
1 
These Regulations may be cited as the Registered Pension Schemes (Authorised Member Payments) Regulations 2023 and come into force on 31st October 2023.
2 
In these Regulations—
 “FA 2004” means the Finance Act 2004;
 “FSMA 2000” means the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000;
 “ITEPA 2003” means the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003;
 “policyholder” has the same meaning given by article 3 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Meaning of “Policy” and “Policyholder”) Order 2001;
 “relevant insurer” has the same meaning given in section 217(2) of FSMA 2000;
 “write-down order” has the same meaning given in section 377A(1) of FSMA 2000.
3 

(1) A top up payment made by a relevant insurer to a policyholder is a payment of a description that is prescribed for the purposes of section 164(1)(f) of FA 2004 (authorised member payments).
(2) A payment is a top up payment if—
(a) a write-down order has been made in respect of the relevant insurer,
(b) the policyholder is affected by the write-down order as described in section 217ZA(2) of FSMA 2000,
(c) the payment is made to the policyholder in respect of the reduction in value of the policyholder’s entitlements (or contingent entitlements) as mentioned in section 217ZA(2)(b) of FSMA 2000 by virtue of the write-down order, and
(d) the relevant insurer makes the payment to the policyholder in consequence of section 217ZA of FSMA 2000.
4 
A top up payment that is prescribed by regulation 3 shall be treated—
(a) as pension paid to the recipient under a registered pension scheme for the purposes of Part 9 of ITEPA 2003 (pension income), and
(b) for those purposes, as pension accruing in the tax year in which it was paid.
5 
Any thing resulting from the making of a write-down order that would (apart from this regulation) otherwise fall as a surrender (or agreement to surrender) for the purposes of subsections (2) and (4) of section 172A of FA 2004 (surrender of benefits and rights) is a surrender (or agreement to surrender) of a description that is prescribed for the purposes of section 172A(5)(f) of FA 2004.
Justin Holliday
Angela MacDonald
Two of the Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
15th September 2023