FREEDOM BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY

Freedom Brings Responsibility

I hope that you are aware that since April 2015 pensions have had considerable improvements. Rather than having to buy an annuity anyone with a pension can simply take income from age 55 however they want (note that this age is gradually rising to be within 10 years of your State Pension Age which you can check here). As income it is taxable, but your pension fund has the benefit of 25% of anything “crystallised” being tax free. This you may remember, concerned some that there would be a rush on Lamborghini’s… which didn’t materialise. Mind you at £270,000 for a new Aventador, you would need to withdraw around double that to be able to pay the net price.

Many of you have been accessing your pensions under these new conditions. According to the latest HMRC data in Q2 (April to end June) of 2018 the number of individuals to whom payments were made reached 264,000. A total of £2,269m was paid out to them. The system has now been in place for 3 years and the value of all payments is now nearly £20,000m (some would say that’s £20bn).

Gone in 0-60 Seconds?

The basic caveat is that once your pension fund is spent, well… its gone. There have been many mistakes made – particularly in terms of taking too much money out and paying tax unnecessarily. As the income from the pension is assessed as income, those that believe that they can simply have their money are right, but invariably forget that the amount means that they must pay 40% or 45% income tax. Clever, or rather sensible planning can keep tax at 20% or less.

The Government and HMRC are probably rather pleased with this, it means that they are taking way more tax than they would have done, particularly as many of those drawing money from pensions are doing so before they are even retired.

Tax First, Ask Questions Later

HMRC also apply their own brand of logic, which is tax first, ask questions later. In other words, you must reclaim tax when too much has been taken. Despite lobbying by financial advisers and the pension industry generally, HMRC aren’t budging on changing their approach, claiming that people are better off paying too much than too little and then having to find money to pay their tax. Since the start of pension freedoms this “over-taxing” has amounted to more than £280m. So hardly a surprise that they won’t budge. Of course, this ought to be reclaimed… but therein lies the problem of theory and practice and in any event the Office of Tax Simplification recently warned that pension freedom withdrawals are poorly understood… one might be forgiven for wondering what on earth the OTS achieve.

To put your mind at ease, you need to complete the snappy titled “P55”to reclaim overpaid tax on your flexible pension. You can find the form here.

Here’s a video of an Aventador being tested by Autocar… no need to form a queue.

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

FREEDOM BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY2023-12-01T12:17:54+00:00

Pension Freedoms and a Lamborghini

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Pension Freedoms and  a Lamborghini

I’m sure you will have come across newspaper reports that some people are concerned that the new pension freedoms, (which come into effect from 6th April 2015) are likely to mean that some people make some daft decisions about their pension pot. You have probably heard that some may go a little mad and buy a Lamborghini.

This is an issue that I have talked about with clients recently, not because they were thinking of buying a Lamborghini, but I simply wanted to explain what the nw pension rules really mean. Admittedly as I don’t own a Lamborghini I’m not that familar with their prices. I’m not an avid Top Gear fan, though I do like Grand Prix. So just by way of a guide, perhaps you may like to know the reality of using a pension to buy a Lamborghini.

Dream Car? Aventador LP 700-4lamborghini

Making the wild assumption that you would want  a brand new car, the cheapest model I can find available in the UK is the Aventador LP 700-4 which starts at £260,040 (I love the £40!). I’m sure the reduction in petrol prices will help, but I imagine that this is a car that with a top speed of 217mph  and a combined urban/extra urban fuel consumption of 16 miles per gallon is also going to be expensive to run, let alone service.

On the Road Price

Assuming that this is an “on-the-road” price you need to write a cheque for £260,040 to the dealer from your pension. As of today a pension isn’t a bank account and does not come with a cheque book. But from April 6th you will be able take all of the money out (if you are 55 or older). The new rules allow you to take all your money out should you wish to – you don’t have to buy an annuity. However the original rules still apply, in that you can take 25% of the fund as tax free cash, the balance is deemed as income and taxed at your marginal rate of income tax (as it would be if it were an annuity). So, to buy the Aventador LP700-4 you need to pay £260,040, there are two ways that you could now achieve this.

1. Use the tax free cash – you could have a pension pot worth £1,040,160 and be able to take out 25% as tax free cash (£260,040).

2. Use the entire pension pot.You need a pension of tax free or have a pension pot worth at least £393,000. This would mean that you could take £98,250 as tax free cash and £294,750 as income (but suffer 45% income tax) leaving a net income of £162,112.50 and so have £260,362.50 to hand over the the Lamborghini dealer. Ok not all your income will be taxed at 45% – just the income over £150,000.. but most will be taxed at at least 40%, some at 20%, you would forfeit your personal allowance and in so doing pay an effective rate of tax of 60% on part of the income.

Too Fast, Too Furious… for mosttoo fast

It would take someone with either considerable additional resources, or perhaps a very short life expectancy to decide to buy the car with their pension… essentially costing £393,000 rather than £260,040. It may surprise you and probably alarm you to learn that the average pension pot “at retirement” is about £30,000, so for most people, they are more likely to be able to buy a model Lamborghini car which will cost between £6 and £3,654 (according to the site) or perhaps you fancy a T-shirt starting at £43.

Given that your pension, in combination with your other resources is meant to last for the rest of your life, the key is to ensure that it doesn’t run out before you do. This is precisely what we do for our clients, figure out what income you need to support your lifestyle, how much is needed, what returns required and making some assumptions (which we review together) about inflation (currently 0% here in the UK) and life expectancy. When it comes to avoiding living on the street, you really dont want a pension withdrawal strategy that is too fast and too furious.

Dominic Thomas

Pension Freedoms and a Lamborghini2023-12-01T12:40:00+00:00
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