What Everyone Gets WRONG About The ANNUAL ALLOWANCE And CARRY FORWARD 

Genuinely excellent video clarifying a lot of common misconceptions for me. Also my irritation is with the "relevant earnings" caveat by HMRC; as a Landlord earning a living from that business (properties in my own name) I am effectively severely limited in the pension contributions I can make, yet those same earnings are fully relevant by HMRC when it comes to taxing me, clearly a double-standard from HMRC.

@@gaurasrspublishing I agree. HMRC don't treat running a property rental business as a normal business. They have taken it upon themselves to consider it different to every other business. The government haven't put this right and yet they wonder why there isn't enough property for people to rent at a reasonable price! They need someone with some common sense at the Treasury to sort this out and put HMRC straight on how they should deal with property rental.

Glad it was helpful!

Hey, that’s great! I’m so glad it is helpful - thanks for being here! 🙏🏻

Cheers, Richard!

You are most welcome, Rudi - thank you for being here!

Paul does great videos on SSAS, he may be a good guest on your podcast for those who are self employed/run a small business 👍🏼

Thank you Andre - appreciate the kind words and I'm glad it was helpful!

You’re welcome, elom44!

Good luck Ruchi, and thanks for watching!

Spot on Ruchi, just part of the financial eduction that schools should look to offer. We used to have a period called general studies where almost anything could be covered, showing kids how “easy payment” credit cards can get out of hand, pensions a little saved for 40+ years becomes a lot, salary v tax, NI contributions, costs of living etc etc. fuel is £7.50 - £8.00 a gallon now so those little journeys kids ask for soon cost an arm and a leg. I’m lucky in sorted pensions a few years ago so working now to save more but also pay the mortgage, 3 1/2 years to state pension with a private one due a year early. Stopping work and playing golf seems more attractive every day 😀

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and commenting! 🙏🏻👍🏻

Lots!

Pete in addition to this I have 3 DC schemes, two I pay into Nest, Aviva and the Zurich (crystallised) plus a DB scheme , the DB I would like to convert to cash it’s CETV value is 10-15% over the other three combined. The DB would match state pension if no tax free taken Main thought on converting is to allow funds to pass to beneficiaries upon my death, but there is a cost on fees plus Advisors Reluctance to actually carry out the process of moving the funds due to the paperwork. THe government / FSA seem to forget ultimately the fund is our money to use.

Ha! It’s a pleasure Mohamed. By using the word ‘mithered’ I’m guessing you’re from up north, like me?

Too right. Once a Lanky lad always a lanky lad.

Thanks Guy - THAT'S the thing everyone gets wrong. Your contribution is always limited by your Relevant UK Earnings in THIS year, the year. you make the contribution.

@@MeaningfulMoney so I can add extra contributions for those years but at this years limit once I have maximised this years contribution and have to allow for tax relief.

Spot on, Shaun!

Sorry one more question. In my example above I put that I need to subtract employee contributions (made into my work DC scheme) from my relevant job earnings, do I need to subtract any employer contributions too? Thanks again for the excellent content.

Essentially Mark, you just make the payment like you normally would. The allowance is carried forward to this year, so as long as you have the headroom in your relevant UK earnings, its fine. You would reclaim any higher rate relief through your tax return. I’m not 100% sure, but I think you would need to do a tax return anyway…

Thanks man - I know, right?! For everyone trying to figure this stuff out via RU-vid vids, there are thankfully some folks who are happy to delegate to advisers like you and I!

Thank you sir! Feels like a nice milestone - next stop, my 100k subs plaque!

They don’t, not really. The Annual Allowance applies to everyone, so you have to have the relevant earnings to make the contributions. Those with an IHT problem should probably look to spend other assets, leaving their pension funds to grow outside their estate

Hmm. Good question. I imagine that would be OK - but I’d want to check that with an accountant to be sure

Remember it’s the year’s benefit accrual, NOT the inflation uplift on previous years that counts towards the AA.

That sounds odd. High CPI will make the opening DB pension benefits bigger. This is then subtracted from the closing figure in the usual manner. Even if the closing figure is bigger, so too is the inflation adjusted opening figure, so unless someone has had a big pay rise, say from promotion, it should not make that much difference.

No form, Just keep a record in case you are ever audited.

Also, your pension provider will often ask you to declare that you have sufficient Carry Forward allowance to make the higher contribution.

You would have to see what, if any benefits uplift you have had in the relevant year. Ask your DB administrators for statements. But if you are no longer in those schemes, I cannot see how you would have increased your pension benefit.

I thank you!

Don’t worry, you’re correct. If you’re paying into a pension out of taxed income, ie, once you’ve been paid and the money is in your bank account, then you pay into a pension net of basic rate income tax. But in the case of paying into a scheme through PAYE, what you describe is usually the case - they’re taken before tax and NI are deducted from the rest

@@MeaningfulMoney thanks Pete for clarifying I have just watched again one of your other videos on DB and DC that helped also clarify. Am I right in thinking if you paid in after tax can you claim the tax back on your tax return? Thanks for doing what you do very much appreciated. Kindest regards

Nope - always 16x (and thank you!)

@@MeaningfulMoney wow. Thanks. So the earlier you take it the less of your LTA it is. Good to know!

You’re welcome, and thank you! 🙏🏻

Hopefully that tax loophole will soon be closed and company owners will be made to be honest and pay the same tax rate as the rest of us. I don't blame you for exploiting it, but it's a loophole and it should be closed. Why do you deserve to pay less tax than other people just because you own a company? It's not right.

@@owensmith7530 They are simply taking profits from their company just like any investor in a business. The reason the tax rate is lower is to compensate those people for the risk they take in investing in and running the business. Running a business is risky but it provides employment for themselves and often for other people. The government obviously wants to encourage that because creating jobs is an important thing to do. Maybe you disagree but without the millions of people who run small and medium sized businesses we would have ten million people unemployed and claiming benefits.

@@davidwebb2318 But many people abuse this by running a one person business that is solely for contracting their time to another company. As a computer programmer I see this all the time, contractors who are paid more than permanent staff and because they own a company they also pay less tax. They then do shoddy work, disappear at the end of their contract leaving us regular staff to clean up the mess, and move on to another contract where they are again paid more and taxed less for doing a poor job. It's not right.

@@owensmith7530 Your problem with this system really seems to be two things.... 1, The 'value for money' of contract staff in your industry. 2, The 'injustice' that contract staff end up getting more net pay. In relation to 1.... You are right, contractors in the IT industry are often not good value for money. The solution to this is to set up a company that competes in your industry. Have a policy of never employing contractors. Because you aren't wasting money on contractors your company will eventually outcompete everyone else. Don't fancy risking your own money setting up a business to compete in your industry? Then you are demonstrating exactly why those who take business risk have to be compensated for that risk. In relation to 2... Contract staff get more net pay. Yes, but they get less job security, have no employment rights, they have no employer pension contriutions, they have no ability to take part in share options savings schemes, travel season ticket loans etc etc. They do have to pay accountants fees, do tons of Companies House and HMRC paperwork, pay employers and employees National Insurance etc etc. HMRC seem to make the rules on this tighter all the time so they are at risk of getting themselves into a difficult position if they make a mistake. If you think they are genuinely better off overall then you should consider working in the contract market. If you prefer the security of employment then stay as an employee. Unfortunately in this world you cannot have both the security/benefits of employment status AND wages that match contract rates. It might not seem 'fair' but think back to the furlough scheme in 2020. People who paid themselves in dividends instead of wages got no furlough payments if they couldn't work.... That is their fault for choosing the lower tax route and I have no sympathy for them. It does show that there is payback sometimes though and they don't always get things their own way.

That’s true Jal - forgot to add that. Thanks for commenting!

@@MeaningfulMoney Hi so does this mean you can add £2880 from your DC pension income. i.e. you have to earn it another way?

​@@MeaningfulMoney So can you carry forward a previous year in this situation if you could only contribute £2880 in that year too but didn't? And if you can, does any carry forward contribution amount have to be done as a single payment, or can it be multiple? I read somewhere this payment can only be done once. As in only one payment of £2880 if you didn't contribute anything in the tax year you're carrying forward?

It’s a gross figure, so £40k total. You would make a contribution of £32,000 to be made up to £40k

Yep - those are to their rules, but government rules. You can't sacrifice salary to the extent that you fall below the living wage.

But you can pay into your pension from take home pay and get tax back, as you say will be paying NI on salary which previously you saved

Hi Jason, Is the minimum wage limit calculated on a months pay, or annual? I currently do a min / max arrangement where every third month is over 75%, but the other two months are at minimum, so I am curious to know if I will run into any issues later on. Cheers.

@@autilonskorr237 Technically salary sacrifice means you have a temporary new contract with a lower salary. That cannot be lower than minimum wage in any pay period. John Lewis got into trouble by averaging it. So possibly.

Yes, that’s right. Mark. You’ll save the NI, but that doesn’t go into the pension, as such.

NEST is defo a registered pension scheme. Not sure what you mean by unused purposes?

Nope, definitely not. That would not count towards the annual allowance.

That’s really only a problem with DB pensions, but it is a problem nonetheless! You have to take a stab at your pension input in the scheme based on your salary, accrual rate of the scheme etc.

That's correct. Once the tax year is past, you can't carry BACK pension contributions.

@@MeaningfulMoney that would be nice wouldn't it!

You can do your own calculation close to the end of the tax year and work out what personal top-up contribution you want to make to save tax. There are some calculators online or you can create a spreadsheet if you like to do that. This helps with tax planning and gets you ready for completing the tax return (if you do one) in the next tax year. Personal contributions have the effect of extending the basic rate band by the amount of the contribution, which creates additional tax relief for HRT payers. You may also make sufficient contributions so you pay NO HRT.

@@davidplanet3919 You don't need a spreadsheet to do that, a calculator and half a side of A4 is sufficient to work it out. I've been doing it that way for the last 8 years.

There’s an example about working out the DB input amount. Take that off the annual allowance and then whatever’s left is how much you can put into a DC scheme. Seek advice if you’re not sure.

Yes they can; I neglected to mention this!

The latter, Scott. 21/22 would be effectively ‘full’ so there would be no unused allowance to carry forward to future years

Noted - I'll add it to the list

Annual allowance and carry forward apply as much to DB schemes as DC. What constitutes a contribution is entirely different for DB schemes though, where it is about a multiple of the benefits accrued in the year, and nothing to do with what is contributed to the scheme. So if your benefit under the scheme increase by £2000pa in the year, then this is multiplied by 16 to get £32,000 - within the Annual Allowance so all is good. The difficulty is that often these figures are only made available AFTER the end of the year, so it can make it tricky to plan.

Yes, you're correct M C - the maximum you can pay with no earned income (sorry, Carer's Allowance doesn't count) is £2,880 net (£3,600 gross) in this year, with no Carry Forward

Yes, you can do that.

Yes, you always work in gross terms. So if you want to make a £10,000 gross contribution, you pay in £8,000 and the £2k is added to the pot to make £10k. Then you claim the higher rate relief through your tax return so you get £2k off your tax bill. So the £10k has only notionally cost you £6,000.

@@MeaningfulMoney Many thanks, if you choose not to reinvest the 2000 higher rate relief back into the SIPP, using it just to reduce your tax bill, does it still count towards your annual pension allowance? (i.e. if I pay 8k into my SIPP, and don't reinvest the 2k higher rate tax reilef, would 10k or 12k come off my annual pension contributions allowance?). Many thanks

Yep, no problem with that!

Yes, it does, Peter

@@MeaningfulMoney Thanks for the speedy response, great videos, and great service.

Just to clarify please, so your contribution plus your employers contributions all add up towards your annual allowance. What about the added 20% on top of your contributions that the government adds to each payment. Does this also add to your annual allowance ? Also if you earn less than £40K a year then if I am not mistaken the carry forward option does not apply and is pointless/not applicable. For example someone earning £35K a year cannot use any carry over from previous years. Thank you and a really informative video. Mike C.

@@Jedward7009 Yes tax relief plus employer contributions all add into your annual allowance - its a gross figure after tax relief. As employer contributions count if you earn 35K but get 5K or more employer contributions then you still can use carry forward.

Not if you mean a DB pension. All Defined Benefit pensions are evaluated using the increase in benefit formula in the video (16* increase in benefits, inflation adjusted). The nominal employer contribution is irrelevant.

Hi Daryl - the employer contributions are included. I'm kicking myself that I didn't make that clear enough in the video!

If you can accept that you won't reclaim the income tax on the extra £5K you can put that in as a personal contribution. It isn't as nice as getting thetax back but that money is at least protected against Capital Gains Tax and Dividend Tax etc going forward.

You may be able to use Carry Forward to justify the higher-than-expected contribution. Have you watched this video? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iNN7wpwTZig.html

@@MeaningfulMoney Thanks for the reply. I understand that the constraint is 100% of relevant earnings in the current year even if carry forward has been used to exceed the 40% annual allowance. I'm sure it will work itself out at the end of this year, but The biggest lesson I have learnt is that the 100% of relevant earnings includes the 20% tax automatically reclaimed.

You could make an £80k NET contribution that would be made up to £100k, then you’d get another £20k off your tax bill via your tax return. Maybe I’ll do another examples video. Watch this space…

@@MeaningfulMoney so you can get 40% tax relief even on the parts of your salary which fell within the basic rate tax band or personal allowance?

@@thematrix185 You can put in the full 100K if you want. The 'Annual Allowance' is only a limit on the amount of contributions you can reclaim the tax back on. In actual fact there is no limit to the amount you can put into your pension in any year. But, you will get penalised if you go over the lifetime limit and if your pension provider reclaims tax on contributions in excess of the annual amount then you wil have to pay the tax they reclaimed back. Just make sure your pension provider only claims the tax back on the contributions up to the 'Annual Allowance' and you will be fine.

1. No - generally increases in deferred DB benefits does not count towards the annual allowance. 2. The oldest previous year takes priority, once the current year is ‘full’. Hope that helps!

@@MeaningfulMoney Great stuff. Subscribed.

Yes they are, Marco - that's the one thing I failed to emphasise this time!

Yes, it does. Sacrificed salary is still relevant UK earnings

Salary sacrifice cannot take your salary below minimum wage in any pay period. Salary sacrifice means you temporarily change your contractual salary and your employer makes a gross contribution. So its no longer relevant earnings and your relevant earnings drop. But employers can contribute any amount so its moot and essentially the same.

Technically. But you'll pay an Annual Allowance charge and many pension providers won't allow it.

No, you can keep contributing up to £2880 net (£3,600 gross) for her even if she's not working

You need to ask your accountant how the wholly and exclusively test applies to your business. If he or she can’t answer, then you need a new accountant! Basically the test stops you from damaging your business by making disproportionate contributions to a pension.

Why not? I thought anyone with a pension scheme can carry forward regardless

@@tf2368 as I understand it you need to be earning more than £40 to use the carry forward scheme

@@simonkemp1030 Yes correct (sorry I misread that)

Yes, that is correct, and yes, I think it’s a rubbish rule.

You cannot carry forward for tax reclaim in this situation but you can make additional contributions over your earnings. (The 'annual allowance' only applies to the amunt on which youcan reclaim tax. Most people don't realise but you can actually put as much into your pension each year as you like with no restrictions. This at least means the capital is sheltered from capital gains and dividends taxes going forward. All you have to do is instruct your pension provider to not reclaim income tax on the amount that is above the annual allowance applicable for your circumstances. If you make any additional contributions it is also important to check the lifetime pension allowance as well so you don't end up with tax liabilities you weren't expecting.

Yes, as long as you have the salary headroom to justify it.

@@MeaningfulMoney Thanks for the prompt response. I had money helper telling me that the additional tax relief is only available on the current years allowance and not on any carry forward contributions. That's despite the total contributions (current year and carry forward) being within the current salary.

Yes, absolutely. There’s a test called the ‘wholly and exclusively’ test which is all about the company benefitting from the pension contribution. But that can be justified if you’re a key employee. The company should seek advice from an accountant on that.

@@MeaningfulMoney thank you very much Pete, sounds like I should be ok. Great channel Pete, you’re helping many people make sense of their finances. Cheers 👍🏼

Excellent question. Like with all tax, you’re supposed to tell them!

1. No. Any taxable income (even if it is taxed at 0% because it falls into your personal allowance) triggers the MPAA 2. The MPAA is permanent once triggered.

@@MeaningfulMoney I thought that would be the case, thank you

Basically, yep. I don’t make the rules!

Hi Nick. It’s true that the AA is the maximum you can contribute and get tax relief. Some providers won’t allow you to contribute more, and others will.

HI Stuart - you'd be looking for a compound interest calculator like this one: www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php You'd need to put in your current pension value as the starting figure and put a zero in the monthly addition. Choose an assumed growth/interest rate (say 5%?) and it'll give you an idea of the fund value down the line. Remember that inflation would eat into that value, so for a decent approximation, if you assumed that growth was 5% and inflation 3% you could enter a growth rate of 2% and you'd be somewhere near. Of course, much depends on markets, the economy, inflation and lots more besides, but 21 years is a long time. Good luck!

@@MeaningfulMoney Thank you for replying, I'll check that out... I'm just weighing up my future and maybe try something solo but the sums have to work of course. 😊

@@MeaningfulMoney Sorry one other thing, I have the estimated value, how does that then transfer to a drawdown. The pot is circa £44k so I'm guessing not much.

@@stuartheslop8002 If you plan to use the money to buy an annuity you can get an idea of the annual amount from one of the annuity providers, there are loads on the interent who will quote if you give them a few details. Make sure you put in your age as the age you expect to retire etc. If you plan to invest it and draw from it then a reasonable rule of thumb is to expect to be able to take anannual drawdown amount of between 3 and 4%. 3% is quite conservate but 4% might be ambitious if you happen to retire at the same moment your investments all drop in value (e.g. during a stock market wobble).

@@davidwebb2318 Thank you David, I'll look into this... I think I need to pull my last pension into a SIPP and I'll just leave the local government one paltry as it is, where it is.

Nope, you can just make a contribution for this year - £2,880 net, £3,600 gross - no carry forward available

@@MeaningfulMoney Thanks for the reply, all these rules, LOL

2018/19 is irrelevant as it’s more than three years ago, so you would have Carey Forward of this year’s allowance of £40k plus 2020/21’s allowance of £40k, so £80k of allowance. As that’s within your salary you could contribute the whole amount GROSS. BUT! I think you’re saying that you contributed 100% of your salary in the past three years, in which case you’re limited to £40k this year. Because your salary was £30k in the oldest year, THAT is your annual allowance for that year, so there’s no £10k to carry forward from that year.

@@MeaningfulMoney perfect thanks

You can put in any amount you like. The annual allowance only dictates the amount of contributions you can reclaim the incoime tax on. If you want to put in more then you can. You won't get the income tax back on the extra but the capital will be tax sheltered going forward so it is still worth it if you have used up all your ISA limit etc.

You can contribute up to 100% of your earnings for this year, though you’ll make the payment net of basic rate income tax. So if you earn £8000 this year, you will pay £6,400 in and it’ll be made up to £8k. It’s difficult to be exact about earnings levels when you’re self employed, I know, but that’s why most pension contributions go in during March, right at the end of the tax year.

£24k, not £25k if it’s from taxed income. That gets made up to the £30k by the pension company claiming the tax relief from HMRC.

That's true, David - I neglected to mention that.

Nope - THIS year's salary is the ultimate limit.

That's true, Richard

Hi David. You are, of course, absolutely correct. When creating the script for a video such as this, my goal is always to simplify. In so doing, there is some inevitable nuance lost, such as the detail you describe here. What I think I failed to do this time is to make it absolutely clear that the Employer contributions are also subject to the AA. That said, for the vast majority of people watching, I think that the £40k or 100% whichever is lower summary will suffice as a rule of thumb. It's impossible to cover every scenario in examples within a video, as I'm sure you understand. I do appreciate your support; thanks for commenting and keeping me straight!

Excellent. It should also be noted that with “Salary Sacrifice” arrangements into DC (and DB) schemes there are strictly NO employee contributions, though payslips will often distinguish between the employee/sacrificed contributions and the employer contributions. All of the contributions are subject to the £40k allowance. When the MPAA is triggered in a year the allowance is £4k for the rest of the year PLUS what was paid in before it was triggered, up to a maximum overall of £40k. Then in subsequent years the allowance is £4k.

There is no limit on the amount you can personally contribute to a pension in a year. There is only a limit on the amount of contributions on which you reclaim income tax. Thus, people can contribute as much as they like in a single year even above their annual earnings as long as the income tax reclaimed is at the correct level. Many people do not realise this and many pension providers don't know this either (or don't have a way to handle the tax reclaims correctly). Of course people have to be careful about running into the pension lifetime allowance if they make these additional 'non income tax reclaim' contributions so it can get complicated if they are close to the limit.

That's correct John - thanks for the clarification, and for your efforts in the comments section!

Exactly, Iain. it's also really difficult to get a pension provider to accept payments in excess of the Annual Allowance!

@@MeaningfulMoney, I have managed it without realising Pete! Even this past year, having calculated contributions pretty much to the penny, things not being set by payroll and changes meant I had one month's contributions wrong and so ended up tipping over the 40K limit. As for the regular; Save more! Don't save that much! This much tax limit! No, that tax limit! Oh, let us change it again. Anyone would have thought they hadn't got a clue. Oh hang on...

You pay a tax charge on £12.5K of £2.5K.

@@johnkennet3036 Thanks. So you just lose the tax relief then. So it's still worth putting it in at the start of the tax year for the possible gains rather than at the end of the year when you have definitely earned all the money for the year.

@gavjlewis Possibly. I don't like the thought I am on HMRCs naughty list so I only contribute up to the taxable amount I have earned so far each year.

I love this way of putting it, John - the naughty list! Also, @gavjlewis, many pension companies wouldn't accept payments in excess of the annual allowance without you singing a declaration, which you might fall foul of - suggest you contact your pension company

OK, I’ll clarify. Most financial laypeople get it wrong. But I’m supposed to know what I’m doing!

So, exactly what I said?!

Employer contribution 20k Personal contribution gross 30k Earnings 30k Is this not allowed when there’s a carryover of 10k from previous years?

@@davidmcnay Exactly I've just made a similar point, its why the lower of 40k/salary isn't correct, even though this is a common thing people say. AA and Tax relief limit are different and should not try and be solved in one sentence.

Well, the video is talking about the Annual Allowance, so I’m not wrong. I do get your point, you CAN contribute more than the annual allowance, though you’ll get an annual allowance charge if you do (essentially paying back the tax relief). Also, most providers will ask you to certify that you have the available annual allowance to make the contribution. If you don’t, some will not allow the payment, despite the rules saying that it is allowed. Or if you pay in more than the annual allowance, and the pension scheme doesn’t have the facility to pay the AA charge, then you’d have to pay it out of other money. So while you’re absolutely right, and I do appreciate the clarification, the video serves to answer the most pressing question that the vast majority of viewers have.

@@MeaningfulMoney Thanks but you have still got a couple of details wrong... 1, The way you have worded and presented this video makes it look like there is an annual contribution limit. That is simply not true. There is only a tax reclaim limit, the so-called annual allowance, which should probably be called the Annual Pension Income Tax Reclaim Allowance. HMRC don't really make this clear in their documentation. The reason is simple - they are only concerned with the taxation of pension savings so it isn't up to them to tell you what you can do outside of the tax regulations. This is the root cause of why so many people don't know this. When you publish a video reinforcing this erroneous belief by failing to mention the fact that there is no limit all you do is make sure even more people get this wrong. 2, You WON'T get an annual allowance charge if you instruct your pension firm to not claim the tax back. The annual allowance charge is only there to recoup tax reclaimed that shouldn't have been. If you instruct your pension firm to not put the claim in then there is no tax for HMRC to recoup from you so you don't get charged. It is quite simple if you can find a pension provider who actually understands the rules. Yes, some pension firms don't really understand the rules and ask you to make all sorts of declarations or they (incorrectly) think there is a limit on contributions but the trick is to find a decent pension management firm who does understand the rules. They will accept any contributions and follow your instructions so they only claim the tax back on the correct amount. That then leaves the customer without any other paperwork or charges at all. Obviously making contributions in excess of the amount you will reclam income tax on is a good idea because you have instantly sheltered your pension contribution from capital gains tax and taxes on any dividends the investments pay out. If you are over 55 but planning to save for a few more years this is similar to having a flexible, additional ISA allowance because you can invest without the returns being taxed and then draw from it when you choose (subject to the usual pension income tax rules) . For someone decades from retirement this might or might not be such a good option but more people should definately take more advantage of making 'non tax reclaim' pension contributions. Sadly, even some of the larger UK SIPP and pension providers get this wrong because they only look at what HMRC says about pensions. They don't seem to realise there is more to the rules than just the tax side of things. They really should look at all the rules not just the tax related elements. If you are presenting yourself as an expert on the subject then you should make sure you give the complete picture instead of just reinforcing the same incorrect assumptions as so many others do.

I’d I had to guess, I’d say it’s when you take tax-free cash from a DC scheme but you’re still working, so you can continue to contribute and build up more tax-free cash. But I can’t be sure!

@@MeaningfulMoney I thought there were rules about re-investing money into a pension (and therefore getting tax-relief on that money) which you have already taken as tax-free lump-sum from a DC pension scheme?