Surchargeable unauthorised member payment meaning

In practice, this describes an unauthorised payment to or in respect of a member from a registered pension scheme that attracts the additional unauthorised payments surcharge. In the UK (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), it is a statutory concept under the Finance Act 2004 and applies uniformly. A member payment is surchargeable if either: - a single unauthorised member payment is 25% or more of the value of the member’s rights under that scheme immediately before the payment; or - it is one of two or more unauthorised member payments made by the same scheme within a 12‑month surcharge period beginning with the first such payment, and the aggregate of those payments is 25% or more of the value of the member’s rights immediately before that first payment. Where a payment is surchargeable, the recipient member is liable to the 15% unauthorised payments surcharge, in addition to the 40% unauthorised payments charge (and potential scheme sanction charge implications for the scheme). This term concerns member payments only. A parallel concept exists for employers (surchargeable unauthorised employer payments). In Ireland, there is no identical statutory term; Revenue rules tax unauthorised pension benefits under separate provisions.