HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) annual allowance calculator is back online, after it was taken down in April following complaints from Royal London it was giving savers wrong information.
The taxman announced last week that it has been working to update the calculator and it was aiming for this to be available to use from today (6 July).
FTAdviser can confirm the tool is ready to be used since last night.
According to Royal London the HMRC website was getting the annual allowance calculation wrong, in some cases for both 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019.
This could lead to individuals wrongly believing they should stop saving into a pension because they have exceeded their annual limit.
Under current annual allowance rules most taxpayers' pension contributions of up to £40,000 a year qualify for tax relief.
But since 2016 to 2017, top earners have faced a reduced allowance which can fall to as little as £10,000 a year for those on the highest incomes.
The impact of this change is reduced by the ability of taxpayers to 'carry forward' unused annual allowances from up to three years earlier, Royal London said.
One Royal London customer who used the site was told that he was limited to £10,000 in pension contributions for 2018 to 2019 when the correct figure was around £35,000.
FTAdviser reported in May that financial advisers who have been using the calculator since at least September should recheck the figures.
According to an email seen by FTAdviser at the time, the taxman admitted issues with this calculator in September 2017 and more recently in March, with several financial advisers contacting HMRC about misleading figures.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
