Administrators must use own 'judgment' on tax

John Lawson, head of pensions policy at Standard Life , suggests in the life insurer's latest pension simplification newsletter, HMRC seems to have reintroduced an element of discretion into a regime which is meant to be prescriptive to avoid any doubt on how the rules work. The issue in question is whether scheme administrators apply a lifetime allowance (LTA) charge to members who reach the age of 75 without any of their benefits being taken, or ‘crystallised’. The problem is if the pension member refuses, for whatever reason, to respond to the administrator’s requests for information...