RPSM06200060 - Member Pages: Annual Allowance: Are there any exemptions from the annual allowance test?

Are there any exemptions from the annual allowance test?

This guidance explains the annual allowance rules up to 5 April 2011. If you want to know how the annual allowance works after that date see the guidance at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/annual-allowance/index.htm.

You are entitled to take all of your benefits under a pension arrangement (e.g. pension and lump sum) before the end of a tax year. If you do the annual allowance test is not applied for that arrangement.

Where an individual belongs to more than one arrangement and has an entitlement to benefits from them all, exemption will depend on whether all the benefits are taken.

If you have taken benefits from one arrangement and not the other, you will still need to test the pension input amount for the arrangement which has not yet come into payment against the annual allowance test for the tax year concerned. For further details you may want to refer to page RPSM06100090.