This newsletter is published by HMRC’s Pension Schemes Services to update stakeholders on the latest news for pension schemes.

Pension schemes newsletter 186 has articles on: 

• Budget and Finance Bill 2026 
• access to pensions for the terminally ill 
• lifetime allowance abolition — tax on excess pension lump sum death benefits 
• tax treatment of pension death benefits under the two-year rule
• Inheritance Tax on Pensions — minor technical amendments to the extension of IHT to pensions from April 2027 
• Inheritance Tax on Pensions — Technical Note 2 
• the delay of the digitalisation of relief at source (DigiRAS) Strategic Payments Service until 2027 
• a new online tool to help customers claim pension tax refunds