Guidance

Newsletter 144 — October 2022

Published 3 November 2022

1. Requesting a refund from Pension Schemes Services

Earlier this year, we updated the financial information that you can view on the Managing Pension Schemes service, including the option to request a refund of any overall credit balance displayed on the record.

If you want to request a refund, where possible, pension scheme administrators and practitioners must request the refund through the service.

Once you’ve requested a refund, we’ll aim to process your request within 15 working days. You’ll be able to see when the refund has been made as the credit balance shown on the service, will be reduced accordingly. You’ll also receive confirmation of the refund, and any repayment interest, by post.

Find information on how to request a refund through the Managing Pension Schemes service.

2. Pension flexibility statistics

The annual release of official statistics on flexible payments from pensions has now been published.

HMRC can now give more information on the number of tax repayment claim forms processed for pension flexibility payments.

From 1 July 2022 to 30 September 2022 we processed:

• P55 = 6,759 forms
• P53Z = 2,119 forms
• P50Z = 1,078 forms

Total value repaid: £33,088,782

Figures for the period 1 October 2022 to 31 December 2022 will be published in January 2023.

3. Registration statistics

For the period 6 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 HMRC received in total 717 applications to register new pension schemes. This is a 9% decrease compared to applications received in the same period last year.

Of these applications, 65% have been registered and HMRC has currently refused registration for about 14% of applications. No decision has yet been made on the remainder.

4. Pension Scheme migration

Take action now to migrate your pension schemes to the Managing Pension Schemes service.

In Managing Pension Schemes service newsletter — April 2022 we let you know that pension scheme administrators can now migrate pension schemes from the Pension Schemes Online service to the Managing Pension Schemes service.

If you’re migrating pension schemes, you should select ‘Add a pension scheme from the Pension Schemes Online service’ and select each scheme you need to migrate. You should not select ‘Apply to register a new pension scheme’. If you’ve incorrectly tried to re-register an existing pension scheme that you’re an administrator for, email [email protected] and put ‘Incorrect scheme registration’ in the subject line.

Find further guidance on migrating your pension schemes to the Managing Pension Schemes service.

4.1 Enrolling on the Managing Pension Schemes service

In order to be able to migrate pension schemes, there are actions you may need to take:

• scheme administrators must be enrolled on the Managing Pension Schemes service using their existing ‘A0’ administrator ID

• scheme administrators with multiple scheme administrator IDs will need to have enrolled on the Managing Pension Schemes service using their ‘master’ ID, find further guidance on multiple scheme administrator IDs

4.2 Viewing your list of pension schemes

Once you’ve enrolled and you have access to Managing Pension Schemes service, you’ll be able to see a list of your schemes.

Only pension schemes with a status of ‘open’ on the Pension Schemes Online service will be included on the list.

If you can see schemes on your list that are inactive and should be wound up, you’ll need to submit an Event Report or email [email protected] using ‘Managing Pension Schemes — Wound Up Schemes’ in the subject line.

You’ll need to include:

• the pension scheme tax reference (PSTR)
• the name of the pension scheme
• your pension scheme administrator ID
• the date of wind up

If you cannot see listed all the schemes that you have registered on the Pension Schemes Online service or can see schemes listed that you do not recognise, you’ll need to email [email protected] using ‘Managing Pension Schemes — Incorrect list of schemes’ in the subject line.

You’ll need to include:

• the pensions scheme tax reference
• the name of the pension scheme
• your scheme administrator ID
• details about why you think your list is incorrect

5. Accounting for Tax (AFT) returns

You can no longer compile and submit new Accounting for Tax returns for any quarter from 1 April 2020 onwards on the Pension Schemes Online service. If you need to submit any new AFT returns for any quarter from 1 April 2020 onwards, you’ll need to migrate the pension scheme.

If you need to submit a return for the quarter 1 July 2022 to 30 September 2022, you’ll need to have migrated your pension scheme and submitted the return on the Managing Pension Schemes service by the filing deadline of 14 November 2022 to avoid interest and penalties.

Find information on how to submit an AFT return using the Managing Pension Schemes service.

6. Managing Pension Schemes service — how you can help us

We’re still looking for people to help us improve the Managing Pension Schemes service.

You can take part in user research and give us feedback by joining the Managing Pension Schemes user panel. As a member of the panel, we’ll only contact you about the Managing Pension Schemes service.

This is your chance to give feedback and help inform the future design and development of the service, including features such as Event Report and relief at source.

You can also email feedback to [email protected] using ‘Managing Pension Schemes service — feedback’ in the subject line.

7. Digitisation of relief at source (RAS)

In section 2 of Pension Schemes newsletter 139 we outlined our plans to modernise the relief at source system. We said that we aimed to deliver in a staged approach, providing functionality to make interim claims digitally by the end of the tax year 2022 to 2023.

7.1 Digital interim claims — update

The delivery of a digital interim claims service has proved more complex than we originally thought. Our overriding priority is to deliver a full digital service, including individual level data, for digitisation of relief at source claims by April 2025.

We had intended that the digital interim claims service would be the first step towards this. However, having reviewed the work necessary for both the interim claims service and the full service, we’ve reluctantly decided not to proceed with a digital interim claims service.

7.2 Update on delivery

We are now focussing our delivery effort on ensuring we deliver the new digital relief at source service by April 2025.

This will modernise reporting for schemes and deliver improvements for you, members, employers and HMRC. All claims will be based on individual level data to allow HMRC to accurately calculate the tax relief due.

The potential benefits include:

• streamlined reporting to HMRC, with multiple forms and returns merged into one regular report
• quicker payments as most claims will be paid within days of receipt, rather than weeks
• removal of the need for some declarations from individuals — as HMRC will establish eligibility and the amount of relief
• an alternative approach for handling overpayments of Pensions Tax Relief

We’re working closely with a group of stakeholders from the pensions industry to help us understand the challenges and benefits. We’ll continue to work with those in the industry to co-design the new service, test the new processes throughout the development phase and seek feedback to iterate our design.

If you have any questions about digitisation of relief at source, email: [email protected].