Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 224

Payments to non-approved personal pension arrangements

Section 224 deals with the tax treatment of employer payments into personal pension arrangements that have not been approved by the Inland Revenue, treating such payments as taxable earnings of the employee.

• Employer payments into non-approved personal pension arrangements are treated as taxable earnings from the employment in the tax year they are made
• This contrasts with approved personal pension arrangements, where employer contributions are exempt from income tax as earnings
• The charge under this section only applies to the extent the payments are not already subject to income tax under another provision
• Where payments would otherwise be exempt from a benefits charge due to death or retirement benefit provisions, this section brings the exempt amount back into charge as earnings