SSAS Pensions

[willendure]

I have been looking a bit into SSAS pensions and wondered if anyone on here has set one up and has any advice or pointers they would care to share?

My Ltd owns its own office building that I estimate to be worth around £120K. I would like to move the ownership of this inside a pension, and SSAS would let me do that. The reason to put it there are the tax benefits of doing so, but also it would no longer be owned by the Ltd directly and is therefore firewalled off it as a liability. For example, were I to try and raise venture capital and had to surrender equity to do so, the office would no longer be vulnerable to someone else ending up owning it. I am also looking at other commercial property as a way of creating an income stream for my pension, and it is not uncommon for buildings to have opted for VAT, and therefore I need a VAT registered entity to own them or buying them incurs VAT at 20% - Ouch!

SSAS would seem to provide a tax efficient way of draining capital out of the Ltd to where I need it. Also with the way contracting is going, the Ltd may ultimately need to be shut down and again this seems a tax efficient way of achieving that end. I really hope to keep the Ltd going for as long as I can, as I have always been an outside IR35 contractor, so this is not an immediate aim just a possibility I have to keep in mind. Switching from contracting into a product company is actually my desired outcome.

Anyway, any general thoughts or pointers appreciated.

[WTFH]

Is this "office building" on a piece of land that (according to the land registry) is owned by you as a private individual?

[willendure]

Is this "office building" on a piece of land that (according to the land registry) is owned by you as a private individual?

No, it is registered to the Ltd. It was purchased with a commercial mortgage. Entirely separate to my house, it is about 1/2 a mile away.

[Andy2022]

Long time since I had anything to do with SSAS pension schemes but (worked for a provider in a FT role many years ago so legislation may have changed)

You're going to need to find some specialist advice on this regarding setting up the scheme – who administers it, registering it with HMRC, whether you need a professional trustee etc.

If you're planning on transferring the premises into the scheme then you're going to need more that one years allowance to do that (assuming it's value is £120), if you don't have enough allowance (including carry back) then you're going to loan the pension scheme to buy the remainder of the building (

Property is going to need to be valued for both the sale and to establish the rent the pension scheme should charge for it, plus there's a bunch of sale / transfer legal costs AFAIK the sponsoring company can pay these for the pension scheme (can't remember about ongoing costs)

Lots to do but first thing to do is talk to a few professional advisors about it, perhaps your accountant might know some other companies who've done similar

An advantage of a SASS scheme is that other family members can join so it also becomes a way of transferring wealth across generations

Edit:…

Other thing you want to consider is what’s your end goal in all this as once funds are in the SASS pension then there's limited options for extracting them e.g. check what happens on death of a member etc.

[willendure]

Other thing you want to consider is what’s your end goal in all this as once funds are in the SASS pension then there's limited options for extracting them e.g. check what happens on death of a member etc.

Yeah - I am seeing that as a positive as its money that should be locked away and invested for when I am too old to be arsed with this game.

What happens on death and inheritance is supposedly a major advantage of SSAS, but I do not yet know the details.

I am investigating some of the more straightforward Providers as I want to pay for the minimum. It looks like help setting it up and some annual admin costs are about the minimum - although none of that is mandatory but seems like the advice and admin work will be worth it provided it does not cost too much. There does seem to be quite a wide range of fees for this.

[Andy2022]

One discussion worth having with providers is around Death in Service / Death After Retirement benefits

Not sure what the situation is now but when I was in the pension space, these benefits were often actually funded from the pension scheme

[willendure]

One discussion worth having with providers is around Death in Service / Death After Retirement benefits

Not sure what the situation is now but when I was in the pension space, these benefits were often actually funded from the pension scheme

Yeah - there are quite a lot of things to know about.

At the moment I am primarily interested in trying to find someone to help me set it up, and that will charge a reasonable rate for doing so. First quote I got was £5500, but I think that is taking the p*ss. I guess it depends on circumstances but a straightforward case should be around £1500? That is what I learned from Mark Stokes in an interview on youtube anyway. He has also written a book which I just bought today. Should answer a lot of questions and clear up the rules around death/inheritance:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As I say, interested to hear of any positive experiences with the various business and individuals offering to help set it up.

[willendure]

Another book here, maybe better than the other one I linked:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SSAS-Pensio...xt%2C68&sr=1-4

[ladymuck]

I haven't got a scooby (about this, or most things TBH). However, if you're looking for some IFA guidance then you could try contacting Ian Wilson at Forum Wealth. If it's not his thing then he should know someone.

[jatinder]

I looked into a SSAS pension earlier this year - to help with a commercial property purchase but eventually decided against it.

I have ~1m in the pension and was told it would cost ~20K to set the SSAS up!

I decided against it on the basis that it was too complicated, too restrictive and was subject to the whims of politicians should they change the rules.

--Jatinder