Thursday 28 July 2016
As part of the Citizens Advice Exeter and The Express and Echo weekly advice column we focus on planning for retirement.
I’m 55 and looking into my plans for retirement. I want to cash-in part of my defined contribution pension pot worth £60,000 but I’m confused about tax. How much can I take out of my pension pot tax-free and how much tax will I pay on the rest?
Pensions are taxable income. However special rules mean you can usually take up to 25% of your pension pot tax-free.
You can take your 25% tax-free lump sum out of your pension in one go. For your pension pot of £60,000, if you take a 25% tax-free lump sum you’ll get £15,000 tax-free. For the other £45,000, you’ll need to buy an annuity or drawdown product, which is subject to tax.
If you don’t want to take your 25% tax-free lump sum in one go, another option is to take multiple cash lump sums, rather than buying an annuity or a drawdown product. If you do this, you will get 25% tax-free of each lump sum. For example, if you were to take £1,000 per month out of your pension, £250 would be tax-free. The remaining £750 is taxable.
How much tax you pay on the rest of your pension will depend on how much you “earn” in any one tax year. This includes your state pension and some earnings from investments, such as property or savings. If your total income is less than your personal allowance of £11,000, you won’t pay any tax. If it is above £11,000 you’ll be taxed at 20, 40 or 45% as usual.
Don’t rush into any decisions. For more information and advice go to www.pensionwise.gov.uk or telephone 0300 330 1001.
Look out for our column next week when we focus on appealing an Employment and Support Allowance decision.
The information contained in these articles does not constitute advice. Citizens Advice Exeter and The Express and Echo accept no liability for the information published. Citizens Advice Exeter is unable to respond to individual requests for advice through these columns. Copyright Citizens Advice. For the most up-to-date version, please visit the Adviceguide website at www.adviceguide.org.uk