Pension Tension · free tool · information, not advice

Pension Tension

By Reth!nk.tax · basis: FA 2026 & HMRC technical note · assumptions v…

The sixty-second version

From 6 April 2027, most unused pension money joins the rest of your estate for inheritance tax. For forty years the advice was "spend the pension last". That song has ended. Put in six numbers and see what the taxman would take - before and after the change.

Your age

Mortality basis

Used only for life-expectancy context

Assume death at age

You can change this - nobody's marking it

Pension pot(s) today (£)

Everything else - home, savings, the lot (£)

Of which, your home (£)

Married / civil partnership?

Home passing to children/grandchildren?

Your beneficiaries mostly pay tax at

The full picture

Below: every serious response to the 2027 change, run against your own numbers, side by side - gifting, spending, annuities, insurance, charity, trusts, SSAS property headaches, the lot. Plus who pays the bill, and how.

Household

Modelling

Scottish taxpayer(s)?

Affects income tax on withdrawals and beneficiaries

Your other taxable income (£/yr)

State pension, rents, etc. - sets the tax on pension withdrawals

Annual spending need (£/yr)

Health (optional - never leaves this page)

Spouse a long-term UK resident?

If not, the spouse exemption is capped at £325,000 (s.18(2) IHTA) unless an election is made

Investment growth basis

Pensions - SIPP / personal / workplace DC

Total DC value (£)

Tax-free cash already taken?

% of death benefits nominated to spouse

SSAS scheme-level

Your share of SSAS (£, 0 if none)

…of which commercial property (£)

…of which loan to your company (£)

Defined benefit

DB lump sum payable on death (£)

Deferred-member lump sums count; true death-in-service (current employment) is excluded - FA 2026 s.66

Value of remaining guarantee-period payments (£)

Survivor's scheme pension?

Dependants' scheme pensions are excluded benefits - outside IHT

Estate & liquidity

Non-pension estate (£)

Of which, home (£)

Liquid % of non-pension estate

Cash and easily-sold investments - drives the "who pays the bill" panel

Home to children/grandchildren?

Beneficiaries' tax band

% of pension to charity at death

Strategy dials

One-off gift now - % of pot to draw & give

Regular gifts from income (£/yr net)

"Normal expenditure out of income" - exempt from day one if regular, from income, and your lifestyle doesn't suffer

Whole-of-life cover in trust (£, 0 = size to the bill)

Your actual WOL quote (£/yr, 0 = rough guess)

Real quotes beat our guesses - premiums are personal to your health

Rank strategies by

Death timing

Talk it through with a Chartered Tax Adviser

Pension Tension is an educational illustration tool provided by Reth!nk.tax, a trading style of Detox Reboot Ltd (registered in England no. 09538143). It does not provide tax, financial, legal or investment advice, and no client relationship is created by using it. Outputs are estimates built on the stated assumptions and the law as at the version date shown; legislation, rates and HMRC practice can and do change - in particular, regulations and guidance for the April 2027 pension IHT changes are still being finalised. Decisions about financial products (annuities, insurance, investments) should be made with a regulated financial adviser; tax planning decisions deserve advice from a qualified tax adviser on your own facts.

Pension Tension

The sixty-second version

Your tension reading

The full picture

Household

Pensions - SIPP / personal / workplace DC

SSAS scheme-level

Defined benefit

Estate & liquidity

Strategy dials

Terms and important information