April 5, the end of the financial year, is a day for financial deadlines and some of these relate to pension planning.
If you are aiming to top up your pension this financial year, to make full use of the annual allowance, now is the time to do it.
The annual allowance has been £40,000 since 2014, before which it was £50,000. You are allowed to carry forward contributions for three years, so this is the last year in which you can take advantage of this higher level of allowance. But you can carry forward contributions only once you have used up the current tax year allowance.
There are two other significant pension deadlines on April 5:
- If your pension benefits were worth over £1.25m in total on April 5, 2014, you have until April 5, 2017 to claim individual protection.
- If you reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, then April 5 is the deadline for making Class 3A voluntary contributions to top up your state pension.
More deadlines: savings
April 5 is the last day for topping up your ISA to the maximum, which this year is £15,240. From April 6, this limit rises to £20,000.
If you would like to chat through your pension planning options, or learn a bit more about savings and investments, please get in touch with the Hartsfield team.
