Pension Plan Advice Kent Ashford Maidstone Canterbury

Advice on Personal pensions is essential.

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Personal Pension Plans are personal to the individual member who controls how much is contributed, where monies are invested and when & how benefits are taken.

The tax advantages of pensions are described in our Pension Advice page. However these are so generous that the government imposes strict limits on contribution levels.

Once a contribution to a pension has been made the money cannot be accessed until you are aged 55. If you are under the age of 75 and a UK resident you should be eligible to contribute in to a pension.

You are able to invest all of your earnings, up to a maximum of £50,000 into a personal pension.
Since 2006 there has been no limit to the number of pension plans you can contribute to so long as the overall maximum amounts are kept to.
To credit your pension with a gross contribution of £1,000 you only need to pay in £800 as the HM Revenue & Customs will provide an income tax rebate of £200 and pay this directly in to your pension to make it up to £1,000.
Higher rate taxpayers can claim a further 20% rebate via their tax return, so investing £1,000 in your pension fund will only cost you £600 of your own money. However this higher rate relief will be tapered down to basic rate relief for those earning over £150,000 per annum from April 2011.
Those that have no income can still contribute a maximum of £3,600 gross per annum. That is you put in £2,880 and the Revenue will put in £720.
There is a limit to the overall size of your pension assets that is allowed -the lifetime allowance. This is £1.75 million in the 2009/10 tax year. If your total pension assets are close to or already exceed this limit, or may do once a contribution has been made then it is important that you seek expert independent advice on this matter before taking any action.