No such thing as a silly question.

I've been considering pretty much this same point. As it stands, I'd take the amount in March and there will be no tax to pay (as it will be within my allowance).

Assuming no additional charges incurred for monthly payments I was thinking there's an argument for going down that route on the basis that taking the whole lot in one go has some of the negatives of trying to time the market, i.e. you could be taking the money out after a very good month or a very bad month.

By taking an equal amount every month you reduce the risk of bad timing; does that make any sense?

If it were me and I was using the money to live off then I would take it in one go at the start of the year, perhaps even two years worth.

You wouldn't invest money if you wanted to access that money within three years because of volatility risk. The same theory applies on money already invested if you're drawing down a proportion of it.

Take £100 in month 1 then take the rest a little later once you have a tax code.


As for HMRCs shenanigins, don't get me started. I am looking at a rather large (for me anyway) tax bill in would you believe Jan 2021 because HMRC have decided that a small pension paid in March 2019 is due to be paid every month not every year so they think they can get £2k taxs out of it next year. I should be so lucky.


They refuse to let me do self assessment any longer. They can't get my savings interest anything like correct & I am supposed to trust them to get my tax correct when they can't even get my annual income correct.


The good news is that they can't charge any penalties & the money stays in my accounts gaining me interest. I should (if they would let me do self assessment) be paying them over £1k by the end of Jan. They are not even putting it on this years tax code so by the time they get round to it again I will owe them over £2k.


I did try telling them, but they were their usual selves & told me I was wrong. So whilst interest rates are not good at present I have over £1k for 2 years and over another £1.5k for another year, much better in my bank than their's.



I've told them, they ignored what I said - as far as I am concerned that is their problem, I told them they would not be able to collect enough through their tax code, they told me I was wrong. They can only collect 50% of the income via a tax code no matter how large or small the income no matter how large or small the code. You can only take £1k tax out of a taxable income of £2k no matter what the tax code & they certainly can't take over £2k (larger than the income so a definite no no).


Remember all those tax inspectors they dumped? They are raking it in now as independents/self employed. Who is paying for all this? That would be us - the tax payer, as in those of us who actually pay taxes not those of us who are rich enough not to have to bother.

Reluctantpensioner wrote: »

A few wrong assumptions here. A single withdrawal of 12K will be taxed as if it were 144K (so losing personal allowance, savings allowance etc). It won't matter whether it is the first month of the tax year or the last. It is a brain dead system.

[FONT=&quot]That’s not my experience. Once I had a tax code issued, I haven’t had any tax taken off the one payment from my SIPP that I take towards the end of the tax year. If they had assumed 12 payments, I would have been liable for a significant amount of tax.[/FONT]