HMRC has admitted that it has made a number of mathematical errors in its official guidance on pension tax legislation, after Aries Pension & Insurance Systems pointed it out.
Unfortunately it cannot immediately correct the mistakes.
HMRC’s registered pension schemes manual, which was published in March, contains at least three errors in relation to how much someone can expect to take in tax-free benefits when they are invested in more than one scheme:
- The guidance gives an example of an investor who can claim £37,500 from one scheme and £60,500 from another, giving a total figure of £92,500 instead of the correct figure of £98,000.
- The second error made in the guidance says 25% of a pension pot of £120,000 would allow a pensioner to receive a maximum lump sum of £27,500, instead of the correct figure of £30,000.
- The guidance also suggests that adding together pre- and post-A-Day lump sums of £30,000 and £27,500 would give a saver a total of £60,500, rather than the correct figure of £57,500.
“It’s a bit of a shambles, isn’t it?An HMRC spokesman is quoted by MoneyMarketing:
This is the government department responsible for collecting the nation’s taxes, and it would seem it hasn’t yet got its GCSE in arithmetic.
It does rather dent my confidence in HMRC."
“We are sorry about this, the guidance will be updated as soon as possible.”HMRC would not confirm when the next review is due to take place.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Once upon a time in a land long ago, there was a thing called a Designer and/or a TYPOGRAPHER and a TYPESETTER and a PROOF READER who were all part of the process and NOTHING would get done unless you were a memebr of the NGA brotherhood; and everything would be read, checked, read checked, read and checked again to stop just these very mistakse from happening... now it is down to some numptie and a computer –
ReplyDelete'Typos' were the production team mistakes, 'Author's correction's' were the client's mistakes – in this instance clearly the author's (HMRC) mistakes however they wish to package it.
now off you go and switch your computer preferences from AMERICAN ENGLISH to INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH, not that you can spell anyway, let alone add up if you have come from the UK Education system in the last 30 years.
and before some HMRC idiot replies, the spelling mistakes were deliberate... how many can you spot?
ReplyDeletedoh
I wouldn't say deliberate but I bet a pacesetter practitioner would tell you it's correct - they get loads of practice fudging figures
ReplyDelete