Beware Tax Year End TYE Deadlines 11 Days Before TYE

Aegon has been criticised for bringing forward deadlines to clients making contributions into their pensions for the end of the tax year.

Whilst the end of the tax year is 5 April, contributions made after 26 March (11 days!) may not be processed and could stop clients topping up their pensions, before the tax year ends.

Most other pension and ISA providers suggest they will be open until midnight on 5 April although some have said they will have cut off dates of 3^rd and 4^th April.

• Aegon has emailed advisors saying, “their process is slightly longer than previous years and they had pre agreed the deadline with their partners Suffolk Life”.
• Aegon has suggested that the process of moving Cofunds clients onto the Aegon platform was not the issue even though this did cause problems for many advisors throughout 2018.

Comment

On a positive point, they have let us know.  On a negative point, I am sure if we wrote Aegon a cheque for £1m on 4^th April it would be processed and banked by the end of the tax year.  Another example of a company not looking after its existing clients and under resourcing client servicing.

Double check with your own pension/ISA companies about deadlines to make sure your tax year-end deadline payments can be processed on time.