HM Treasury has made SI 2026/673 to correct defects in the public service pension tax remedy rules. Made on 22 June 2026, laid before the House of Commons on 23 June and due to come into force on 14 July 2026, it is being issued free of charge to known recipients because it corrects a defect in the 2023 No. 2 regulations rather than introducing a fresh policy line. The wider framework stems from the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 and the 2023 tax regulations, which were designed to reverse unlawful discrimination in the 2015 public service pension reforms and, as far as possible, return members to the tax position they would otherwise have held. (gov.uk)
The most immediate operational changes sit around annual allowance 'scheme pays' notices. Members will be able to give a notice either direct to the scheme administrator or digitally to HMRC for onward transmission. The drafting then separates two legal moments: for notice-deadline purposes, a digital submission counts when it reaches HMRC, but for the scheme administrator’s payment timetable it counts when HMRC forwards it. That distinction should reduce the risk of a member missing a statutory deadline simply because a notice moved through HMRC’s digital channel. (gov.uk)
The regulations also reset time limits for affected cases. For members who were active or deferred on 1 October 2023, the deadline for giving the relevant notices moves to 6 July 2027 and the deadline for amendment moves to 5 July 2032. This sits within a longer-running pattern in the remedy legislation: HMRC and the Treasury have repeatedly had to extend or restate deadlines so that retrospective corrections can be processed on workable terms. (gov.uk)
A separate block deals with judicial service where an immediate detriment remedy has already been obtained. In those cases, the regulations replace certain references to the main 2022 Act with references to the Judicial Pensions (Remediable Service etc.) Regulations 2023, because that is where the operative rules for these judicial cases now sit. The result is that reclaim routes for overpaid annual allowance and the tax treatment of transfers from partnership pension accounts are tied to the correct legal instrument. (legislation.gov.uk)
The armed forces provisions are narrower, but they close two awkward tax gaps. Where an election under the 2022 Act produces benefits in AFPS 1975 that mirror benefits under the 2015 Early Departure Payments scheme, those benefits are treated for tax purposes as coming from a separate employer-financed retirement benefits arrangement. In certain AFPS 2005 re-joiner cases, equivalent AFPS 1975 benefits also retain the protected pension age that would have applied under the older scheme. The practical effect is to stop tax outcomes turning on administrative structure rather than on the substance of the member’s entitlement. (gov.uk)
Elsewhere, the instrument deals with the kinds of edge cases that often cause the most delay. An additional trivial commutation lump sum death benefit paid to a deceased member’s personal representative is treated as authorised; a voluntary scheme pays amount agreed by an administrator must be paid within 45 days of the end of the quarter in which the request is received; and the due date for certain information to HMRC is extended where a pension savings statement or benefit crystallisation event statement arrives late and the individual dies. These are administrative rules, but they matter because the remedy has already created complex back-year tax positions for members and schemes. (gov.uk)
The final teaching-service provision is small in drafting terms but important in tax calculations. Where the relevant legacy scheme for excess teacher service is the local government new scheme, any final salary uplift under the 2014 transitional provisions is to be ignored when pension input amounts are calculated. That prevents a remedy-related uplift from inflating annual allowance calculations in a way the wider remedial framework was meant to avoid. (gov.uk)
Retrospective effect runs through the instrument. Some provisions operate as if they had been in the original text when earlier regulations were made, some apply from 2023-24 onwards, and others run back to 2014-15 to match the remedy’s backdated tax consequences. For scheme administrators, that means document templates, digital routes, member communications and case-handling controls will need updating before 14 July. For affected members, the more immediate question is whether earlier assumptions about notice deadlines, reporting dates or special-scheme tax treatment now need to be checked again. (gov.uk)