheme whose sponsoring employer, Kaupthing, Singer & Friedlander, […]

The Pensions Ombudsman has published three determinations in relation to pension liberation, together with accompanying guidance.  The cases all concerned members who had been denied a transfer from a personal pension arrangement to schemes that were said to be occupational pension schemes registered with HMRC, because the providers suspected that those schemes were in fact […]

Following a consultation last year, the Government has proposed the following figures, relating to automatic enrolment obligations, for the 2015/16 tax year: £10,000 for the automatic enrolment earnings trigger, unchanged from 2014/15, £5,824 for the lower limit of the qualifying earnings band, equal to the NICs Lower Earnings Limit, and £42,385 for the upper limit […]

Following European Court decisions in two separate cases last year, and a consequent review of its treatment of VAT on services provided to pension schemes, HMRC has now announced changes to its position.  In summary: in relation to defined benefit (DB) schemes, HMRC will allow sponsoring employers to reclaim VAT paid on administration and other […]

Under current law, if an individual has accessed his pension through drawdown, rather than by purchasing an annuity, on his death the remaining fund may be passed to a beneficiary, subject to tax: at 55% if the funds are paid as a lump sum or at the recipient’s marginal rate of income tax if the […]

The Government has consulted on draft regulations that introduce the charge cap and other governance measures for money purchase arrangements with effect from April 2015. Governance The governance arrangements will not apply to: Small Self-administered Schemes, executive pension schemes, public service pension schemes, NEST and schemes where the only money purchase benefits relate to AVCs. […]

Following its consultation earlier this year on the calculation of levies for the three years commencing with the 2015/16 year, the PPF has now published its response to the consultation, including further detail on the quantum of next year’s levy.  The earlier consultation focussed on the design of the levy framework – which affects the […]

Introduction FRS 102 becomes applicable for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2015.  It (together with FRSs 100, 101 and 103) replaces all other existing FRSs and so will be the standard that covers how entities account for the cost of their pension arrangements. In line with international accounting standards, the STRGL is […]