Section 130: Payments to employers
439.This section amends section 37 of the PA 1995, which imposes conditions which must be satisfied before trustees can authorise a payment to the sponsoring employer from the funds of a trust-based occupational pension scheme. Section 37 was amended by the PA 2004, but that amendment inadvertently did not carry forward an exemption from the strict conditions of section 37 which previously existed for certain administrative and other payments.
440.Section 37 is primarily intended to ensure that funds cannot be removed from a defined benefit scheme unless it is sufficiently well funded, and the trustees are satisfied that a payment is in the interests of the scheme’s members. The exemption introduced by this section broadly replicates the payments which were previously exempt from section 37 before it was revised by the PA 2004. The exemption covers payments which are exempt from the tax charge which normally applies to authorised surplus payments to an employer from the funds of a scheme (for example, the payment of wages to the people who administer the scheme).
