Tel: 01283 701569

Experienced Independent Financial Advisers

Pension Lifetime Allowance

9 Jul 2021

How to stay within the limit to avoid a tax charge

If you’ve been diligently saving into a pension throughout your working life, you should be entitled to feel confident about your retirement. But, unfortunately, the best savers sometimes find themselves inadvertently breaching their pension lifetime allowance (LTA) and being charged an additional tax that erodes their savings.

If you are a high-income earner or wealthy individual, you could be putting too much into your lifetime pension and risk exceeding the pension lifetime allowance. The following questions and answers are intended to help you avoid this tax charge.

Q: What is the lifetime allowance?
A: The LTA is a limit on the amount you can withdraw in pension benefits in your lifetime before you trigger an additional tax charge. By pension benefits, we mean money you receive from your pension in any form, whether that’s a lump sum, a flexible income, an annuity income or through any other method.

This allowance applies to your total pension savings, which may be in different pensions.

Q: How much is the lifetime allowance?
A: In the 2021/22 tax year, the LTA is £1,073,100. This allowance has now been frozen until April 2026.

Q: What happens if you exceed the lifetime allowance?
A: Once you have received your full LTA in pension benefits, you will be required to pay an additional tax charge on any further benefits you receive.

If you take your remaining benefits as a lump sum, you’ll pay a tax charge of 55%. If you take your remaining benefits as multiple withdrawals, you’ll pay a tax charge of 25% on each one.

Q: How is the usage of your lifetime allowance measured?
A: Each time you access your pension benefits (for example, by purchasing an annuity, receiving a lump sum or establishing a flexible income), this is recorded as a ‘benefit crystallisation event’. There is an additional benefit crystallisation event when you turn 75, and finally, upon your death.

Q: Is lifetime allowance protection available?
A: You can only protect your pension from the LTA if your savings were worth more than £1 million on 5 April 2016. You may be able to protect your pension savings up to £1.25 million, or up to the value of your pension on that date, depending on the type of protection you have.

Q: Is it possible to avoid the lifetime allowance?
A: If you do not have LTA protection and you are approaching the limit, there are various actions you can consider. These include stopping your contributions (and, instead, investing your money into an alternative tax-efficient environment), changing your investment strategy or starting retirement earlier.

Q: When should you seek professional advice?
A: The rules around the LTA are very complex and making the right decisions can feel difficult. Receiving professional financial advice will help to identify if you have a problem and offer different solutions to consider, based on a full review of your unique circumstances.

A PENSION IS A LONG-TERM INVESTMENT NOT NORMALLY ACCESSIBLE UNTIL AGE 55 (57 FROM APRIL 2028). THE VALUE OF YOUR INVESTMENTS (AND ANY INCOME FROM THEM) CAN GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP WHICH WOULD HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE LEVEL OF PENSION BENEFITS AVAILABLE. YOUR PENSION INCOME COULD ALSO BE AFFECTED BY THE INTEREST RATES AT THE TIME YOU TAKE YOUR BENEFITS.

THE TAX IMPLICATIONS OF PENSION WITHDRAWALS WILL BE BASED ON YOUR INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES, TAX LEGISLATION AND REGULATION WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE IN THE FUTURE. YOU SHOULD SEEK ADVICE TO UNDERSTAND YOUR OPTIONS AT RETIREMENT.

Footnote: Our belief is that all finacial advice should be tailored to your particular needs and situation. The content of the articles featured in here are for your general information and use only; they are not intended to address your particular requirements or constitute a full and authoritative statement of the law. They should not be relied upon in their entirety and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute advice. Although endeavours have been made to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No individual or company should act upon such information without receiving appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of their particular situation. Please get in touch to meet with us for a full consultation.

Get in touch for more details

Please fill the form below to contact us

    Your Name (required)

    Company Name

    Your Email (required)

    Areas of concern

    Individual servicesCorporate servicesMiscellaneous

    Subject

    Your Message

    We take your Privacy Seriously. Personal information submitted to us with this form will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations ‘GDPR’. By submitting this enquiry form you expressly consent to be contacted without prior notice or arrangement by using the contact details you have provided on the form. For further information on how we treat your personal information, please view our Privacy Policy

    I have read and agree to the privacy policy. Please retain my details to contact me.Please do not add me to the mailing list.