Category Archives: Contributions

Retirement planning in 2022/23

As we welcome in a new tax year, here’s a look at pension planning for 2022/23.

Now that all the last-minute end of tax year pension planning is complete it is time to turn to 2022/23 and consider any changes that apply when advising on pension funding or taking benefits.

Although the pension tax regime has remained relatively stable over the last few years a new tax year always brings a few changes along with a fresh set of allowances to make the most of.

The main impact on pension funding is an indirect one – the increase in the National Insurance Contribution (NIC) rates and the accompanying increases in the dividend rates. Both these changes can make the advantages of pensions even greater in two key areas of pension planning:

Salary sacrifice and pensions

Employees can sacrifice part of their salary and/or bonus in return for their employer paying the amount sacrificed as an employer pension contribution on their behalf. Unlike salary/bonus, an employer pension contribution doesn’t attract NIC.

The 1.25% increases in employer and employee NICs makes salary sacrifice even more attractive. As well as the usual income tax relief, the additional benefit of salary sacrifice is the NICs savings for both employer and employee, made by reducing salary. Employers make their own decisions of how much of the NIC saving they pass onto their employees, with some passing all and some nothing at all. However, even if none, the employee will still benefit from their employee NICs savings.  

The benefits of salary sacrifice from 2022/23 onwards will be even greater. For employees, they will save an additional 1.25% on any of their earnings they choose to give up. Employers will save the same and may be willing to pass some or all of this onto the employee. This may lead to an increase in contributions via salary sacrifice and more employers wanting to set up salary sacrifice arrangements.   

The Government largely withdrew the income tax and NICs advantages where benefits in kind are provided through salary sacrifice arrangements (described in the legislation as ‘optional remuneration arrangements’) from 6 April 2017. However, pension contributions were exempted from that change.

The significant advantage may cause the Government to take another look at salary sacrifice arrangements, particular from next year where the tax becomes a separate charge, i.e. The Health and Social Levy. However, we are yet to see any signs of this, so it is unlikely that anything will change for this tax year at least.

Profit extraction from owner-managed limited companies           

For those in control of how they distribute funds from their company there are broadly there three main ways to extract the funds – either as salary, dividends or by making employer pension contributions. The increase in the NIC rates and dividend tax rates both make the extraction of profits via pension contributions more attractive. 

To provide a shareholding director with their immediate income needs, the company accountant will often suggest paying a minimal salary, perhaps up to the personal allowance (or in previous years the employer NICs secondary earnings limit) and the rest in dividends. As the rate payable on both the employer and employee NICs will have increased by 1.25%, this is unlikely to change, despite the increase in dividend tax rates. Therefore, advisers will usually be comparing paying further dividends with employer pension contributions at the director’s marginal rate of tax. 

Any further dividend payments will effectively result in additional corporation tax (because dividends are paid out of after tax profits) and the recipient will suffer higher dividend tax rates (assuming the tax free dividend allowance has already been used up) of 8.75%, 33.75% and 39.35%.

In contrast, a pension contribution can be made gross, and, providing it meets the usual “wholly and exclusively” rules, will be treated as a business expense. There will, of course, be tax when the pension is paid, but 25% of this is normally paid free of tax and the rest subject to income tax at the recipient’s marginal rates of income tax at the time.

Maximising allowances

Elsewhere, the main rates of tax relief on contributions, as well as the annual allowances, remain unchanged. For those unaffected by tapering or unrestricted by the money purchase annual allowance this is generally good news, with the £40,000 allowance providing adequate scope for most to make reasonable pension provision.

The personal allowance and the basic rate tax band remain unchanged at £12,570 and £37,700 so, for those in the decumulation phase, unfortunately, there is no scope to increase tax efficient income payments within these bands where they are already being fully utilised. However, for clients in the decumulation phase, the start of the tax year is a good time to review the most tax efficient way of taking money from their pension pots.

With the freezing of the tax bands and relatively high inflation it is likely that many more clients will fall into the “60% band” where income between £100,000 and £125,140 is subject to this very high marginal rate of tax. Pension contributions remain a very attractive option to reinstate the personal allowance and reclaim this tax. For someone earning £125,140 a pension contribution of £25,140 can be made at a net cost of just £10,056.

In terms of carry forward, the relevant carry forward years are now from 2019/20 and anything from previous tax years is no longer available. However, you can’t completely ignore prior years as they may be needed to offset any excesses in the three previous tax years. Remember, for the purposes of carry forward, the income in the previous tax years is only relevant where tapering applies. It is not possible to carry forward earnings.

In relation to tapering, we enter the third tax year with the higher Threshold and Adjusted Income limits of £200,000 and £240,000 respectively. Whilst this should mean far fewer clients are impacted, remember the lower limits of £110,000 and £150,000 still apply when calculating the availability of carry forward for tax year 2019/20 and any of the three earlier tax years where relevant.

Unfortunately, the Lifetime Allowance (LTA), which is frozen at £1,073,100 until the end of tax year 2025/26, remains one of the biggest challenges to retirement planning for affluent clients. For clients approaching or exceeding the LTA the benefits of continuing to fund are far less clear. The LTA can also prompt clients to take funds earlier from their pensions than they would otherwise. This is a particularly complex area of pensions planning and each client’s situation must be considered based on their specific circumstances. There are, though, many cases where funding in excess of the LTA can still provide an overall benefit and accepting the LTA can be a “least worst case” outcome.

The good news is that all the other benefits of pension planning remain in place and, importantly, there’s usually no need to wait until the end of the tax year. Now is a great time to start, or increase, a monthly pension contribution or make a one off lump sum to use up any remaining allowances.

Claire Trott, Financial Planning Week tip: Maximising pensions tax reliefs using carry forward

With the deadline for the Mandatory Pension Savings Statements being this month (6 October) it is now that you can calculate what your clients’ available annual allowance is because the information should now be to hand.

The basics

Carry forward allows clients to utilise unused annual allowances from the previous three tax years. You must first use the current tax year fully and then use the oldest tax year next and so on. The important thing to be sure of is that the client has enough, not necessarily to get too hung up on which year it is used from at this point in time. Exceeding the annual allowance including carry forward will mean tax charges, designed to recoup tax relief given. The tax charge is payable by the member, even if contributions have been paid entirely by the employer.

If total contributions do not exceed the annual allowance including carry forward then there is no need to declare this on a tax return, only contributions in excess of this need to be declared in the pension tax charge section of self assessment. However, for those contributing to a relief at source pension scheme, who are higher or additional rate tax payers they will need to ensure they claim any extra tax relief due. This should be done even if they exceed the annual allowance so as not to be unfairly penalised.

Eligibility

We have to remember that not everyone is eligible for carry forward, they must have been a member of a scheme in the years in which they are carrying forward unused annual allowance.

This doesn’t just mean a contributing member, but also anyone with a deferred pension scheme, such as an old final salary pension or even a contracted out rebate scheme for instance.

But if this is their first pension contribution ever, then carry forward isn’t available. In additional, if the client is subject to the money purchase annual allowance then carry forward is only available in relation to defined benefit accrual.

Limitations

The annual allowance is a test on total pension contributions including personal tax relief received by the scheme and employer contributions, and therefore when carrying forward the annual allowance from the previous three years it increases the total amount of pension contributions that can be paid within the current tax year. What it doesn’t do is bring forward unused tax relief, so for personal contributions there is a limit on the amount of tax relief available equal to £3,600 or 100% of relevant UK earnings within the current tax year. This means that for many they will have significantly more available annual allowance than they can pay with personal contributions alone.

It is important to remember in addition that carry forward isn’t limited by the clients earnings in previous years, so if they had earnings of £20,000 and paid a £10,000 gross personal contributions with no employer contributions then £30,000 carry forward would be available.

Tapered annual allowance

Pension savings statements or contribution histories provided by schemes will not take into account the tapered annual allowance. Schemes are not responsible for this calculation because they do not have sufficient information to do the calculations. Therefore, it is important to fully understand the client’s income, including in previous years. If the tapered annual allowance applied in previous years, it is this figure that will be used in the carry forward calculations, not the standard annual allowance

Comments

There are many moving parts when dealing with tax relief on pension contributions which are important to understand. My colleague Chris Jones provided some tips earlier in the week on “Making the most of pensions tax relief ahead of another Budget” which covers many of these complex aspects and so worth a read.

Chris Jones, Financial Planning Week tip: Making the most of pensions tax relief ahead of another Budget

As we approach another Budget there will no doubt be the usual speculation that pensions tax relief may come under attack. And with the latest HMRC statistics showing the estimated gross tax cost of pensions tax relief at £41.3bn in 2019/20, this may be too tempting for the Treasury to ignore.

Whilst wholesale changes to pension tax relief are unlikely in the short term, there may be some tinkering with allowances and reliefs. Any further changes are unlikely to make to make pension contributions more favourable. Therefore, where clients have the available funds and allowances, it may be better to make contributions sooner rather than later.

It’s worth a reminder of the limits and mechanics of the tax relief available on pension contributions to ensure clients can maximise the benefits of making any contributions.

Annual allowance

The annual allowance limits the tax benefits on the total contributions paid in a tax year. This will include contributions made by the individual, their employer, or a third party on behalf of the individual. The standard annual allowance is £40,000. High earners may have a lower tapered annual allowance, which can be as low as £4,000 and will depend on their level of earnings. Those who have accessed their pension benefits flexibly may be subject to the £4,000 money purchase annual allowance.

Where an individual exceeds their annual allowance in any tax year they are be able to carry forward any unused allowances from any of the three previous tax years.  

If, after allowing for any carry forward, the contributions exceed the individual’s annual allowance in any tax year, the individual will be subject to an annual allowance charge. The annual allowance charge aims to reclaim the tax relief received on the contribution. The excess over the annual allowance is added to the individual’s other taxable income and charged at their marginal rates of income tax. 

For example, if a higher rate taxpayer exceeds the annual allowance by £10,000 the annual allowance charge would be £4,000 assuming they remained within the higher rate band after adding the £10,000 to their other income.

Tax relief on personal contributions

Tax relievable personal contributions are limited to 100% of the individual’s relevant earnings in the tax year they are paid, which is broadly earnings from their employment or self-employment. Other types of income such as dividends or buy-to-let rental income do not count as relevant earnings. 

It is not possible to carry forward unused earnings from a previous year. If, for example, an individual has unused allowances of £90,000 and earnings of £30,000 the maximum tax relievable personal contribution is limited to £30,000.

Where an individual’s earnings are less than £3,600 they can pay and receive tax relief on contributions of up to £3,600 in any tax year. It is not possible to carry forward this allowance.

Tax relief is available on personal contributions at the individual’s highest marginal rates of tax. How the relief is applied depends on what type of scheme the contributions are paid into, either a “relief at source” scheme or “net pay scheme”. Aside from non-taxpayers (please see below), the tax relief available is the same whichever method is used.

Relief at source

Personal pensions and group personal pensions will operate as relief at source schemes. With these, the contributions are paid net of basic rate tax and the provider adds the tax relief. The provider then reclaims this directly from HMRC. Basic rate relief is added regardless of the tax rate the individual pays, even if they are non-taxpayer. Any higher rate or additional rate tax is reclaimed direct from HMRC by the individual. The relief is claimed by increasing the individual’s basic rate tax band by the gross value of the individual’s contribution.

Example

Paul earns £70,000 a year and wants to make a gross contribution of £10,000 to a relief at source scheme. He pays a contribution of £8,000 to the pension provider who add the 20% tax relief.

Paul’s basic rate tax band is then extended by £10,000. This means that £10,000 more of his income is taxable at 20% rather than 40% and so he benefits from a further £2,000 of tax relief.

Net pay schemes

Most occupational schemes operate on a “net pay” basis. With this type of scheme, the individual’s pension contributions are deducted from their pay before it is subject to tax. This means the full amount of tax relief is applied immediately by reducing the taxable pay. Note though that National Insurance contributions are still applied to the full pay before the deduction of the pension contribution.

Example

Fiona earns £80,000 a year. She pays personal contributions of £5,000 to her occupational pension scheme. The £5,000 is paid gross to the pension provider and her taxable income reduces to £75,000. The net cost to her of the £5,000 pension contribution is £3,000 so she has received 40% tax relief.

Note that because contributions simply reduce the level of taxable earnings, any non-taxpayer in a net pay scheme will not receive tax relief. This is an anomaly in the tax system and one the Government has been consulting on to resolve.

Salary sacrifice

With salary sacrifice, the employee reduces their salary in exchange for a pension contribution. Therefore, technically, the pension contribution is an employer contribution. For tax purposes it works in a similar way to a net pay scheme. However, the advantage of salary sacrifice is that it reduces the salary for all purposes, meaning that both the employer and employee also save the National Insurance on the amount sacrificed.

Tax relief on employer contributions

Employer contributions are always paid gross. As long as they are within the individual’s annual allowance there is no tax consequences on the employee. The employer can claim relief against corporation tax on the contributions as long as they meet what are known as the “wholly and exclusively” rules. Essentially this means that in order to benefit from tax relief, any contributions must be a genuine expense in the running of the business. In a normal employer/employee relationship this is unlikely to be an issue as there would usually be a genuine commercial reason for paying employer pension contributions as part of the employee’s reward structure.  

For small owner managed limited companies it can also be an extremely tax efficient way of extracting funds from the company. Again, meeting the “wholly and exclusively” condition in this type of situation is rarely a problem where the owner/director is taking on the business risks (e.g. as a shareholding director) of the company. However, issues can arise where contributions do not represent the fair market reward for a role – if, for example, a large contribution is made for the spouse of a director who has minimal duties (and that spouse is not is taking on the business risks of the company) and a pension contribution of that size would not normally be made for other employees who have similarly minimal duties.

Unlike personal contributions, employer contributions are not limited to the level of the individual’s earnings. So, for example, a director earning £10,000 could also receive an employer pension contribution of £40,000. The company will receive corporation tax relief on the contribution as long as it meets the “wholly and exclusively” rules.

Lifetime allowance

In addition to the limits on pension contributions, the lifetime allowance (LTA) sets a limit on the overall benefits that an individual can receive from all of their pension plans without suffering an additional tax charge. The LTA is currently £1,073,100 and is frozen at this level until 2025/26. Where an individual takes benefits in excess of this, or dies or reaches age 75 without taking their benefits, an LTA charge applies on the excess. The LTA charge is 55% if benefits are taken as a lump sum or 25% if the funds are used to provide an income. Any income is also subject to income tax at the point it is taken.

Where uncrystallised funds or funds in drawdown are subject to an LTA test at age 75 the tax charge on any excess is always at 25%.

With the LTA currently frozen, more and more clients are likely to be impacted by the limit and charges. This limit also needs to be considered for clients considering making further contributions.

Earlier in the year there were rumours that this limit may be reduced further, and this is one to watch out for in the Budget. The only positive news is that whenever the LTA has been reduced in the past, protection has been available to allow clients to protect the LTA at the current levels.