25% tax free before budget

4woods

With the budget looming and talk of Reeves changing the 25% tax free payment from pensions, question is if I call my pension providers Monday and ask for my 25% tax free lump sum, will that still be honoured if after the budget that % changes ?

Not sure how it will work, any advice, much appreciated 

thank you 

Robin9

Does your provider actually allow you to take 25%

My wife's pension pot is with Virgin and they don't -  their advice to transfer to someone that does.

Any other providers who don't allow 25% transfer. ?

Tree_pipe99

Making key financial decisions based on rumours maybe not a great thing.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Tree_pipe99 said:

Making key financial decisions based on rumours maybe not a great thing.

Especially rumours that are no longer rumours but, as much anything ever can be ahead of a budget, have been discounted.

flaneurs_lobster

I'd leave it 'till Tuesday, gives time for a few more rumours to circulate and ups the excitement levels (will they pick up the phone before COB?) 

JoeCrystal

4woods said:

With the budget looming and talk of Reeves changing the 25% tax free payment from pensions, question is if I call my pension providers Monday and ask for my 25% tax free lump sum, will that still be honoured if after the budget that % changes ?

Not sure how it will work, any advice, much appreciated 

thank you 

Your first port of call is your pension providers, only they can answer your questions here. You certainly would not get advices here, just opinions or facts,

Aylesbury_Duck

Don't make rash decisions based on rumours with less than a week to go until you know the situation.

Let's say, hypothetically, that the tax free lump sum were to be reduced from its current level to £100k.  First question is this: is your pension pot big enough that it makes a difference?

Secondly, any change might come with plenty, some or no notice.  Do you really want to be making a big decision without being in full receipt of the facts?  

Fundamentally, if someone's been savvy enough to have accumulated a pension pot that is big enough to be adversely affected by a rumoured change such as this, they're unlikely to be the sort of person who, just a few days away from a budget, rings their pension provider in a panic and completely changes their pension strategy.

For some people, doing what you're contemplating will be a sensible defensive position to take, but such people are likely to be those for whom it doesn't represent a big change to their plans and fits broadly with what their plan was anyway.  Do you fit into that category, or (being honest) have you heard a rumour in a pub and are now knee-jerking?

Aylesbury_Duck

flaneurs_lobster said:

I'd leave it 'till Tuesday, gives time for a few more rumours to circulate and ups the excitement levels (will they pick up the phone before COB?) 

I've put my house on the market today because some bloke at my pub told me that there's going to be a mansion tax.

Do you think it's feasible to exchange and complete in the next few days?

Cobbler_tone

The only rumour I’ve heard is that I’m going to be worse off after Wednesday. I was hoping to be better off. I’m not going to watch and pretend I am.

BikingBud

4woods said:

With the budget looming and talk of Reeves changing the 25% tax free payment from pensions, question is if I call my pension providers Monday and ask for my 25% tax free lump sum, will that still be honoured if after the budget that % changes ?

Not sure how it will work, any advice, much appreciated 

thank you 

Yes!

No!

Not sure!

HappyHarry

4woods said:

With the budget looming and talk of Reeves changing the 25% tax free payment from pensions, question is if I call my pension providers Monday and ask for my 25% tax free lump sum, will that still be honoured if after the budget that % changes ?

Not sure how it will work, any advice, much appreciated 

thank you 

Ignoring the fact of whether this is a sensible thing to do or not, then you have probably left it too late anyway.

Most pensions are invested in funds, and your 25% would need to be held in cash before it could be withdrawn.

The settlement time for most uk funds is 4 days - or 2 days for ETFs and shares. 

Even if you did sell on Monday, and the cash was available on Wednesday, then it might not still get paid out until Thursday or later.