HMRC Now received advanced notification of DB pension streams

Pat38493

Just to mention because it comes up as a topic around tax codes quite frequently here.

It seems that HMRC now received advanced notification of DB pensions being put into payment.

My DB pension first payment is due on 1st April, and HMRC have just sent me a (correct) tax code for the income which will fall in 24/25.  Looking at the HMRC portal, they have also been given the correct expected amounts for both this tax year and next tax year.

So it seems like the system has indeed improved, at least for regular DB income streams.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Pat38493 said:

Just to mention because it comes up as a topic around tax codes quite frequently here.

It seems that HMRC now received advanced notification of DB pensions being put into payment.

My DB pension first payment is due on 1st April, and HMRC have just sent me a (correct) tax code for the income which will fall in 24/25.  Looking at the HMRC portal, they have also been given the correct expected amounts for both this tax year and next tax year.

So it seems like the system has indeed improved, at least for regular DB income streams.

Is this not simply because the pension provider has reported your first payment quite early?

You should be able to see (limited) details of the payment on your Personal Tax Account just like you can see payments from an employer.

Marcon

Pat38493 said:

Just to mention because it comes up as a topic around tax codes quite frequently here.

It seems that HMRC now received advanced notification of DB pensions being put into payment.

My DB pension first payment is due on 1st April, and HMRC have just sent me a (correct) tax code for the income which will fall in 24/25.  Looking at the HMRC portal, they have also been given the correct expected amounts for both this tax year and next tax year.

So it seems like the system has indeed improved, at least for regular DB income streams.

Is your pension payable in advance or in arrears?

molerat

I can see my monthly payment in my tax account well in advance of the payment date and my 25-26 estimate is the usual HMRC (incorrect) stab in the dark based on their calculation method that has been mentioned on here a few times - the reason why you need to check and update your tax account early on in the year as there could be knock on effects.  

Does your tax account show the correct tax being deducted according to that code ?

Pat38493

Marcon said:

Pat38493 said:

Just to mention because it comes up as a topic around tax codes quite frequently here.

It seems that HMRC now received advanced notification of DB pensions being put into payment.

My DB pension first payment is due on 1st April, and HMRC have just sent me a (correct) tax code for the income which will fall in 24/25.  Looking at the HMRC portal, they have also been given the correct expected amounts for both this tax year and next tax year.

So it seems like the system has indeed improved, at least for regular DB income streams.

Is your pension payable in advance or in arrears?

It actually doesn't say in any of the documents I got so far, but I assume it's in arrears because I asked the pension to start from 10th January and the payment for 1st April will be for just short of 3 months of payments (according to what they have given to HMRC.

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Pat38493 said:

Just to mention because it comes up as a topic around tax codes quite frequently here.

It seems that HMRC now received advanced notification of DB pensions being put into payment.

My DB pension first payment is due on 1st April, and HMRC have just sent me a (correct) tax code for the income which will fall in 24/25.  Looking at the HMRC portal, they have also been given the correct expected amounts for both this tax year and next tax year.

So it seems like the system has indeed improved, at least for regular DB income streams.

Is this not simply because the pension provider has reported your first payment quite early?

You should be able to see (limited) details of the payment on your Personal Tax Account just like you can see payments from an employer.

Could be, but this wouldn't explain why their estimate for the 25/26 tax year is the correct full year amount, even though the payment for the 3 months January to March in the estimated income section is slightly less than 3 months due to my requested in payment date.

I can see the expected income amount for this year and next year under the PAYE section of the HMRC portal.  The next year amount corresponds precisely to the headline pension annual amount.

In the section to review tax paid in past years, I can see a totally different amount which looks to me like it corresponds to an emergency tax code having been applied (but no money has been received by me).  the tax listed there is not 40% of the total amount, and the "taxable amount" listed is not much less than the amount listed under the PAYE estimate.  I don't know how these things work but it almost feels like they have loaded a dummy record in order to get HMRC to update the tax code, without actually paying me anything yet.

However in both places the tax code is listed as DOX (which I think is correct at least for this tax year as I have already earned more than the 20% threshold).

Sarahspangles

Pat38493 said:

I don't know how these things work but it almost feels like they have loaded a dummy record in order to get HMRC to update the tax code, without actually paying me anything yet.

I was surprised how far in advance my monthly salary payment is visible in my HMRC personal tax account. Last month it was over a week early, long before my payslip is visible in the relevant employer portal. HMRC’s record says ‘Paid by [Payroll Date]’ but I don’t know what the screen looks like for pension payments.

Pat38493

Sarahspangles said:

Pat38493 said:

I don't know how these things work but it almost feels like they have loaded a dummy record in order to get HMRC to update the tax code, without actually paying me anything yet.

I was surprised how far in advance my monthly salary payment is visible in my HMRC personal tax account. Last month it was over a week early, long before my payslip is visible in the relevant employer portal. HMRC’s record says ‘Paid by [Payroll Date]’ but I don’t know what the screen looks like for pension payments.

Yes - well in the meantime I checked the post, and I now have a letter from the administrators stating that the first payment, including the arrears, will be yet another different amount consistent with the pension being paid in advance and not in arrears as it is now about 3.8 months of payments, and does not correspond to any of the figures on the HMRC portal.

I'm sure it will all come out in the wash anyway.

Albermarle

Pat38493 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Pat38493 said:

I don't know how these things work but it almost feels like they have loaded a dummy record in order to get HMRC to update the tax code, without actually paying me anything yet.

I was surprised how far in advance my monthly salary payment is visible in my HMRC personal tax account. Last month it was over a week early, long before my payslip is visible in the relevant employer portal. HMRC’s record says ‘Paid by [Payroll Date]’ but I don’t know what the screen looks like for pension payments.

Yes - well in the meantime I checked the post, and I now have a letter from the administrators stating that the first payment, including the arrears, will be yet another different amount consistent with the pension being paid in advance and not in arrears as it is now about 3.8 months of payments, and does not correspond to any of the figures on the HMRC portal.

I'm sure it will all come out in the wash anyway.

I had a letter from Mercer saying my pension would be paid in advance, when in fact it was to be paid in arrears.
As everything was delayed badly as well, it just added to the general air of confusion and incompetence ( As you I think are experiencing with Aptia, who bought Mercer).

Pat38493

Albermarle said:

Pat38493 said:

Sarahspangles said:

Pat38493 said:

I don't know how these things work but it almost feels like they have loaded a dummy record in order to get HMRC to update the tax code, without actually paying me anything yet.

I was surprised how far in advance my monthly salary payment is visible in my HMRC personal tax account. Last month it was over a week early, long before my payslip is visible in the relevant employer portal. HMRC’s record says ‘Paid by [Payroll Date]’ but I don’t know what the screen looks like for pension payments.

Yes - well in the meantime I checked the post, and I now have a letter from the administrators stating that the first payment, including the arrears, will be yet another different amount consistent with the pension being paid in advance and not in arrears as it is now about 3.8 months of payments, and does not correspond to any of the figures on the HMRC portal.

I'm sure it will all come out in the wash anyway.

I had a letter from Mercer saying my pension would be paid in advance, when in fact it was to be paid in arrears.
As everything was delayed badly as well, it just added to the general air of confusion and incompetence ( As you I think are experiencing with Aptia, who bought Mercer).

I now got the payslips and they have used the emergency tax code, so my OP was wrong.  Seems like HMRC notified me of the tax code for future payments, even though Aptia had already set the amounts on their side.  HMRC tax code for 24/25 is meaningless as there won't be any more payslips so I guess they will have to recover unpaid tax next year.

Also - there is a £724 upward "adjustment" in month 1 of my pension but no explanation for it - no idea what that is unless they have paid me interest for being late with the amounts.