PSI1.3.12 - Establishment and Administration of Retirement Benefits Schemes: Exempt Approved Schemes and Conformity with Trust Law - Stamping Of Documents


(This archived guidance relates to HMRC discretionary practice before the 6th April 2006. For current guidance on Registered Pension Schemes see the Registered Pension Schemes Manual)

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

A deed or other trust instrument which has not been stamped cannot be produced in evidence except in criminal proceedings. It may however be stamped retrospectively with payment of an appropriate penalty. Any instrument which expressly declares a trust, or extends or varies an existing trust, or declares a further trust must be stamped. Documents which come into these categories include:

  1. interim trust deeds,
  2. definitive trust deeds and rules where the interim stage has been omitted,
  3. board or partnership resolutions establishing a scheme,
  4. in certain individual arrangements, the letter sent by the employer to the employee which contains a paragraph in appropriate terms (see PSI1.3.6),
  5. supplemental deeds which, for example, extend the class of beneficiaries or add further property to an existing fund.