Guidance

Pension schemes newsletter 87 - May 2017

Published 1 June 2017

1. Pension advice allowance

We have received queries from pension scheme administrators asking if their members can request the pension advice allowance from their scheme by email. The Registered Pension Schemes (Authorised Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 say that the request must be made in writing by the member. We can confirm that the member can make this request by email, however it’s down to you as pension scheme administrator to decide if you will accept requests by email.

2. Relief at source

In January 2017 we 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 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by 5 July 2017.

If you fail 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 will still deem this to be outstanding and will stop any subsequent interim repayment claims 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.

Our GOV.UK guide relief at source annual information returns has more information about the annual return of individual information and the member information we need.

3. Scottish rate of Income Tax

a. Pension schemes Scottish rate of Income Tax newsletter

As you may be aware in May 2017 we published the Pension schemes Scottish rate of Income Tax newsletter. This newsletter gives pension scheme administrators operating relief at source pension schemes information about submitting the annual return of individual information to HMRC from 2018 onwards and the digital channel, Secure Data Exchange Service (SDES), you’ll use to submit this.

The newsletter also gives information about how we’ll tell pension scheme administrators operating relief at source pension schemes of individual scheme members’ residency tax status from January 2018 onwards.

b. Secure data exchange service (SDES)

As we explained in Pension Schemes Newsletter 85 and the Pension schemes Scottish rate of Income Tax newsletter we are introducing a new electronic service, the SDES for the submission of the annual return of individual information. We’ll also use SDES from January 2018 onwards to tell pension scheme administrators operating relief at source the residency tax status of their members.

From April 2018 you will be able to submit your annual return of individual information on SDES and this will run alongside existing submission methods. From 2019 you’ll only be able to submit your annual return electronically using SDES.

If you are a pension scheme administrator who currently uses secure electronic transfer (SET) to submit your annual return of individual information, you may receive guidance directly from the SDES project team in the next few weeks. If you don’t currently use SET to submit your annual return of individual information, we will publish more guidance for you in pension schemes newsletters to help you enrol onto SDES.

You can find more information specifically around using the Secure Data Exchange Service in The Pension schemes Scottish rate of Income Tax newsletter.

As we develop SDES we’ll provide more information and help through our pension schemes newsletters.

You can subscribe to receive email alerts when we publish our pension schemes newsletters, by following the steps below:

1. go to Pension scheme administration - email alert subscription
2. click on create subscription
3. enter your details and follow the steps online

Each time we update our pension scheme administration GOV.UK content, or publish a pension schemes newsletter, you’ll receive an email alert.

c. Contacting HMRC about SDES and relief at source

In the Pension schemes Scottish rate of Income Tax newsletter we gave you contact details if you have questions about SDES and relief at source.

This is to remind you that if you have questions about SET to SDES migration and for information about using the SDES automated process, you can contact the SDES product manager Matthew Walker at: matthew.walker@digital.hmrc.gov.uk.

If you have any other questions or concerns about relief at source for Scottish rate of Income Tax, you can contact HMRC at: pensions.businessdelivery@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘relief at source’ in the subject line of your email.

4. The pension scheme return and the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes

We have received a number of queries from pension scheme administrators confusing the pension scheme return (PSR) with the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes.

These are 2 different information returns; the pension scheme return and the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes. As pension scheme administrator/pension scheme trustee, you may have to complete both the PSR and the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes.

The pension scheme return

The PSR is a return that provides HMRC with information about the scheme, including information on contributions to the scheme, transfers, pension scheme investments and investment income. You need to complete and submit a PSR online if we issue you with a notice to do so, even if you have already submitted the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes.

You can find guidance about the PSR in PTM163000 of the Pensions Tax Manual and in Chapter 9 paragraph 9.4 of our Online User Guide.

SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes

We may also ask scheme trustees to complete SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes. If you’re a trustee of a pension scheme that has previously paid tax or claimed a repayment we will issue a letter telling you that you must complete a tax return (form SA970) for the pension scheme. You can only submit the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes on paper.

If you’ve been asked to complete a tax return you must do so even if:

• no tax or repayment is due
• you have already submitted a PSR

You can find guidance about the the SA970 tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes at Pension trustees: Self Assessment tax returns.

5. Changes to the scheduled publication of the Recognised Overseas Pension schemes (ROPS) notification list

In Pension Schemes Newsletter 85 and Pension Schemes Newsletter 86 we told you about planned changes to the scheduled publication of the ROPS Notification List following recent changes to the pension tax rules relating to overseas pension schemes. This is to remind you of planned changes to the scheduled publication of the ROPS notification list as follows:

• 2 June 2017 - we will suspend the ROPS notifications list
• 5 June 2017 - we will publish an updated list
• 15 June 2017 - routine publication of the ROPS