By Gary Crockford
Overall, there’s generally still a low level of understanding and appreciation of exactly how the complicated pension tax system works – particularly amongst the lower paid. While people may struggle to understand the tax system for pensions, that doesn’t mean the system is flawed, or that changing it on its own would improve understanding. It should be borne in mind that no tax system can ever be perfect, so it would be wrong to strive for unattainable perfection and to end up with an unduly burdensome regime, or one that favours defined benefit provision over defined contribution arrangements in the private sector.
As pensions experts, Buck Consultants at Xerox have responded to the government’s consultation.
On balance, we are in favour of maintaining the current system of tax relief. We continue to be supportive of the government’s efforts to create an environment where individuals are encouraged to take responsibility for their pension saving so that they are able to meet their aspirations in retirement. For that reason, we believe it is incumbent on the pensions industry as a whole to partner with the Government to better communicate the benefits of the system to those saving into pensions.
Read more about our thoughts on the government’s consultation, and how we reached that conclusion in our consultation response paper.
We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about your pension arrangements and how we can help. To find out more, please contact [email protected].