Guidance on pension tax relief limits: Your Annual Allowance

What is the Annual Allowance?

The Annual Allowance limits the contributions and/or pension benefits that you can build up each year without additional tax charges. If your pension benefits build up by more than your available Annual Allowance (including any carried forward from previous years) the excess is taxed at your marginal rate.
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What does this guidance cover?

The purpose of this guidance is to support and complement the information available on the Finance Division’s Pension website, USS and HMRC websites. This webpage also sets out some additional guidance on how the University’s Pensions Office can assist you, and what information they can obtain for you on pension tax reliefs.

 

It should be noted that an employee is responsible for calculating their own personal Annual Allowance (“AA”) value, as ultimately this is a personal taxation matter.  It is the responsibility of the employee to manage their own allowances and tax position. This is to provide the required notification to HMRC of a potential charge, and for the completion and submission of any HMRC Self Assessment tax return.

 

The Pensions Office will assist and support you by increasing awareness of the issues relating to these tax relief limits and provide you with information on request to enable you to review your personal position.  It is better to be aware of the potential for a tax charge to be incurred and to mitigate this where possible before this point is reached.  In the first instance, you should familiarise yourself with the information available on the dedicated areas of the above websites, where there are various related resources to assist you.  For more in-depth information about the AA, please refer to the HMRC website.

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Who is most likely to be affected?

  • Those with higher salaries
  • Those with above standard salary increases
  • Those with long service
  • Those with final salary benefits
  • Those with other pension arrangements, including added years
  • Those who have already used previous years' allowances
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What should I do?

Familiarise yourself with the information on USS and HMRC websites  and check the USS Annual Allowance modeller to see if there is the possibility that you may have exceeded the AA. To do so you will need your USS membership number, this can be found on your USS annual service statement or other correspondence from USS, together with your National Insurance number. The modeller will warn you if you are most likely affected, or if you are close to the limit for the year.

 

If the modeller gives you a warning, please contact the Pensions Office to obtain more precise figures from USS.  The Pensions Office will then forward the calculations and information received from USS on to you.

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What can you do if you are likely to exceed the AA?

For many who exceed the AA because of a spike in salary, the carry forward rules may be useful.  This is a mechanism where you are able to offset any unused allowance from up to three previous scheme years against your excess pension savings.  This is likely to be the solution for many members who have any unused previous years’ allowances to reduce or eliminate a tax charge, particularly for those who have not exceeded the limit in previous years but experience a one-off spike in the AA as a result of a promotion / increase in pensionable salary.

Because of the definition of the USS Pensionable Salary, the carry forward calculations for the three previous years have to be provided by USS.  You can request AA calculations from USS for the previous three years by emailing the USS team in the Pensions Office.

USS Money Purchase (Prudential) AVCs (MPAVCs):  If you currently pay these, you may wish to consider reducing or ceasing these payments for the remainder of the current tax year, and then consider if it is appropriate to resume in subsequent tax years.  If you decide to reduce or cease your MPAVCs or discuss the level of contributions, you will need to contact Prudential directly - call the customer call centre on 0845 600 0343.

If, after considering the actions and options available to you, including those above, and it is identified there is a potential AA charge, as you are likely to exceed the AA limit in the current year, there are other options below to consider.

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What options are there to mitigate any tax?

If carry forward is not sufficient, there are a number of options to adjust your benefits from USS.

USS tax relief options:  These were introduced to assist Final Salary section members who may have or are likely to have an AA or Lifetime Allowance charge.  Find out more about these options by viewing the USS Tax Options Factsheet, watching the USS Tax Options Video which gives an overview of the options, and reading the USS : Tax Options Frequently Asked Questions, all available on the USS website.

If, after weighing up the choices and USS options available, and after taking obtaining financial advice, it is concluded you need to choose one of the three options available from USS, you should proceed as follows:

  1. Making an election for one of the USS tax relief options: An election form (separate form for each of the three tax relief limits options) can be downloaded directly from the USS website, noting that USS requires 28 days notice in writing before the date of the election. All completed Election Forms should be sent to the Pensions Office, not to USS directly.
  2. Pay the charge: If, after considering all the actions and options available to you it is identified that you have an AA tax charge, this has to be notified to HMRC by completion of a self-assessment tax return. This is regardless of whether you normally complete a tax return or not. Further information about how you inform HMRC is available on the HMRC website.
  3. Scheme Pays: If the tax charge is above £2,000 and the total amount of your pension savings in the pension year for the same tax year has exceeded the AA, you can choose to have some or all of your AA charge paid by USS. There will be a reduction to the value of your USS benefits at retirement in exchange for the payment of the tax charge. The USS website has information about the current rates in force and notes. Further information about the Annual Allowance and the Scheme Pays option is available at the HMRC website.
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Will USS let me know if I am over the AA?

USS will supply a statement to members with benefits over the AA by 6 October each year.  For 2011/12 and 2012/13 a year’s extension has been given so the information will be issued no later than the 6 October 2013.
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What is the Lifetime Allowance (LTA)

This is an overall limit on the value of pension benefits you can build up across all types of registered pension schemes without HMRC applying additional tax charges.
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What are the limits for 2012/13?

In October 2010, as part of the Government’s spending review, changes were introduced to restrict pension tax relief to the following levels:

  • Annual Allowance (AA) reduced to £50,000 with effect from 6 April 2011.
  • Lifetime Allowance (LTA) reduced to £1.5m with effect from 6 April 2012.
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When do lower limits apply?

With effect from 6 April 2014 the revised levels will be:

  • The Annual Allowance (AA) will reduce to £40,000 with effect from 6 April 2014 (down from its current level of £50,000).
  • The Lifetime Allowance (LTA) will reduce to £1.25m with effect from 6 April 2014 (down from its current level of £1.5m).
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How can the Pensions office help?

The University Pensions Office can explain the background to pension taxation and explain information provided by USS. We cannot give you advice or help with tax planning. For this you may want to consult your accountant, or an independent financial adviser.
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