James Jones-Tinsley: Happy New Pensions Year? Maybe not...

I’ve just received a very optimistic-sounding email from HMRC entitled, "A happy new tax year starts here.” I eagerly opened it, only to find it was advertising a webinar about getting payroll records ready for 2024 to 2025. This followed hot on the heels of another email from HMRC, announcing that imminent changes were being made to their Self-Assessment, VAT and PAYE telephone helplines. By “changes”, they meant the use of the helplines was being minimised in a bid to encourage people to go online instead. In the case of the Self-Assessment helpline, it would close altogether from 8 April to 30 September this year. Twenty-four hours later, however, this was followed by a HMRC press release stating, “The changes to the…helplines…will all be halted while HMRC engages with stakeholders. This means the phone lines will remain open between April and September”. False dawn emails and ‘U-turns’ like these do not inspire confidence amongst those who rely heavily on HMRC and other government-bodies to provide them with timely updates and clarity of messaging. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the forthcoming changes to pension taxation, which take effect from the start of the new tax year. Having been introduced to Parliament far too late last year, the Finance Bill 2023-24 finally received Royal Assent on 22 February, to become the Finance Act 2024. For pension professionals, the key parts of the Act are section 14 and especially Schedule 9; a 100-page behemoth of primary legislation to abolish the Lifetime Allowance (LTA), described to me by one colleague as “a cross-reference hell.” Working in parallel with the Commons and the Lords as they turned the Bill into an Act, HMRC have been holding working groups with the pensions industry following the Spring Budget 2023, as well as issuing an ever-increasing number of Newsletters as 6 April draws nearer. Although I could never prove it, I strongly suspect that HMRC were as surprised as the pensions industry when the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced that the LTA would be abolished, rather than increased to either £1.5m or £1.8m as the pre-Budget rumours had suggested. As a result, and with the clock ticking, HMRC appear to have ‘been on the back foot’ during the last year, and like their helpline about-turn, we have got used to their various Newsletters being amended after publication. Despite receiving Royal Assent, the Finance Act 2024 itself contains errors and omissions in Schedule 9, although the government and HMRC are aware of these. Therefore, amending regulations have been issued in the form of a Statutory Instrument (SI), with an effective date of 6 April 2024. These amending regulations either address areas that were not included in the Finance Act, or make amendments to the legislation itself, to ensure it achieves the intended policy outcome. Unfortunately, errors have been identified in this SI too, particularly regarding the calculation for a Scheme Specific Protected Cash Lump Sum, and so further amending regulations may be needed to amend the amending regulations that amend the Finance Act 2024! This all has echoes of the ‘A-Day’ legislation in 2006, where SIs continued to be issued throughout the year, and made retrospectively effective from 6 April 2006, which is never ideal from a legal precedent viewpoint. With all this continuing uncertainty, and despite HMRC’s breezy email promises, I don’t expect it will be a happy new tax year where pensions legislation is concerned. At least I’ll still be able to phone the Self-Assessment helpline! James Jones-Tinsley is a technical specialist at Barnett Waddingham on SSAS and SIPPs practice areas. He also presents to clients, advisers and other professionals on pension matters, liaising with the media on changes to pension legislation. James D Jones-Tinsley FPMI APFS, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

James Jones-Tinsley: Happy New Pensions Year? Maybe not...

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