The recent court ruling known as “Lloyds 3” answered lots of questions about the need to revisit past transfer payments, where those transfer payments had been calculated without taking into account the obligation to equalise benefits for the effect of unequal guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs). However, the more we look at Lloyds 3, which focused … Continue Reading
The off-payroll tax rules (commonly known as IR35) are changing on 6 April 2020. Pension trustees who have members of their board paid for their services through a personal service company (PSC) may need to start making those payments net of income tax and NICs under PAYE. Although the rules have not been finalised (and HMRC … Continue Reading
9 December 2019 is an important date in each of their respective calendars, albeit for different reasons. 9 December is national heroes day in Antigua and Barbuda and it is also a date that should be of note for pension scheme trustees. Not only is it the eve of the coming into force of various … Continue Reading
Some of the questions we have been asked this week in relation to GMP equalisation, include – Do we have to equalise for GMPs? How do we do this? Do we have to make back payments? What should we tell our members? How do we deal with outstanding and new cash equivalent transfer value requests? … Continue Reading
In May we took the plunge and blogged about the forthcoming money laundering regulations (which seemed to have gone largely unnoticed until that point). We highlighted some difficulties with the legislation and that it wasn’t entirely clear how they would apply to occupational pension plans. Well, the final form regulations have arrived. They came into force … Continue Reading
So now we know, BA is not going to let things rest following its defeat in one of the biggest, most high profile and lengthy pensions cases in recent years. It is has been reported that it has sought and been granted leave to appeal. This was yet another case involving questions about indexation of … Continue Reading
6 April 2015 is less than 2 weeks away and there is a huge amount of work to get done between now and then for everyone charged with operating a pension scheme in the UK. No-one is exempt. Although the bulk of the new flexibilities apply solely to DC benefits there are consequential changes affecting … Continue Reading
But pension scheme demergers are going to happen What to do about pension schemes which operate across Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom? That is just one of the questions which will need to be resolved in the event of a “Yes” vote in the Scottish independence referendum on Thursday. It will be … Continue Reading
We have become used to the idea that the UK Government is going to rewrite history with some time travelling pensions legislation. It told us it would be doing that back in July 2011 when it announced its intention to amend the statutory definition of money purchase benefits retrospectively. Section 29 of the Pensions Act … Continue Reading
Physics was not my strong point at school and, as for quantum mechanics, well … So imagine my surprise when vague recollections of Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, about a cat in a box which is both dead and alive at the same time, gave me an excellent (well good enough for me) analogy for one … Continue Reading
