Following feedback from employer groups on the difficulties in providing service and salary details for 1 April – 5 April 2016 in this year’s Annual Return – to comply with the requirement of HM Revenue & Customs to align scheme pension input periods for Pension Saving Statements with the tax year – we thought it would be helpful to clarify what we’re asking for:

• Employers provide accurate data for the extra five days to 5 April where this is possible; or
• If it’s not possible, for example due to insufficient time to make changes to payroll systems, provide estimated data for the five days (particularly for those high earners who are more likely to be affected by the Annual Allowance).

If, however, providing either accurate or estimated data simply isn’t possible, we’ll calculate and issue the Pension Saving Statements based on the usual Annual Return data to 31 March and make this clear in any Pension Saving Statements issued to members.

For 2016 – 2017 service returns will need to split April into two separate lines of service: 1 April – 5 April; and 6 April – 30 April.　 Further details will be provided in due course.