This is HMRC's primary forum for broad-ranging discussion of the services PSS provides and the impact of pensions tax legislation and processes on the industry. Meetings are held twice a year; the most recent being on 2 October 2007. Official minutes may appear on the PSS website in due course. Meanwhile, here are our notes of the meeting (Aries has participated in the Forum since it started in 1999).

At the last meeting (see Aries report) HMRC had proposed to vary the invitation list for future meetings, in order to secure views from a broader base. Whilst it was a good idea in principle, the meeting felt there were also benefits to be gained from having some standing members, including Aries, to ensure continuity.

Downtime

Complaints about insufficient notice of planned outages of the on-line system had been addressed by changes to the website so that Service Availability and Service Issues can be more easily accessed.

Reporting of Wind-ups

This issue was discussed at length as it was a serious problem for many of the attendees. Most problematic were the tens of thousands of schemes that were in existence, but not active, at A-Day and where there was no obvious point of contact (i.e. no scheme administrator and no trustee and, probably, an insolvent employer). There was a general complaint that, on this subject in particular, there was a dire need for fresh guidance as that which had been given in the past was inconsistent and subject to change. Responsibility for reporting wind-up was subsequently addressed to some extent in Newsletter 30.

Online Helpdesk

HMRC admitted that one of the fundamental problems it faced was that the helpdesk staff were trained to cover all the Online services available and were not experts in the Pensions Online system. Despite this, a few of the providers present thought that the helpdesk service had improved over the last 6 months, especially where a particular individual at HMRC had been appointed to act in effect as their 'account manager' (shades of 'the good old days' of Examiners, pre-A Day?!).

RPSM Updating

Aries had previously noted the serious problem HMRC had with the lead time for posting material on their website. HMRC reported a slight improvement (2 working days), but for most updates the minimum lead-in time was still 23 working days (longer if the technical team needed more than 5 days to produce an approved draft).

On 15 October a set of changes on E-mandation appeared, as HMRC announced to the meeting These mostly affect Chapter 2.

The FA2007 changes will be published here when available. As HMRC spent September consulting the industry (via the Joint Working Group) on a draft, we do not anticipate publication before the second half of November at the earliest.

Unauthorised Payments and Scheme Sanction Charges

This was a matter arising from the minutes of the previous meeting. A number of providers were very concerned about large numbers of small payments and the administrative processes involved. HMRC said that options were still being considered. Aries asked if there was a timescale for this consideration but was told that there wasn’t.

E-mandation

HMRC was aware that a lot of novice Scheme Administrators (SAs) would be using the Online service for the first time after the introduction of E-mandation on 16 October, many of whom were not currently registered for Online servicing. Particular efforts had been made to raise awareness via HMRC's Employers' Bulletin and industry groups, and a user guide had been published, on which feedback was requested.

Providers present felt there were thousands of SAs that would need to register over the next few months, creating doubts that the system would be robust enough to deal with the increased usage (especially in January 2008, because of the extra demands placed on it by those using Self Assessment Online).

There were also many schemes where nobody knew who the SA was (a discussion ensued on how providers and HMRC could liaise to determine which schemes fell in to this category). The fear was expressed that in many cases HMRC believes the provider is the SA, contrary to the provider’s own belief.

HMRC confirmed that any paper submissions received after 16 October 2007 would be returned.

2,000 Pension Scheme Returns and 1,000 Event Reports had been received online and HMRC had only had about a dozen queries raised with the help desk. Although HMRC felt this indicated there were no major problems with those two forms, one oddity reported at the meeting was that, if you entered the Pension Scheme Tax Reference in lower case rather than upper case, an error message was returned that said "Tax Year Invalid". This is being fixed (see Service issues).

Untraceables at age 75

Two questions on how the FA 2007 changes should be interpreted were raised. First, when it came to trying to trace someone, what did "taking reasonable steps" mean? Second, the words "remain in suspense" meant different things to different providers. More guidance on both issues was requested. (These points are also made in our report on this week's Pensions Tax Simplification Newsletter 31, which addresses an error in Newsletter 29 which was raised in the meeting.)

Draft amendments to the Provision of Information Regulations

There were a lot of objections to the proposed changes and the matter is being reconsidered by HMRC.

Trustees’ Bank Account

One provider was concerned that many trustees still do not have bank accounts and, therefore, cannot receive payments. This could give rise to unauthorised employer payments (because the money cannot go to the trustee).

Aries comment: we are not sure HMRC will be able to help much on this as PA 1995 s49(1), as amended by SI 2000/349 Art 143(5), requires any trustee who receives money to keep it in a separate account with a "deposit taker", so at the point where they are due to receive money, we think they are obliged to open an account (and could be reported to TPR if they do not).

Written enquiries