Pensions - Articles - HMRC over taxing spree passes GBP400m mark

 This is income tax which is deducted when individuals make lump sum withdrawals from their pension fund after the age of 55. HMRC routinely tax on the basis of an ‘emergency’ tax code which results in large overpayments which then have to be recovered by individual taxpayers who fill in one of three different claim forms depending on their circumstances. Looking at data for the whole period since Q2 2015, HMRC have had to pay back tax on 174,000 occasions, with the total amount repaid now standing at £402m. In the most recent quarter (Q4 2018) over £30m was repaid to over 13,000 people.

 Commenting, Helen Morrissey, Pensions Specialist at Royal London said: ‘HMRC is utterly shameless in the way that it over-taxes people and then expects them to claim a refund. The system should be run for the convenience of taxpayers, not the convenience of HMRC. It is time that this over-taxing spree was brought to an end’.