Budget: Pension loophole closed

Small self-administered pension scheme (SSAS) providers had previously marketed their pensions as a way of leaving surplus pension funds to family tax-free since A-Day. However, the Government sees the method as an abuse of the rules and the change will apply to people who die on or after 6 April. The rules will treat any increase in the pension rights of one member following the death of another member, if the two members were connected, as an unauthorised payment. This means recipients will face a 70% tax charge, the same as applies to funds passed on via alternatively secured pension (...