Pension investment rules

Commercial property, including:

• hotels
• student accommodation
• care homes
• prisons
• shop
• offices
• overseas commercial property
• development land

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM125200:Investments: taxable property

A pension scheme can't invest in residential property. This includes:

• A building or structure that is used or suitable for use as a dwelling.
• Any related land that is wholly or partly the garden for the building or structure.
• Any related land that is wholly or partly grounds for the residential property and which is used or intended for use for a purpose connected with the enjoyment of the building.
• Any building or structure on any such related land.
• A beach hut.
• A property that also has a residential element (see some exemptions to this below). For example a building where some of it is used for commercial purposes, such as a shop, with an inter-connected residential area, such as a flat. The whole property will be treated as residential as it is suitable for use as a dwelling. Different parts of a building are inter-connected if they share a common entrance and where you can move from one part to another without moving through common areas.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM125200:Investments: taxable property

A pension scheme can't normally invest in residential property, but there are some exceptions. Examples of some of these exceptions are:

• A piece of land that is having a house built on it as long as the land and house is disposed of before it becomes habitable.
• A commercial property that is being converted to a residential property provided that the property is disposed of before it becomes habitable.
• A property that is occupied by an employee who is neither a member of the pension scheme or connected to a member of the pension scheme and is required as a condition of employment to occupy the property, for example a caretaker's flat.
• A property that is occupied by a person who is neither a member of the pension scheme or connected with a member of the pension scheme and the residential element of the property is used in connection with the commercial element as an investment of the pension scheme, for example a flat above a shop that is leased from the scheme with the shop, where the flat is occupied by the shop keeper.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM125200:Investments: taxable property

If the pension scheme is an occupational pension scheme the money can be lent to the sponsoring employer or a third party. The third party can't be a member or anybody connected to a member. If the pension scheme isn't an occupational pension scheme the money can only be lent to a third party. A scheme that isn't an occupational pension scheme can't lend any money to an employer that's connected to the scheme member.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM123000:Investments: loans

Up to 50% of the market value of the scheme can be used.

If the pension scheme is an occupational pension and the money is lent to the sponsoring employer the loan shouldn't be granted for more than 5 years, but under certain circumstances the loan can be extended by up to 5 years.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM123000:Investments: loans

If a loan is made to a sponsoring employer and that sponsoring employer gets into financial difficulty during the initial 5 year period, the loan may be rolled over for up to a further 5 years. This can only be done once.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM123200:Investments: loans: loans to sponsoring employers

Any loan made by a registered pension scheme to:

• a person who is, or has been, a scheme member, or
• a person/company connected with the person who is, or has been, a scheme member

will result in an unauthorised payment equal to the amount of the loan; the charge will be 40% of the amount of the unauthorised payment. In addition to this if the amount of the unauthorised payment exceeds 25% of the fund value there will also be a scheme payments surcharge of 15% bringing the total tax charge to 55%. A scheme sanction charge of 40% of the chargeable amount may also be levied on the scheme administrator.

A loan made by a registered pension scheme to a person/company connected with the person who is, or has been, a sponsoring employer will not result in an unauthorised payment in relation to the person who is, or has been, a sponsoring employer. This is provided the loan meets the same conditions as for loans to sponsoring employers generally (see HMRC Pension Tax Manual - PTM0123200: Loans to sponsoring employers.)

HMRC Pension Tax Manual - PTM123300: Loans to members and connected parties

The amount of the loan has to be secured throughout the term as a first charge on any asset owned by the person borrowing the money. This asset must be worth at least the same as the amount being lent plus the value of all the interest due over the term of the policy. If the asset that is being used as security is replaced by a new asset, the value of the new asset has to be at least equal to the value of the outstanding loan, including interest. In practice the security is likely to be a property.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM123200:Investments: loans: loans to sponsoring employers

The minimum interest rate a scheme can charge is calculated using the average of the base lending rates of the following 6 banks plus 1%, rounded up to the nearest multiple of ¼%:

• The Bank of Scotland plc
• Barclays Bank plc
• HSBC plc
• Lloyds Bank plc
• National Westminster Bank plc
• The Royal Bank of Scotland plc

All loans have to be repaid in equal instalments of capital and interest for each complete year of the loan.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM123200:Investments: Loans: Interest

Up to 5% of the fund value can be held in shares of the employer or an associated company.

The Trustees can buy shares in more than one sponsoring employer of the scheme providing that at the time the shares are bought the market value of the shares is less than 20% of total value of the scheme.

There is no restriction on the maximum percentage of shares that can be held in one company.

For example a scheme could potentially own 100% of the shares of a company provided that the amount being invested is less than 5% of the fund value mentioned above.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM122000: Investments: shares and equities

If an occupational pension scheme held shares in a sponsoring employer before 6 April 2006 the shares can continue to be held.

If however, the scheme buys shares in a sponsoring employer after 6 April 2006 the 5% limit will apply and the total value of shares including the value of the shares held prior to 6 April 2006 will have to be taken into account.

HMRC Pensions Tax Manual - PTM122000: Investments: shares and equities

A personal pension scheme doesn't have a sponsoring employer, therefore the 5% limit that there is for occupational pension schemes doesn't apply.

HMRC has stated that any non-commercial use of an asset by a member or an associate of a member will create an unauthorised payment charge on the member.

Where an unauthorised payment is made to a member or an employer the tax charge will be 40% of the amount of the unauthorised payment.

The scheme administrator will be liable to a scheme sanction charge on all charges except where the assets used to provide the benefit is not a wasting asset. The amount of the scheme sanction charge is 40% of the scheme chargeable payment. 

However where the member or sponsoring employer has been subject to an unauthorised payments charge and has paid the tax due, a deduction will be made to the amount of the scheme sanction charge.

The amount of the deduction is the lesser of:

• 25% of the amount of the scheme chargeable payment, and
• the actual amount of tax paid by the member or employer on an unauthorised payment.