Long-suffering scheme administrators were relieved to be told at the end of October that this problem had finally been fixed. In Pension Schemes Newsletter 104 HMRC explained how to report death benefits that are entirely non-taxable and the use of starting dates. Unfortunately, HMRC has now had to admit that this guidance was incorrect.

Prompted by questions from scheme administrators who got an error message when they followed the guidance and

entered '6 April 2018' as starting date, HMRC revisited the Real Time Information Technical specifications, 2018 to 2019 CWG2 and Pension Schemes Newsletters. HMRC now knows that this error message happens because when reporting death benefits that are entirely non-taxable, the starting date field should be blank when the scheme administrator submits their FPS. For these payments the annual amount should be zero. This applies to both lump sum death benefits and regular death benefit pension

payments that are entirely non-taxable.

HMRC has asked us to circulate this update and apologises for "any" confusion or inconvenience caused regarding the reporting of these payments in line with their previous guidance.

If you got an error message when reporting non-taxable death benefits, HMRC asks you to try to report this payment again, but this time leaving . . .

14 Dec 2018   Check other news items