With careful planning you can avoid the penal 55pc tax hit on pensions valued at more than £1 million
To find out how to avoid penal taxation on larger pension pots contact your local Spectrum adviser to arrange a free, no obligation consultation.
Lifetime allowance (LTA): what does it mean for your pension?
- You need to monitor how much you’re putting into your pension funds and how well your investments are performing. Money held in a personal pension, including workplace schemes and SIPPs, Final Salary pensions, all count towards the limit, but the state pension doesn’t
- If you have a defined contribution scheme or a SIPP the total fund value is assessed against the limit. This will be tested when a Benefit Crystallisation Event (BCE) arises. There are 13 different BCE’s. However the most common would be taking your PCLS, buying an annuity, transferring to a QROPS, reaching age 75, death etc. Each time an event occurs your pension is tested against the LTA limit
- Generally if your final salary pension is worth more than £50,000 a year you’ll be over the £1m lifetime allowance
- If you have a mixture of pensions, with benefits taken at different times, then it can get quite complicated to work out, how much LTA was used when and how much you have going forward
- The LTA excess charge is 55% if the excess is taken as a lump sum and 25% if it is taken as an income. (If taken as income then the net amount is then subject to income tax at the members highest marginal rate, which usually works out to be a total tax of around 55% in total)
- There are certainly very good ways to reduce the potential LTA liability in the future. This could include applying for protection to increase the LTA limit, however there are restrictions to apply
- Furthermore if you live abroad there could be other options with International Pensions, such as QROPS, to help reduce or remove future liabilities
- With our pensions specialists we are able to review your pensions, work out your current situation and then work out clearly your current situation and what the best way forward to help minimise any future tax liability with your pension