Personal Pension Plan Advice Kent Ashford Maidstone Canterbury

Advice on Personal pension plans 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 Pensions 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 50 (55 after April 2010). If you are under the age of 75 and a UK resident you should be eligible to contribute in to a pension.

Annual contributions to a personal pension are limited to 100% of gross UK earnings, subject to a maximum of £245,000 (2009/10 tax year). Contributions in excess of this limit can be made but will be taxed.
There is 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.
To prevent those earning over £150,000 per annum making large contributions to their pension before April 2011 to take advantage of this higher rate tax relief while it lasts, the government has imposed a restriction on individuals making larger contributions to their pension over and above their normal pattern of saving. Anyone that contributes more than £20,000 to their pension in a tax year will fall under these restrictions if this is not in keeping with their normal contribution history in previous tax years.
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.