Automatic Pension Enrollment

[cojak]

Thinking about it. I already have a pension with Aviva that's crap and I've done nothing with it (I know I should have done, but I didn't).

Do I have to stop that one in order to go with NEST? (I couldn't see the answer on the website).

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Thinking about it. I already have a pension with Aviva that's crap and I've done nothing with it (I know I should have done, but I didn't).

Do I have to stop that one in order to go with NEST? (I couldn't see the answer on the website).

No, you don't

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

We now have something definitive from TPR on the multi director/no contract issue:

No staff to automatically enrol? | The Pensions Regulator | The Pensions Regulator

which is a sub page of

Your step-by-step guide to automatic enrolment | The Pensions Regulator

If you don’t have any staff other than directors, you may not have any automatic enrolment duties. You won’t have any duties if the only people working for you are:

you as the sole director, or
a number of directors, none of whom has an employment contract, or
a number of directors, only one of whom has an employment contract

Automatic enrolment will apply if more than one director has a contract of employment.

You can find more information about employment contracts on the employment status section of the GOV.UK website. You can find more information about your duties if you're a director in automatic enrolment enquiries.

What do you need to do?

If you receive a letter which includes your staging date and you believe that automatic enrolment duties don’t apply to you, please email [email protected] and complete the details in the pre-populated message that opens when you select our email address. You’ll need your letter code icon question mark, PAYE reference icon question mark and Companies House number icon question mark (if you have one) to hand.

I don't think there is a any practical difference between directors and secretaries in this instance, the key thing being they are office holders rather than staff.

So the multi opt out for officers (plural) w/o contracts seems confirmed.

[Lumiere]

If I say in that email to TPR that "The only people working for the company are directors and none of them has an employment contract. ", wouldn't it contradict with one of the conditions for paying childcare fees directly from the company account ? I think there was something about having a contract of employment ...

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Interesting question, and not one thats come up in practice.

Thinking it through, a salary sacrifice without a contract of employment would be a bit of a nonsense. But theres no need for a controlling officer to do a salary sacrifice - just make the payment for child care within the exempted limits. I'm not aware of anything saying you can only have the exemptions if there is a contract. In fact, away from salary sacrifice, I'm not aware of any difference in the Tax Legislation between people with and without a contract of employment.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[SteelyDan]

On this subject in general, I know individual circumstances will differ, but when I spoke to my a/cs, I was initially thinking of ways to avoid this.

But then I was asked by my a/cs to actually consider doing it as I could pay say 10% of wife's salary into it, as an employer contribution/month, and wife didn't need to make any contributions at all. So I could still pay her a salary, and put into this scheme for her which would build up over time. Couldn't see what the problem was with that at all as it seems tax efficient.

They did say however that the NEST scheme was cr*p but they did have an alternative suggestion.