Annual Allowance Deadlines
Legislative deadlines for Annual Allowance Pension Savings Statements have recently changed due to the McCloud/Sargeant Ruling and steps required to deliver the 2015 Remedy.
What does this mean?
All scheme members who are eligible for Remedy will need to make a decision about their pension benefits for the remedy period between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022.
Members who should have received their 2022/2023 PSS by 6 October 2023
Protected Members
Members who remained in the legacy scheme from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.
CARE Only Members
Members who joined the 2015 scheme from 1 April 2015 who were not a member of any other public sector pension before this date.
Self-employed GPs requiring 2021/2022 PSS
Members who hold a current self-employed GP post requiring a 2021/2022 PSS.
When will statements be issued?
The above members who have breached within a single scheme should have received their Annual Allowance Pension Savings Statements for 2022/2023 by 6 October 2023. Any new requests received will be issued within 3 months of request.
Please note SPPA is unable to produce Pension Savings Statements until we hold up to date and correct information from employers. If we need to contact employers, SPPA have 3 months upon receipt of all the relevant information to provide a Pension Savings Statement. We will notify you if this affects your request.
How to identify if you've incurred a tax charge
You will need to use the information provided on your Pension Savings Statement to establish your Annual Allowance tax position with HMRC.
You can use HMRC's calculator and enter the pension input amounts from your Pension Savings Statements. This will show whether you have a tax charge as well as any unused allowance from the previous three years. If you have benefits in more than one scheme, such as an SPPA final salary scheme and career average CARE scheme, or other private pensions, then the sum of all your pension input amounts should be considered and tested against the Annual Allowance. We have prepared some guidance you may wish to refer to whilst using the calculator.
The output from the calculator is the ‘amount on which tax is due’, and the actual charge payable is dependent on your marginal tax rate. To calculate this, you need to work out the rate of tax that would be charged if your excess pension savings were added to your taxable income and the tax based on your marginal income tax rate. If you're unsure, guidance and examples of the marginal tax rate can be found on the HMRC website.
Members who will receive their 2022/2023 PSS by 6 October 2024
Unprotected and Tapered Members
Members who were moved into the reformed scheme between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022.
When will statements be issued?
In recognition of the impact of Remedy, the legislative deadline for issuing 2022/2023 Pension Savings Statements for Annual Allowance purposes to those affected, has been changed to 6 October 2024 by HMRC. In addition, Scheme Pays deadlines have also been extended to 31 July 2025 by HMRC.
Self-assessment Deadline for 2022/2023
If you need to submit a self-assessment tax return for 2022/2023, you’ll still need to submit this by the deadline of 31 January 2024, even if you don’t know whether you have an Annual Allowance (AA) charge for that year.
HMRC have confirmed that members won’t need to report any annual allowance charge for 2022/23 on their self-assessment tax return by the standard 31 January 2024 deadline, even if they receive a 2022/23 pension savings statement before this date. HMRC have announced a separate reporting framework. You can find out more by visiting their website: HMRC Website