RPSM04103080 - Technical Pages: Taxation: Scheme investments: Common investment funds

Common investment funds

Where a number of registered pension schemes have pooled their investment in a common investment fund, special arrangements are available for the managers of the fund to submit centralised repayment claims on behalf of all the participating pension schemes. These special arrangements will only be available if

• the share of each registered pension scheme in pooled fund is always identifiable and,
• the common investment fund does not subject the assets of the participating schemes to any trusts in addition to those which govern those schemes.

There is no requirement that all of the assets of a scheme must be included in the common investment fund.

The common investment fund must be no more than an investment agency for the assets of the participating schemes of the same employer or associated employers. A common investment fund cannot be a registered pension scheme in its own right.

A unit trust would not qualify for the special arrangements available to common investment funds because a unit trust would make the assets of the participating schemes subject to a trust that is additional to those which govern the schemes.

HMRC needs to be notified when a common investment fund is set up, and of any changes to the membership of the common investment fund, so that it can administer repayments efficiently.