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VAT recovery on pension costs
On 18 June 2025, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) changed its policy on the recovery of VAT on investment costs. Effective immediately, employers can now treat all VAT incurred on investment management services for occupational pension schemes as their own input tax and reclaim it, in line with standard input tax rules.
New obligations on trustees – disclosure and stewardship
Trustees will already be aware of additional disclosure obligations that will begin to apply to them from October this year, following the publication of Regulations in 2018 (the 2018 Regulations).
The journey to pension scheme consolidation
Find out about how the Stephenson Harwood pensions team can support trustees and sponsoring employers on their approach to consolidation.
What trustees and sponsors need to know from recent case law
The courts have offered essential guidance to sponsors and trustees in a number of cases over the past 12 months. This briefing discusses some of the most 'need to know' case law developments.
Indexation under the BT Pension Scheme: the Court of Appeal's decision
The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in the most recent instalment in the case law determining when pension schemes can switch indices for the purposes of indexation.
HMRC extends deadlines for registering trust based pension schemes
The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 require trustees of trust based occupational pension schemes to register their trust with HMRC.
DWP preaches conversion but is it a holy route out of GMP inequality?
Last month the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued guidance about how occupational pension schemes could use existing guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) conversion legislation to address unequal GMPs.
A practical guide to GMP equalisation – the story so far
There are some key issues relating to guaranteed minimum pensions (GMP) equalisation that trustees should be aware of.
Court gives important guidance on justifying pension provisions which are potentially discriminatory
The Court of Appeal handed down a decision on 20 December 2018 declaring the government's transitional arrangements in respect of judicial and firefighter pension schemes discriminatory.
GMP equalisation – an answer to a thirty-year-old question?
A question frequently kicked into the long grass by the pensions industry was whether guaranteed minimum pensions had to be equalised between male and female members. If so, how?