The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that foreign investment funds that invest in French companies should not be liable to pay a discriminatory withholding tax on dividends.
Prior to today’s judgment, under French corporate tax law, France levied a withholding tax of 15%, or in some...
The Green decision on payment of ill health pension could cause headaches for trustees explains Gareth Soanes, Allen & Overy
Reaching a decision on whether or not to pay an ill health pension can be a tricky and sensitive process. Competing issues are often finely balanced and the only certainty is that the outcome will have an immediate and significant impact on the member.
For pension scheme trustees, therefore,...
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has made a salary sacrifice guidance change which means workers opting out of auto-enrolment cannot be left out of pocket.
The change also provides much needed clarity to employers about the validity of salary sacrifice arrangements being used to meet auto-enrolment...
Consumers have been warned to steer clear of pension offers that claim to be able to provide loans or release tax-free cash from people’s pension pots before they reach age 55. They may lose their entire pension and face tax charges of up to 55%.
The Pensions Regulator, Financial Services...
People with ‘enhanced protection’ on pensions valued up to £1.8m could benefit from switching to fixed protection before the tax year end deadline according to Skandia. If they continue with enhanced protection, their maximum tax-free cash allowance will fall to £375,000...
HMRC has changed its interpretation of the carry forward pension rule.
A new interpretation of the pension rules has opened up opportunities for pension investors to make significant contributions to their pension scheme.
HMRC has announced changes to its interpretation of the “...
Tolley’s Pensions Taxation 2011–12 by Stephen Ward, £94.95, ISBN 978 0 7545 4176 9 (249 pages)
www.lexisnexis.co.uk
Pensions tax simplification (or pensions “stupefaction”) took place five years ago. Since then things have become even more complicated. This new title from the publishers of Pensions World highlights all the 2006 reforms as well the latest changes introduced by the Finance Act 2011...
Act now to protect the allowance of a lifetime with a fixed protection option urges Colin Batchelor, Legal & General
The lifetime allowance, a restriction on the amount of benefits that can be taken from pension schemes without tax charges, was introduced in April 2006 (A Day). At that time, individuals who thought they would be affected could apply for transitional protection: primary protection provided...
People with large pensions must act before April 2012 to avoid tax charges.
Individuals with substantial pensions risk suffering avoidable tax charges if they do not take action before April 2012, warns JLT Wealth Management. Anyone who wants to can apply to retain the current £1.8m...
Schemes are up the creek with only half a paddle without practical guidance on the changes to annual allowances says Doug Gardner, Xafinity Paymaster
The reduced annual allowance is most likely to have an impact on higher earners and long service members who receive a large pay increase. It is also likely to affect those who have spikes in accrual due to irregular patterns of earnings and those who have redundancy compensation paid as a...
Proceed with caution when unravelling mistakes made in pension scheme administration advises Helena Berman, Maurice Turnor Gardner
Pension schemes today operate in an increasingly complicated legislative and regulatory environment and, as any business involved in pension scheme administration will know, mistakes do happen. Since April 2006 and the introduction of the unauthorised payment regime set out in Part 4 of the...
Kevin Gude, Lawrence Graham, explains the usefulness of the principle of estoppel in determining contested pensions claims
Twenty years ago, in pre-Google times, I received an enquiry from an anxious pensions consultant. He wanted to know the meaning of an “odd, foreign-sounding” word featured in a solicitor’s letter shown to him over lunch with trustees. The word was “estoppel”. While...
The annual allowance on tax privileged pensions was reduced to £50,000 on 6 April. Many long serving and higher earning pension scheme members will worry in case they overstep the mark. With this mind, SHILLING Communication, the communications specialists, has joined forces with actuarial...
Will early access to pension savings make pensions more attractive to Generation Y? ask Vicky Millington and Charlie Bradley, Aviva
It is well established that individuals in the UK cannot access their pension savings prior to the statutory minimum pension age (age 55), except in limited circumstances. Over recent years, the government has committed to encourage greater pension savings by individuals during their working...
The Treasury announced today [3 March] that tax will have to be paid at the point the charge arises for members of pension schemes who exceed the £50,000 Annual Allowance (AA).
However, members will be able to ask their pension scheme to meet their tax bill.
Schemes will have a...
Keep an eye on what happens to income tax north of the border warns Pete Cottingham, Prudential
In June 2009 the Commission on Scottish Devolution – an independent review of the experience of Scottish devolution since 1998 (usually referred to as the Calman Commission) – published its final report. The report seemed to go largely unnoticed in the tumultuous world of pensions,...
Tax Handbook 2010–11 by Lisa Macpherson and Anthony Foreman ISBN 978 0 273 73974 6 (872 pages) £39.99
www.pearson-books.com
Tax Handbook 2010–11 by Lisa Macpherson and Anthony Foreman ISBN 978 0 273 73974 6 (872 pages) £39.99
www.pearson-books.com
In a market where there is a lot of competition, the Tax Handbook 2010–11 stands out as being reliable and authoritative.
Written by members of the PKF...
Tim Box, senior consultant at LCP, considers some future scenarios that the changing pensions tax regime may cause for company pension schemes
To: Joe Bloggs
From: Walter Plinge, Pensions Manager
Date: December 2012
Subject: Significant effects that the changes to the annual allowance (AA) have had on the operation and administration of our pension schemes
"This note reports some of the most significant effects that the...
Until 5 April, it is likely to remain attractive for employers to establish new employer-financed retirement benefit schemes (EFRBs) or to make additional contributions to existing schemes according to PwC.
Marc Hommel, pensions partner at PwC commented: "For those people hit by the...
Rhys Thomas, solicitor, looks at the tax breaks available for UK residents from overseas pension arrangements
Members of UK registered pension schemes enjoy tax relief on contributions and tax free investment returns. This has to be weighed against:
income tax plus the various pension taxes introduced from 6 April 2006 (A Day) – the lifetime allowance charge (LAC) on excess benefits, the annual...
