Finance Act 2004

213 Surchargeable unauthorised employer payments

(1) This section identifies which unauthorised employer payments made by a registered pension scheme to or in respect of a sponsoring employer are surchargeable.

(2) If the surcharge threshold is reached before the end of the period of 12 months beginning with a reference date, each unauthorised employer payment made to or in respect of the employer in the surcharge period is surchargeable.

(3) The surcharge period is the period—

(a) beginning with the reference date, and

(b) ending with the day on which the surcharge threshold is reached.

(4) The first reference date is the date on which the pension scheme first makes an unauthorised employer payment to or in respect of the employer.

(5) Each subsequent reference date is the date, after the end of the previous reference period, on which the pension scheme next makes an unauthorised employer payment to or in respect of the employer.

(6) The previous reference period is the period of 12 months beginning with the previous reference date or, if the surcharge threshold is reached in that period, is the surcharge period ending with the date on which it was reached.

(7) The surcharge threshold is reached if the unauthorised payments percentage reaches 25%.

(8) The unauthorised payments percentage is the aggregate of the percentages of the pension fund used up by each unauthorised employer payment made by the pension scheme to or in respect of the employer on or after the reference date.

(9) The percentage of the pension fund used up on the occasion of an unauthorised employer payment is—

where—

• UEP is the amount of the unauthorised employer payment, and

• AA is an amount equal to the aggregate of the amount of the sums and the market value of the assets held for the purposes of the pension scheme at the time when the unauthorised employer payment is made.