HM Revenue & Customs treat your pension as ‘earned income’ and Avon Pension Fund has to deduct Income Tax from any pension payments we make to you, as instructed by the Tax Office.
When you retire straight from work with an LGPS scheme employer (unless you’re taking Flexible Retirement,) your employer must issue a P45 Form for income tax purposes. They should give part 1A to you and send all other parts to the Avon Pension, who will then forward your P45 details to the Tax Office.
The Pensions Payroll Section will deduct Income Tax from your pension using the Tax Code on your P45 until we receive a new Tax Code from the Tax Office.
If you don’t retire straight from work with an LGPS scheme employer, or we don’t receive a P45 for you, then the Pensions Payroll Section must apply an Emergency Tax Code to your pension payments, until the Tax Office tell us the Tax Code to use.
When we receive a Tax Code we’ll refund any overpayment of tax or collect any arrears of tax due.
We will send you a P60 at the end of each tax year, usually in May. This will show the total pension we have paid you and the amount of tax (if any) we have deducted in that year. You must keep this P60 as it may be required for tax purposes.
The HM Revenue & Customs Tax Office determines your Tax Code, rather than the Avon Pension Fund. If you want to query the Tax Code that has been applied to your pension, please contact:
For PAYE queries
Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AS
United Kingdom
Telephone: 0300 200 3300
www.gov.uk/tax-codes
For Self-Assessment:
Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AS
United Kingdom
Telephone: 0300 200 3300
HM Revenue & Customs have Local Enquiry Offices which may also be able to help with your Tax Code enquiry.
Your local office will be in your telephone directory under HM Revenue & Customs.
You’ll need to tell them your:
- National Insurance number
- Pension payroll number
- The Avon Pension Fund reference, which is: 070 EXA 100P.