Pension and tax Q

If you don't need the money can you not defer this pension until later (which should increase the amount that it does pay when you do take it)

If the IBM pension allows you to do this, yes

tim

Speak to your 'IBM' pension administrator. You may be able to pay AVCs (additional voluntary contributions) into your pension fund - which will get you tax relief. However, unlike your main contributions, it's unlikely that they'll be matched by extra contributions from the company. Also, they'll probably go into a separate pot from which you'll ultimately have to buy an annuity - rather than earning you an extra pension based on your final salary.

Are you sure you want to? Quoting from

"For decades [IBM] obtained a talented, loyal, un-unionised workforce by a practice of being competitive with leading companies in all of its benefits. In answering a question about pensions in payment (PIP), ie how the value of pensions is affected by inflation, IBM confirmed and documented that for PIP, like all the other benefits, it aimed to be competitive with leading companies. This was only an "aim" because IBM's economic circumstances might have prevented it. Another document explains the constraint of affordability.

IBM's PIP practice has been the worst of all comparable companies. It turns out that this is not due to affordability, but to a mechanical rule for degrading the value of pensions, irrespective of economic conditions or what other companies did. This transition from "One of the Best", in practice and predicted, to actually "One of the Worst" took place after many people had retired".

"Let's call it IBM" doesn't necessarily mean that it *is* IBM!