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Pensions: Tax Allowances

Answer

We do not hold the information requested. Annual Allowance (AA) tax charges can be reported via Accounting for Tax (AfT) returns which are completed by the scheme administrator, and via Self-Assessment (SA). Neither AfT nor SA returns require information on the type of pension scheme that the charge relates to. In addition to this, the AA applies to an individual’s pension accrual across all pensions held, which could cover both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.

However, HMRC publish data on the number and value of AA charges reported to us through AfT and SA, as well as the value of contributions exceeding the allowance. The AfT and SA columns are not mutually exclusive, the same case could appear in both columns. Individuals are required to report AA breaches through SA returns even if their scheme pays the charge and reports the breach through AfT returns. However, in practice individuals may be reported through AfT and not report themselves through SA, or vice versa, in error. The data for the last five available tax years is below:

Tax Year	Number of Annual Allowance charges reported by the scheme through Accounting for Tax returns	Total value of Annual Allowance charges reported by the scheme through the Accounting for Tax returns (£ million)	Number of individuals reporting pension contributions exceeding their Annual Allowance through Self Assessment	Total value of pension contributions exceeding the Annual Allowance reported through Self Assessment (£ million)
2015 to 2016	3,010	62	5,460	143
2016 to 2017	2,920	63	18,710	584
2017 to 2018	6,710	122	29,920	912
2018 to 2019	13,700	210	34,260	819
2019 to 2020	21,410	253	42,350	949

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

156620

Session

2021-22

Subjects

Pensions Tax allowances

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk