HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will minimise the amount of reporting it does on pension statistics, with some communications being discontinued altogether.
Following a consultation on the consolidation of HMRC statistics publications, carried out earlier this year, the tax authority has confirmed that some pension tax statistics will now be issued fewer times throughout the year, while some have been removed altogether.
According to HMRC, there was support to consolidate its pension publications, including flexible payments, annual contributions and personal pensions data, into one annual release.
Previously, reporting of flexible payments from pensions, which details how much has been withdrawn from pensions and by how many savers, was issued quarterly.
Meanwhile, separate data on qualifying registered overseas pension schemes (Qrops) will be discontinued, with annual reporting appearing instead in HMRC’s pension schemes newsletters.
This is despite one respondent saying that information on the annual number and corresponding value of transfers would be harder to access within this newsletter.
The latest flexible payments data, published by HMRC last month (April 30), showed £2.6bn was withdrawn from pensions flexibly in the first quarter of 2021, up from £2.5bn in the same period last year.
The total value of flexible withdrawals from pensions since pension freedoms were introduced in 2015 has now exceeded £45bn.
amy.austin@ft.com
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