Individuals may have made pension contributions in the year but they may also have accessed some of their pension savings in the year or in an earlier tax year.
The MPAA does not apply if the benefits are taken as:
Where an Individual has flexibly accessed their pension benefits from a defined contribution pension scheme or SASS, their pension contributions should be restricted from that date onwards (the trigger date). This restriction is imposed by the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA), which was initially set at £10,000, but reduced to £4,000 on 6 April 2017.
The MPAA does not apply if the benefits are taken as:
- a small pots lump sum;
- a pension commencement lump sum and no income is taken; or
- the income comes from a capped draw-down arrangement.
Where the MPAA does apply, any contributions paid into a money purchase (defined contribution) scheme after the trigger date are measured against the MPAA. Where those contributions exceed the MPAA, a tax charge will be due.
As 2017/18 is the first year for which the lower MPAA of £4000 applies, more Individuals are likely to be caught by this tax charge. HMRC has recently set up an online tool to help clarify whether the MPAA tax charge applies, but the accompanying explanation is not easy to follow.
So specialist advice may be required to clarify whether an individual has to pay a pensions tax charge in respect of contributions paid in 2017/18 or earlier.