Treasury

The Treasury says people exceeding the annual allowance on pension savings must meet their tax charges as soon as they arise.

IMA chief executive Richard Saunders

Lord Hutton's recommendations for increasing employee contributions to help fund public sector pension schemes have been shelved from this year's Budget, the Treasury confirms.

Pension reformer Lord Hutton has hosted a series of 13 private forums with industry chiefs to hear first-hand concerns and ideas for his reforms, the Treasury confirms.

Employers are being warned there are only 90 days left before changes to pensions taxation are implemented on 6 April.

In the second part of our run-down of the top 20 most read Professional Pensions Online news articles in 2010, we look at the 10 most popular stories of the year.

Access to new flexible drawdown pensions will be restricted to people with a lifetime pension income of a minimum of £20,000 a year, the Treasury says.

The government has announced it will introduce legislation in the Finance Bill 2011 to reduce the annual allowance from £255,000 to £50,000 and the lifetime allowance from £1.8m to £1.5m.

Individuals who exceed the annual allowance may be allowed to meet the tax charges from their pension benefits, a Treasury consultation paper says.

The government would be "ill advised" to alter the discount rate to calculate the amount public sector employees pay into unfunded pension schemes, the Trades Union Congress says.