PSIPreface - Status of this publication

(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 manual contains guidance which has been prepared for the staff of the Inland Revenue. It is being published for the information of taxpayers and their advisers in accordance with the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

It should not be assumed that the guidance is comprehensive nor that it will provide a definitive answer in every case. The staff of the Inland Revenue are expected to use their own judgement, based on their training and experience, in applying the guidance to the facts of particular cases.

The guidance in this manual is based on the law and discretionary practice as it stood at October 1995. The Inland Revenue will publish amended or supplementary guidance if there is a change in the law or discretionary practice, or in the Department’s interpretation of it. The Inland Revenue may give earlier notice of such changes through Pension Schemes Office Updates, Tax Bulletin or a press release.

Subject to these qualifications readers may assume that the guidance given will be applied in the normal case; but where the Inland Revenue considers that there is, or may have been, avoidance of tax the guidance will not necessarily apply.

Neither this guidance nor its publication affects any right of appeal a taxpayer may have. Information about appeals is contained in leaflet IR37 ‘Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax Appeals’ which is available from any Tax Enquiry Centre or Tax Office.

Taxpayers (or their advisers) should write to the Controller of the Pension Schemes Office if they are not satisfied with the way that the Department has handled their affairs. More information about how to make a formal complaint is set out in leaflet IR120 ‘You and the Pension Schemes Office’, which is available from the Pension Schemes Office. That leaflet includes information about the Revenue Adjudicator and the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

The Code of Practice on Access to Government Information entitles the Inland Revenue to withhold information which is covered by one of the exemptions in the Code. In publishing this guidance, some material has been omitted under exemptions 6 and 7.