Auto Enrolment – the rising tide

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Auto Enrolment – the rising tide

Auto enrolment pretty much effects everyone that isn’t yet retired. In a nutshell, having faffed around with pensions for the last 30 years the Government are now forcing employers to offer pensions to their staff. Employers will be required to contribute 3% of salary… employees 5%.

It’s true that this is not a compulsory pension. Employees can opt out. Employers cannot. There are hefty daily fines for those that fail to meet the deadline to implement their new, qualifying staff pension. Everyone has to comply…. not doing so isn’t an option.

All the UKs biggest businesses have now set up their auto enrolment pensions (also called workplace pensions…. helpful eh?). Just pause to think what an administrative nightmare this is… staff coming and going on a daily basis, all needing to comply else suffer fines. What a headache… thankfully technology will reduce the headache, but action still needs to be taken.

Now small and medium-sized firms are gradually reaching their “staging date” (start date) and there will be a massive number of them. Few realise that there are implications for contracts of employment and of course operating costs. However the biggest issue is technology as all staff need to have a working email address… presumably a work email address is easiest to monitor and demonstrate that information has been sent by the employer.

Pain Relief

Most financial advisers and Accountants aren’t getting too involved in auto enrolment. Frankly because the work can be expensive and small firms don’t want that. So we have found a solution – a bit of really good IT. Its called AE in a Box. It isn’t a pension. It’s a project management tool that ensures that you are compliant with the rules, makes it easy to set up a scheme and communicate with your staff.

If you are an employer (even if you run a Limited company with only one other Director or member of staff) you have to comply. So check out the very easy to use tool. It is a monthly license subscription (and you will need the ongoing support) as even those that opt out of your pension, will need to be opted back in every 3 years… the Government hope that inertia will ensure more people join pensions and thus build up their own resources, rather than relying solely on the State Pension… which is already over-stretched.

Are you an Employee?

Do your boss a favour, point them to our tool and earn some brownie points. I promise you that auto enrolment is a headache and leaving it until thousands of employers are trying to do the same thing at the same time will end in tears…. and fines. As an employer myself, I really value people who bring me solutions not problems.

Are you an Accountant?

The tool enables Accountants to assist in the process, providing and checking data. This will make your life much easier on so many levels when dealing with your small firm clients.

Click this link to get more information, its low-cost with a single sign up fee. The monthly fee isn’t taken until 6 months before your scheduled staging date. But whatever you do, now is the time to take action.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Auto Enrolment – the rising tideDominic2025-01-27T17:03:19+00:00

Taxing Reforms for Pensions

Taxing reforms for pensions

There has been considerable “chatter” about the prospect of pensions being reformed even further. In particular, the tax of pensions is very much up for debate, making the prospect of tax reforms for pensions a genuine possibility.

In brief the Chancellor has already made huge changes to the pension system, enabling a pension to be taken as a lump sum or as income without any requirement to buy an annuity. In addition, a pension can now be easily passed on to beneficiaries of your estate, rather than ceasing when you do.

Tax Overpayments

The new freedoms have already and will continue to mean that some people don’t do their sums properly and end up paying too much tax – unnecessarily, which of course is a good thing if you run HM Treasury… every little helps and all that.

In very simple terms, most people will currently find that whatever the size of their pension pot, they can take 25% of it as tax-free cash (these days “we” call it a pension commencement lump sum – or PCLS). The rest is taxed as income.

Reforming tax relief

At the moment, anyone that pays into a pension gets tax relief – either at 20%, 40% or even 45% depending on your rate of tax. Everyone gets 20% (from age 0 to 75). So an investment of £1000 actually costs £800 if you are a nil rate or basic rate taxpayer. If you pay more than 20% tax, you get to claim the balance back via your tax returns.

The Chancellor is reviewing this, because it costs the country a lot of money. The main problem being that employers make most of pension contributions each year and do so in part because it is treated as a deductible cost. If this were considerably altered, then most employers are likely to reduce or even stop (bar the minimum requirements of auto enrolment) their contributions. This would result in smaller pensions in retirement…

So he could simply reduce tax relief to a lower amount, in essence he has done this already for anyone earning over £150,00, who have their annual allowance restricted to just £10,000 (less than an ISA) if they earn over £250,000.

Tax relief provided in 2013/14 amounted to £34.3bn, whereas the tax on pensions generated £13.1bn a “cost” to the UK of £21.2bn. Most of which (2/3rds) is reclaimed by higher rate taxpayers… those paying 40% or more.

Shrinking the Pot

He has also reduced the amount that can be held in a pension (the Lifetime Allowance) which is set to reduce again from £1.25m to £1m next April. Anything above this will be subject to an excess tax charge of 55% as things stand at present. That’s what I call easy money for the Treasury and there isn’t that much that you can do about it, other than applying for protection where relevant.

Changing the Sweetener

Another option would be to make pensions tax-free in retirement instead of taxable. Whilst this sounds all well and good, the reality is that who would honestly trust any future Government not to change the rules later, when they realise that they need the income to be taxed.

Simplicity Seems Dead

I am of the opinion that pensions are going to change, how much and when, we simply do not know. However the Government wants to be seen not to help the “rich” which seems to include people paying 40% tax and everyone paying 45% tax. It would include anyone in the State Sector that has built up a long career – doctors, teachers, police, civil servants – all of whom seem to be the current “cat to kick”. It certainly includes anyone that has pension funds worth £1m or more. Though I would argue that £1m in a pension pot isn’t that huge (yes I know its relative) but in practice that provides at £40,000 a year income… not enough to pay higher rate tax. The worst case to my mind would be to create a “before and after” system – which we have had before, which only makes life more complicated.

If I were Chancellor?

People need an incentive to save for the long-term. I would abolish the Lifetime Allowance making all current and previous protections irrelevant. I would restrict tax relief to a % of salary, perhaps providing it directly as a 5% tax cut, say 20% tax becoming 15% if payments are made to a pension. That way HM Treasury collect taxes, people are incentivized to save and earn. I would scrap rules that enable people to pay into pensions for children, which is essentially something that only the wealthy can do, so that pensions are only for those aged 18. However I would continue to tax pension income as income…

Sadly, for younger generations the prospects of good pensions looks fragile… of course there is the prospect of the solution as outlined in Logan’s Run….. there’s just one catch..

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

Taxing Reforms for PensionsDominic2023-12-01T12:20:08+00:00

Pension Timebomb

Ok its April 1st, but this isn’t an April Fools Day joke…. this is data from the Policy Exchange, founded in 2002 to help contribute the national thinking about society. I don’t know if it is the case, but it would appear that the Coalition Government had a look at this before deciding to introduce the pension rules that come into effect next week. However if you are someone still saving for a pension or an employer, the findings are not great reading, with both needng to contribute rather more to pensions. Clicking on the graphic should make it larger.

by policyexchange.

Dominic Thomas

Pension TimebombDominic2025-01-27T16:12:32+00:00

Auto Enrolment Fines – Workplace Pensions

As expected, the pensions regulator is taking auto enrolment (workplace pensions) rather more seriously than it took stakeholder pensions. Employers were warned about the prospect of fines and as the number of firms that should have started their pensions has multiplied, so have the fines. This is unlikely to alter as the momentum increases. This year medium sized and some small firms will be expected to comply with the rules. 166 penalty notices were issued in the last quarter of 2014 and over 1,100 compliance warning notices sent to firms.

Avoid the Fines

Employers need to get on with their auto enrolment compliance. In practice this is a project management exercise rather than about finding a good pension. As a result I advise employers and Accountants to use the very low cost software from AE in a Box. It enables you to fully comply in time and avoid fines. Importantly it is an ongoing project – much like PAYE is an ongoing project, so data and processes need to be adhered to strictly.

AE in a Box

AE in a Box is very inexpensive, £79+VAT to set up and then £29+VAT a month thereafter. The monthly subscription will only begin 6 months prior to your staging date. I would urge you to consider this bit of kit. It isn’t a financial product, its a tool to help you do the job yourself, cost-effectively rather than getting a more expensive planner like myself involved.

Dominic Thomas

Auto Enrolment Fines – Workplace PensionsDominic2025-01-21T15:51:07+00:00