This is an issue well-known to many of our clients. If you do want or have to dip into your pension pot and you’ve used up all of your tax-free allowance, the pension company will usually take tax based on an ‘emergency’ tax code. This assumes that if, say, you need £5,000 as a one-off amount to help the cause in some way, you’ll be taking the same amount each month and should be taxed accordingly. You then need to fill in an HMRC form, or wait until you submit a tax return to get it back. Not just annoying and frustrating for you, our client, and us, if you think it’s our fault, but surely huge amounts of extra work for the taxmen and another reason they can’t answer the ‘phones within the hour. There has to be a better way; but we’ve been saying that for nearly ten years, and apparently there isn’t.
“Cash ISA allowance could be cut this month”
Our mantra has long been ’straightforward advice that you can understand’. That can mean trying to simplify the many complex products and options with which the world of finance tries to befuddle its target audience.
