PTM056420 - Annual allowance: tax charge: scheme pays: member notice requirements
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-12)


Glossary PTM000001 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm000001)

The information required on the notice (#IDAEHILD)Further information needed for the notice if it is given in the year that all benefits are taken (#IDAU2HLD)

The Registered Pension Schemes (Notice of Joint Liability for the Annual Allowance Charge) Regulations 2011 - SI 2011/1793

Where a member requires a pension scheme to pay an amount of their annual allowance charge liability in return for an appropriate reduction in their pension savings or accrued benefits, the member must give a notice to the scheme administrator of that pension scheme .

This notice must be in writing and must be signed and dated. If the notice is submitted electronically then the member must confirm that they have personally submitted the notice.

Once a member has given their scheme administrator a notice and it has been received by the scheme, the notice cannot be revoked or withdrawn but it can be amended at a later date if the amount of the member’s annual allowance charge changes (see PTM056440 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm056440)).

PTM056430 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm056430) has details about the deadlines for giving a notice.

The information required on the notice

The notice given by the member must contain the following information:

the member’s:
- title
- full name
- address (including postcode, if applicable)
- National Insurance number (or, if they do not have one, the reasons why they do not qualify for a National Insurance number).
Also, the member must give the following information:
- the tax year to which the annual allowance charge liability relates
- the amount of their annual allowance charge liability that the member wants the scheme to pay on their behalf for that year
- confirmation that the amount of the liability they want the scheme to pay has been calculated at the proper rate.
They must also confirm in the notice that they understand that:
- they cannot withdraw the notice, and
- their benefit rights in the pension scheme will have to be adjusted to take account of the tax that will be paid on their behalf by the scheme.
As well as the information listed above, the member’s notice might need to include confirmation that their total annual allowance charge liability for the tax year exceeds £2,000. This information is necessary only when the member requires their scheme to pay an amount of £2,000 or less.

The member must give this information as one of the conditions for allowing them to require their scheme to pay an amount of their annual allowance charge liability for a tax year, is that their total liability for the year exceeds £2,000.

If their total liability is less than £2,000, they cannot require the scheme to pay although the scheme may do so on a voluntary basis.

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Further information needed for the notice if it is given in the year that all benefits are taken

Where, in a tax year, a member will be taking all their benefits from a scheme and they want the scheme to pay their annual allowance charge for that same tax year, the member will need to give some additional information.

This will be needed only if they give their notification in the same tax year to which their annual allowance charge liability relates. For example, the member gives their notice in the tax year 2022 to 2023 in respect of a liability for that same tax year.

The additional information is that:
- before the end of the tax year, the member intends to take all of their benefits from the pension scheme that they have given the notice to (for example they are approaching their pension scheme retirement age but they have not yet told the scheme that they intend to retire at that time)
The reason for giving this information is to forewarn the scheme administrator that the member may, for example, take their benefits from the scheme before the scheme may have paid the tax that they have required it to pay. A pension scheme might decide that, in order to reduce the member’s benefits to take account of the tax that has been paid on their behalf before their benefits are paid, it will not allow the member to take their benefits until the tax liability has been settled. This would mean that no reduction would need to be made once the member’s benefits have come into payment.

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