Inland Revenue Savings, Pensions, Share Schemes (IR SPSS) today confirmed via Pensions Update No 145 that in future, guidance, Updates and forms will be published only on the website; paper delivery will cease from today.

The URL to monitor, ie the home page within the Inland Revenue site on which all pensions announcements (including new Updates) will feature, is www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pensionschemes.

Aries will continue to monitor this site on a daily basis and to report any announcements of a pensions technical nature.

New and recent Pensions Updates can be found at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pensionschemes/updates.htm.

Pensions guidance (including the Practice Notes IR 12) is linked from www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pensionschemes/guidance.htm.

Discontinuance of paper publication was originally announced on 7 February 2003 via Pensions Update No 136.

Aries comment
Today's announcement does not explain whether IR 12 and IR 76 will be updated simultaneously with any Pensions Updates which affect the guidance, or only twice a year as Update No 136 stated. Should IR SPSS stick to its original plan, but make changes to IR 12, IR 76, etc more frequently than twice-yearly, practitioners might have some difficulty ensuring their own copy or reading of the guidance is up to date. Aries is dedicated to this task.