HMRC extends Covid-19 easements to 30 June 2021

In its Pension schemes newsletter 128 published on 4 March 2021, HMRC announced that a number of easements introduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic would be extended to 30 June 2021.  These include HMRC cancelling penalties and interest where Accounting for Tax returns and tax charge payments are submitted late due to resources being affected by Covid-19.

Deadline for EFRBS to register with Trust Registration Service to be extended

In our September Update we reported that Employer-funded retirement benefit schemes (EFRBS), ie unregistered pension schemes, that had not previously been required to register with HMRC's Trust Registration Service (TRS) would be required to do so by 10 March 2022.  HMRC has since announced that the TRS is now not expected to be open for non-taxpaying trust registrations until Autumn 2021 rather than Spring 2021 as previously anticipated.  HMRC therefore plans to extend the registration deadline to provide trustees approximately 12 months in which to register from the date the service is available.  The announcement says that further updates and clarification on the final deadline will be confirmed in due course.