I know, I need a financial advisor but I cannot get to see one as quick as I would like so thought I should ask here (as invariably the advice here is awesome anyhow!). The financial year is almost up and my accountant (I’m a director of my own limited company and nobody else works in the company) has suggested paying money into a pension pot. I would obviously like to do this before 6th April however.

I do have a pension from a previous job with very little in it – it’s a NEST pension and I can put money in there from my limited company apparently. I have heard that they aren’t the best pensions and others may be better.

Can I open any old pension plan even though the money is coming directly from the company rather than from me?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the painful question. I’ll go back to ordering a Fox Transfer dropper post in the meantime!!

Your accountant should be in a position to at least advise on this.
As you are paying them and time is limited I’d be tempted to make it their problem even if you have to pay them a bit more?

https://www.pensionbee.com/pensions-explained/pension-contributions/contributing-to-your-pension-from-your-limited-company

If you are under 40 then a Lifetime ISA? No idea whether or not you can pay into that before tax from a company though (but if you can, the benefit is really pretty good).

I am a director of a limited company and earlier in the year opened a SIPP pension. I make company contributions into this SIPP and then decide what funds/shares/whatever I invest the £££ in once it’s in the SIPP.

Don’t know about NEST but you might be pushing things now to open up a SIPP and make company contributions before the end of the tax year.

I used iWeb as the SIPP provider.

When is your company end of year date ? You might have lots of time as even if you don’t invest any £££ into the pension in this tax year you can use “unused” allowance from the last three tax years. The current limit is £40k/year, if you don’t use any of that this tax year then you can sill access it in the next tax year. So you could put in £80K in the next tax year and if you do this before the end of your company year end then you’ll still save the corp. tax.

Check the options with your accountant before making a rash decision.

You should be able to open a SIPP within a week, and deposit some loot. There’s no need to decide what investments to buy yet, and I believe, but please check, you can top up this year’s allowance in the future should you find something down the back of the sofa.
I use AJ Bell Youinvest.
I haven’t a clue about pensions other than SIPPs.

Just open a SIPP and put as much money in as you can. They will claim back 20% on your behalf and you then clain any extra tax relief back via self assessment and then put that in next year’s SIPP.

Just open a SIPP and put as much money in as you can. They will claim back 20% on your behalf and you then clain any extra tax relief back via self assessment and then put that in next year’s SIPP.

Not if it’s paid gross by the chap’s company they wont.

Otherwise, when I ran my own Ltd I opened a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown. It was pretty straight forward. They have been fine, not sure if they are the cheapest provider though.

Handy link: http://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp/how-much-can-i-invest/employer-contributions

allthepies – thanks for that, it is an interesting thought – so do you rate iWeb?

Yeah, cheap, does what it say on the tin.

Good provider comparison table:
http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Lots of people go to HL as they provide a good service. However! They are a %age charger and so with large pension pots then they become expensive. Factor that in when making a decision. iWeb are flat fee.

iWeb are good. They charge £25 to open an ISA and trading account and then nothing except £5 dealing charges. That is less than half of HL’s, and most other’s charges I’m not sure what they charge for a SIPP.
They have improved their website though it’s still not as good as HL’s, but do have all the dealing toys, stop loss, etc…
They are part of Halifax, so what could possibly go wrong..?

I might have read wrong but dont they charge a quarterly fee too?

might have read wrong but dont they charge a quarterly fee too?

T

For a SIPP it looks like they do, £22.50 per quarter up to £50k. It’s worth checking other providers’ charges too, not just the charges when you’re putting money in, but also when you’re taking money out. Moving SIPP accounts looks to be a pricey affair, whoever you’re with…

Thanks very much everyone, that’s magnificent and hugely appreciated. Just to sort one element out – my accountant was very much against giving me any information other than suggesting that a pension would make sense tax-wise so pointed me towards finding a financial advisor. I don’t make much money at all but I really need to sort something out for my children hence the need for this. I had a free half hour with an IFA this morning and it was very useful indeed. However, all your information so far has been brilliant and what I have to come expect from this forum.

Moving SIPP accounts looks to be a pricey affair, whoever you’re with…

Really, I’ve moved a few around and didn’t even notice the fees (as in they were in the noise).

Really, I’ve moved a few around and didn’t even notice the fees (as in they were in the noise).

Maybe not then. Looking at the fees they do seem substantially more costly than shifting ISAs, but I’ve only started contributing to SIPPs since I retired, and that’s only at the minimum statutory amount. For larger sums I suppose the fees would disappear in the noise….

You could just accrue the gross amount and take the time to get sorted.

Lot of misinformation on here…

Not surprised your accountant can’t help, they aren’t regulated to give financial advice so aren’t covered to give recommendation as to who to go to and how to invest. They’ve done a good job in suggesting making a contribution as end of year tax planning IMHO.

SIPP should be able to set up very quickly, you should still have time to Bacs a payment to the provider or CHAPs if needed very quickly – is your company year end 31/03?

Lifetime ISA doesn’t open until open until April and also aren’t deductible against corporation tax.

Nest has annual limits on contributions at the moment – £4,900 I believe. Again not sure of how much you want to contribute?

As mentioned COMPANY contributions don’t attract personal tax relief.

Sorry if I come across grumpy, just trying to help 8)