News

Pensions News 37 and the Annual Funding Statement are now available.

In this Pensions News issue: Plan accounts summary, Investment changes, Jargon buster, New Coats CEO and more.

View these documents online at our new My Coats Pension site (you will need to register if it’s your first visit): https://secure.coatspensions.co.uk

You can also view them online in the member-only section (you will need the secure area password): click here

Philip Hammond’s Budget, announced on 9 March 2017, did not introduce any major unexpected changes to pensions or income tax.

As expected, the personal allowance is rising from £10,000 to £11,500 from 6 April 2017 – reducing an ordinary basic rate taxpayers annual income tax bill by £100.

The Government recently held a consultation on Pension Scams (this term covers any fraudulent activity designed to deny people full enjoyment of their pension savings), and advised that the outcome of this is yet to be published. (The Pensions Advisory Service has produced an online tool for people who fear they have been approached by pension scammers. If you’re concerned about pension scams, you can view this tool by clicking here.)

We previously advised that the Government had introduced the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) in 2015; this restricts future defined contribution pension saving to £10,000 a year once a person has exercised the new ‘freedom and choice’ flexibilities.  This allowance will be reduced to £4,000 a year from 6 April 2017.

There are also changes being introduced in relation to overseas transfers; these will be subject to a 25% charge in certain circumstances, and will also continue to fall under the scope of the UK tax regime in the 5 years following the transfer.  Members with deferred pension rights who are under normal retirement age have a right to request a transfer value.  For the avoidance of doubt, pensions already in payment cannot be transferred out of the scheme.

For more information on the Budget, please click here.

Coats has announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2016.

To view the announcement, please go to the news section of the coats.com website

The January 2017 payment was made on 20 December 2016. A full list of the pay dates for 2017 is detailed below:

• January – Tuesday 20 December
• February – Wednesday 1 February
• March – Wednesday 1 March
• April – Friday 31 March
• May – Friday 28 April
• June – Thursday 1 June
• July – Friday 30 June
• August – Tuesday 1 August
• September – Friday 1 September
• October – Friday 29 September
• November – Wednesday 1 November
• December – Friday 1 December

The Trustee Board have made an announcement relating to the cessation of the regulatory action.

To read more please visit the member only news page: www.coatspensions.co.uk/member-news/