Grieving families face unexpected tax bills
Little-known rules regarding ‘death-in-service’ payouts from workplace pension schemes could see grieving families hit by shock five-figure tax bills. That’s according to Royal London which says millions of employees are at risk of exceeding the pension lifetime allowance because of their death-in-service benefits. As a result, it’s calling for a change in the rules. Many company pension schemes offer workers’ families a lump sum ‘death-in-service’ payment of up to four times the employee’s annual salary if they die while employed by the firm. But a little-known caveat of this payment is that it can count against the £1 million lifetime allowance limit for tax-relieved pension contributions. For example, say you
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