Pensions - Articles - Pensions over taxation scandal hits record levels

 Steven Cameron, Pensions Director at Aegon: Since ‘pension freedoms’ were introduced in 2015, more people have been able to take lump sums out of their pension fund as and when they wish. But these lump sums are often over-taxed on an ‘emergency’ basis, with taxpayers having to fill in one of three different forms to claim back the excess tax. New figures for the period April-June 2019 show that the number of people over-taxed reached record levels. More than 17,000 people reclaimed £46m in tax in the last quarter, compared with 14,000 people claiming back £29m a year earlier. The total amount which taxpayers have had to claim back is now around £480m and is expected to pass the half a billion-pound mark in the next quarter.

 ‘It remains a scandal that people who are legitimately accessing their own money, using freedoms given to them by the government, are routinely being over-taxed for the convenience of HMRC. Thousands of people every month are having to fill in complex paperwork to recover tax they should never have had to pay. The latest figures show that this problem is now reaching epidemic proportions, with nearly half a billion pounds having to prised out of HMRC’s hands and returned to its rightful owner. The new Chancellor needs to address this issue as a matter of urgency’.