7 days

On 10 December 2013, the Government published the draft Finance Bill 2014 (the Bill) together with draft secondary legislation and guidance.  The Bill includes provisions which will introduce a new form of transitional protection from a potential LTA charge, to be known as Individual Protection 2014 (IP14).

Key points are as follows:

For further details please see our Alert: “Draft Finance Bill 2014 published”.

On 10 December 2013, the DWP issued a consultation, seeking views on draft regulations that:

The consultation closes on 17 February 2014.

On 12 December 2014, the FRC issued its draft Plan, Budget and Levy Proposals for 2014/2015.

On 16 December 2014 HMRC launched an online service to help overseas scheme managers and UK scheme administrators meet their reporting requirements for Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS).

On 12 December 2013 HMRC published an update for pension scheme administrators on Scottish rate of Income Tax for relief at source on contributions to registered pension schemes by Scottish taxpayers.

The Scotland Act 2012 introduced the Scottish rate of Income Tax (SRIT), which is expected to be implemented in April 2016.  The rate paid by Scottish taxpayers will be calculated by reducing the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax by 10 pence in the pound and adding a new Scottish rate set by the Scottish Parliament.

From April 2014 HMRC will offer a Scheme Reconciliation Service to allow pension scheme administrators and trustees to reconcile the membership and GMP data held on scheme records against HMRC’s records.

Following a consultation launched in September, on 11 December 2013 the PPF published its 2014/15 Levy Determination and confirmed that the 2014/15 pension protection levy estimate will be £695 million, as originally proposed.

The 2014/15 levy is the last to be set under the first three year period of the new levy framework implemented in 2012/13.

The Determination, which sets out the Levy Rules, confirmed that the levy scaling factor and the scheme based levy multiplier will remain unchanged from the previous year at 0.73 and 0.000056 respectively.

The PPF has also confirmed the outcomes for the issues it consulted on and set out the key dates and deadlines for 2014/15 levy year.

Key dates and deadlines:

The PPF has appointed six firms to its newly created Audit Services Panel(ASP). The firms are: Cooper Parry Group Limited, Deloitte LLP, Grant Thornton UK LLP, Johnston Carmichael LLP, KPMG LLP and Nexia Smith & Williamson.

This panel is the latest development in a programme that has been designed to ensure that pension schemes progress through the PPF assessment period and FAS wind-up more efficiently.

The new panel, which starts work this month, is expected to complete timely and accurate audits of the accounts required throughout the assessment process. Its role will be to work collaboratively with all other key stakeholders to progress get schemes through the assessment or wind-up process in order to deliver certainty to members as soon as practically possible.

On 10 December 2013, TPR published for consultation:

TPR was given an expanded role in the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, which received Royal Assent in April 2013, in respect of the governance and administration of public service schemes. From April 2015, it will set standards of practice in order to help the Local Government, NHS, Teachers, Civil Service, Armed Forces, Police, Firefighters and Judicial pension schemes to meet governance and administration requirements set out in legislation.

The consultation closes on 17 February 2014.

In 2011, TPR issued this statement to help trustees and advisers of DB schemes to understand why it is important to be clear who legally stands behind their scheme and what they need to do.

Following the Court of Appeal decision in Olympic Airlines, (where a DB scheme with an insolvent overseas  employer was unable to meet the requirements for PPF entry), TPR has now revised the statement to include additional information on overseas employers.

According to figures released by TPR on 16 December 2013 more than two million workers have begun saving into a workplace pension scheme as a result of automatic enrolment.

This month’s automatic enrolment registration report shows that more than 3,500 employers have now joined the workplace pensions revolution and submitted an online declaration of compliance by completing registration with TPR.