The Pension Schemes (Transfers, Reorganisations and Winding Up) (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Order 2010 (SI 2010/529) has been laid this week, extending protection of pre-A Day lump sum rights and early pension ages to certain circumstances in which a transfer is deemed to result from a pension scheme being reorganised or wound up. These amendments are to come into force on 24 March 2010 , although backdated to A-Day; ending a long saga which began in September 2007. We have reported previously on this, most recently last month, when HMRC put out a new draft for comment by interested parties. No changes have been made as a result of comments from any of the four respondents (who included Aries). An accompanying Explanatory Memorandum briefly acknowledges one point we made; others - in particular, that policy assignment on leaving a one-man scheme should be explicitly covered by the amendments- are not.

Related to this Order, The Registered Pension Schemes (Provision of Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/581) were also laid this week and come into force on 6 April 2010. Normally when a registered pension scheme winds up the scheme administrator is required to notify HMRC via an event report. Some types of scheme (eg deferred annuity contracts) are exempt, though, as HMRC has no separate record of the scheme and so doesn't need to be told when it winds up. The Order turns assigned annuity contracts into registered pension schemes at the point the policy is assigned to the member, subject to certain conditions. These Regs add such schemes to the list which are exempt from the information regs. They also introduce a requirement for the scheme administrators to make a report to HMRC where a registered pension scheme has borrowed a sum in excess of the limits set out in the pensions tax legislation. They also specify what information must provided to HMRC and when. The information is needed by HMRC in order to assess a tax charge on the excess borrowing.

The Special Annual Allowance Charge (Variation of Rate) Order 2010 (SI 2010/572) amends para 1(8) of Sch 35 FA 2009, which sets the rate of the special annual allowance charge, to reflect the introduction of the 50% additional tax rate from 6 April 2010. The rate of the special annual allowance charge is amended for the tax year 2010/11 and subsequent tax years. This Order does not differ from the draft laid before Parliament on which we reported last month.

A previous article reported on important concessions which extend the circumstances in which an individual may be entitled to a protected pension input amount (PPIA), under the anti-forestalling legislation. These are set out in The Special Annual Allowance Charge (Protected Pension Input Amounts) Order 2010 (SI 2010/429)). HMRC has since published an overview note providing further information about this Order.

This describes an apparent distinction in treatment between personal pension holders and others. A contributions history under an occupational pension scheme or a GPP* can only be protected where the change of provider arose from either a reorganisation of the employer's pension arrangements or a "relevant business transfer" (as defined in para 17(7) Sch 20 FA2007. Where an individual ceases to make protected contributions into a PP which is not part of a GPP - including a SIPP - and within 3 months commences to make regular contributions to another PP (which like the original scheme, is not part of a GPP), those contributions will be protected under the new arrangement to the extent that they are paid at the same rate as agreed under the old arrangement.

* defined at para 23 Sch 35 FA 2009 as "arrangements administered on a group basis under a personal pension scheme which are available to employees of the same employer or of employers which are members of the same group of companies"