In certain circumstances, which were beyond the member's control, payments may have been deducted from their salary in the belief that they wished to make a contribution to a registered pension scheme. A scheme administrator may refund these ‘contributions’ that:
Contributions which have continued to be debited in error after the date of cancellation, either under the direct debit system or by standing order, may be refunded by the scheme administrator.
It may happen that the member requested that a lower rate of
contributions were to be deducted from their salary but this was
not complied with, e.g. they only wanted 5% of their salary to be
deducted and treated as a contribution but the employer deducted
15%. Normally this error can be rectified by altering the level of
deductions from future salary. However HMRC have no objections to a
refund of the excess being made if desired.
Any tax relief that a scheme administrator has claimed
previously on contributions erroneously paid, must be repaid to
HMRC. This may be done by adjustment to the next claim made to HMRC
or alternatively by direct payment to HMRC
Contributions which are paid at the outset of an
arrangement that is subsequently cancelled by the
individual within the cooling off period, should be refunded by the
scheme administrator. The cooling off period is determined by the
registered pension scheme’s own regulatory body.
In such a case, it is unlikely that the scheme administrator
will already have reclaimed the basic rate tax relief from HMRC,
because of the short time span. If however, relief has been
claimed, it must be repaid to HMRC. This may be done by adjustment
to the next claim made to HMRC or alternatively by direct payment
to HMRC.
| Glossary ( RPSM20000000) |
