Easiest company pension scheme

[nozmeister]

Try fidelity as its all done online

[SueEllen]

It may seem obvious, but I was a bit confused thinking I needed to have a company pension scheme to make employer contributions.

Signed up for an HL SIPP as suggested. I can't believe that to make an initial company contribution I needed to PRINT a FORM, fill it out, WRITE a CHEQUE, and POST it!!!! Do I really want to trust my money with somebody that hasn't noticed it's the 21st century? What do 20-somethings do? Do they even know what cheques are?

I eventually found my company cheque book. Last entry was 2011.

It's amusing as all my company cheques are to HL

[matzie]

It may seem obvious, but I was a bit confused thinking I needed to have a company pension scheme to make employer contributions..

Is that not the case? If I set up a SIPP with HL can MyCo pay into it and deduct those payments from CT?

[SueEllen]

Is that not the case? If I set up a SIPP with HL can MyCo pay into it and deduct those payments from CT?

Yep.

You need to tell HL that it's an employer payment on company headed paper with your cheque.

[syrio]

HL aren't a good choice if you have a large pension invested in funds as they charge a % of funds. You would be better off with a fixed fee broker such as Alliance Trust, Interactive Investor or Selftrade. Look on the Monevator low cost brokers article to see a comparison of charges.

HL are reputedly very good on customer service, though. No doubt because they can afford it with their charges.

[VectraMan]

You need to tell HL that it's an employer payment on company headed paper with your cheque.

I just filled out the stupid form, which asks company number etc. I guess I'll be doing that every month. I don't want Direct Debit as the date and amount I'm paid varies so I don't want money going out out of my control, and it means I'd have to cancel it if my income falls to zero.

Inside IR35 and/or with an umbrella and it's outside employer's NI too. 48% tax relief.

[SueEllen]

I just filled out the stupid form, which asks company number etc. I guess I'll be doing that every month. I don't want Direct Debit as the date and amount I'm paid varies so I don't want money going out out of my control, and it means I'd have to cancel it if my income falls to zero.

Inside IR35 and/or with an umbrella and it's outside employer's NI too. 48% tax relief.

There is an advantage to this as you can choose which funds to allocate funds to and change the percentages with every payment.

[mudskipper]

There is an advantage to this as you can choose which funds to allocate funds to and change the percentages with every payment.

And you don't need to fill the form every time, just a letter on headed paper from yourCo with the cheque.

[IR35 Avoider]

For my Youinvest SIPP contributions, I just fill in the amount and company name online (and choose the company address from a drop-down) then it generates a pdf which I print, sign and send with a cheque.

[IR35 Avoider]

There is another reason to avoid regular monthly direct debit. It's designed for companies that are making regular payments on behalf of employees, so your pension provider may feel they have to report you to HMRC whenever an expected payment doesn't arrive, as you might be be trying to cheat your employee out of the pension contribution they are contractually entitled to.

At least this was the case some years ago, it's possible things have changed.

Regular contributions by direct debit sometimes used to have higher fees than ad hoc single contributions, if your pension was with an insurance company.