UT (Tax & Chancery) UT/2023/000103 - [2025] UKUT 00102 (TCC)

Section 180 is headed “scheme administration employer payments”, and it reads:

“(1)

A "scheme administration employer payment" is a payment made —

(a)

by a registered pension scheme that is an occupational pension scheme, and

(b)

to or in respect of a person who is or has been a sponsoring employer,

for the purposes of the administration or management of the pension scheme.

(2)

But if a payment falling within subsection (1) exceeds the amount which might be expected to be paid to a person who was at arm's length, the excess is not a scheme administration employer payment.

(3)

Scheme administration employer payments include in particular —

(a)

the payment of wages, salaries or fees to persons engaged in administering the pension scheme, and

(b)

payments made for the purchase of assets to be held for the purposes of the pension scheme.

(4)

A loan to or in respect of a person who is or has been a sponsoring employer is not a scheme administration employer payment.”

The lease/licence back transactions carried out by Prisym, Formwise, Criticall and Gannon had to comply with s 180 in order not to give rise to unauthorised employer payments. The key issue before the FTT was whether the amounts paid by the SSAS for the IP transferred to them by those Employers exceeded “the amount which might be expected to be paid to a person who was at arm's length”.