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I'm not arguing about that (well I could because it should be possible to tax ANNUAL payments on a month 12 basis, HMRC have certainly allowed that in the past).  However in your link, the last condition applies. 

“

Can overpaid tax be reclaimed? 

If a one-off payment has been made in the tax year, it is likely that tax will have been overpaid.  When this is the case the additional tax paid can be reclaimed ......

An in-year claim can be made as follows ....., if the pension has not been emptied and no further withdrawals are to be made within the tax year, by completing form P55. 

”

I've completed my P55 three months ago, but not received my refund yet. 

Its worrying since I plan to buy a house next spring and will want to take a further £45k payment in the new tax year in April.  It appears that I'll be taxed as if I have any income of £540,000 a year (more than the balance of my SIPP), and have £19,000 tax deducted rather than £6,600.  And I could end up twiddling my thumbs waiting for a £12.5k tax refund.  This is what appears to have happened to goRt with his single flexi-drawdown payment (and in his case iii of course). 

I'm not arguing about that (well I could because it should be possible to tax ANNUAL payments on a month 12 basis, HMRC have certainly allowed that in the past).  However in your link, the last condition applies. 

I've completed my P55 three months ago, but not received my refund yet. 

Its worrying since I plan to buy a house next spring and will want to take a further £45k payment in the new tax year in April.  It appears that I'll be taxed as if I have any income of £540,000 a year (more than the balance of my SIPP), and have £19,000 tax deducted rather than £6,600.  And I could end up twiddling my thumbs waiting for a £12.5k tax refund.  This is what appears to have happened to goRt with his single flexi-drawdown payment (and in his case iii of course). 

Everything you say is correct. 
If you follow iii's logic (that I may take another payment within the tax year) then there is never a usecase where p55 applies! 
iii's payment request paperwork links to HMRC website you quoted. 

Even if iii is correct and I subsequently decided to take another payment then the tax should be withheld from that! 

iii continues (after Saturday's post) to insist it is correct without actually producing evidence to support its position (it also asked for a copy of HMRC's letter which it's had since August when stating it would sort out HMRC's error - it has done nothing on that!). 

i haven't been interacting with iii much lately, but the impression from friends seems to be that things are no better nowadays: with taking on more customers they are just as stretched as they were before

If I have that correct then only a small amount more and hopefully a decent service. 

Given that II now say that no further UFPLS drawdawn requests can be started until after the 11th December but that a transfer to an alternative scheme will not incur any transfer-out charge, I may take the opportunity and jump ship. 

Is anybody else like minded? 

Of course the actual charging will depend on individual circumstances but as I only hold IT's it looks quite attractive to me at present. 

All of the providers I have considered work out in about the £200 - £350 range and to be honest I can live with anything in this sort of area. 

I have been with II for many years and although they are by no means the most efficient organisation I have always accepted that their offering is cheap and therefore acceptable. 

Using them simply as a platform to hold my SIPP and ISA investments has been ok. 

Three years ago I started to draw a pension and since that time their shortcommings (or at least the shortcommings of their partner Hartley SAS or 'Lifetime SIPP' as they brand it) have really shown. 

Lost paperwork, late payments, constant blaming between II and Hartley have made life very difficult.  I am not sure whether the move that they are making from Hartley to Barnett Waddingham will sort this but in the meantime all UFPLS payments have been suspended pending the transfer. 

This really should have been handled more professionally and smoothly.  There must be others with pensions in payment who are thinking the same thing. 

i've pondered the new iii pricing structure, and their service levels do seem to continue to struggle, but on the basis of 'the devil you know' and that they are still a 'value' provider, i have registered for the new platform and plan at this stage to continue with them. 

other than the fact that they don't seem to accept that customers don't always have a landline number, which i'd have thought is fairly common nowadays, the re-registration and setting up a new DD went smoothly. 

.... just that in updating customer information, i removed the landline number, as it no longer exists.  that apparently prevented the details being accepted, as the form was incomplete.  so i left the old number in, alongside the correct mobile, and it was accepted. 

i'm not sure whether it would have accepted a mobile as a landline, or not.  but regardless, in this day & age lots of people do not have a landline.  i've asked customers for a landline number who have not even known what it means

anyway, the new iii.co.uk is up and running.  it seems quite good. 

my holdings look a bit different in that US companies are showing purchase pricing in dollars now, when it was converting into sterling before.  it all seems correct

Just received a 'secure message' relating to the SIPP provider transfer iii chose to undertake. 
The same pitiful admin persists:
I'm in FP14, the letter states I'm not
My retirement date is 15 years out (I retired at 50, not retiring at 65, if it's state pension age then that would be 67 for me)

Since the migration to the new platform on the 11th December III seem to be in meltdown.  I looked at trustpilot and other than a couple of spam like glowing reviews they have clocked up around 100 1 star reviews in the last month and the trustpilot click link on their home page has disspeared as they go from green to amber star rating. 
The new website has lost a lot of functionality.  Even basic things like daily fund movements have disappeared.  If your are a migrated user all your old secure messages have disappeared - even those you have not read. 
I have been with them for several years and suffered several cockups during that time but stayed with them hoping things would improve but they are going down not up. 
There was one trustpilot reviewer who said he had been offered a free transfer away if he was unhappy with the migration.  I asked this question of III by secure message if I could enjoy a free escape but was ignored. 

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