A pension remains one of the most tax-efficient ways of saving for your retirement. The government views retirement savings as being so important that it offers generous tax benefits to encourage us to make our own pension provision. However, the tax benefits will depend on your circumstances and tax rules are subject to change by the government.<\/p>\n
One solution you may wish to consider if appropriate to your particular situation is a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). Like all pensions, a SIPP offers up to 50 per cent tax relief on contributions and there is no capital gains tax or further income tax to pay. However, unlike dividend payments received outside a SIPP, there is no 10 per cent tax credit applied to dividend payments within a SIPP.<\/p>\n
Pension wrapper<\/strong> You can generally choose from a number of different investments, unlike some other traditional pension schemes that can be more restrictive, and this can give you greater choice over where your money is invested. Whereas traditional pensions typically limit investment choice to a shorter list of funds, normally run by the pension company\u2019s own fund managers, a SIPP lets you invest almost anywhere you like.<\/p>\n It may also be possible to transfer-in other pensions into your SIPP, which could allow you to consolidate and bring together your retirement savings. This may make it simpler for you to manage your investment portfolio and perhaps make regular investment reviews easier.<\/p>\n Tax relief<\/strong> Tax advantages<\/strong> Compound growth<\/strong> Where tax has been deducted at source on income within a pension fund \u2013 such as rents, coupons and interest \u2013 this is reclaimed by the pension provider and the tax credited back into the pension fund.<\/p>\n Not subject to tax declaration<\/strong> Managing your investments<\/strong> A pension remains one of the most tax-efficient ways of saving for your retirement. The government views retirement savings as being so important that it offers generous tax benefits to encourage us to make our own pension provision. However, the tax benefits will depend on your circumstances and tax rules are subject to change by… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA SIPP is essentially a pension wrapper, capable of holding investments and providing the same tax advantages as other personal pension plans, that allows you to take a more active involvement in your retirement planning. SIPPs are not appropriate for small investment sums.<\/p>\n
\nSIPP investors also receive tax relief on their contributions. So you could potentially benefit from between 20 per cent to 50 per cent tax relief depending upon your own circumstances.\u00a0You must pay sufficient tax at the higher\/additional rate to claim the full tax relief via your tax return.<\/p>\n
\nThis is a long-term savings vehicle with certain tax advantages, but you should be prepared to commit to having your money tied up until at least age 55. There are various options for taking benefits from your SIPP that you should be aware of. You can receive up to 25 per cent of the pension fund value as a tax-free lump sum (subject to certain limits); the remaining benefits can be taken gradually as an income or as additional lump sums, both of which are subject to your tax rate at that time, although this is potentially a lower tax rate than the one that you currently pay, depending on your circumstances at the time.<\/p>\n
\nUK pension fund investments grow free of income tax and capital gains tax, which allows funds to accumulate faster than taxed alternatives, and benefit considerably over the longer term due to the effects of compounding of growth.<\/p>\n
\nAssets held within the pension fund that carry no tax at source, such as offshore investments and government gilts, are not subject to tax declaration or payments. If you are an experienced investor, then managing your own pension investments may be for you. However, you need to be comfortable that you have the skill and experience to make your own investment decisions and have sufficient time to monitor investment performance. So you can either take control of your investments or pay someone to do it for you. If you pay, your costs will increase for this facility.<\/p>\n
\nThere are a number of considerations you need to be aware of, for example, you cannot draw on a SIPP pension before age 55 and there are usually additional costs involved when investing. You\u2019ll also need to be mindful of the fact that you may need to spend time managing your investments. Where an investment is made in commercial property, there could be periods without any rental income and in some cases the pension fund may need to sell on the property when the market is not at its strongest. SIPPs also charge higher costs than a stakeholder and you may pay two sets of management fees for the wrapper and the underlying investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"