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Newsletter issue - May 2022

New Class 2 NIC rules - make sure you don't miss out on your state pension

One of the more welcome measures in the Chancellor's Spring Budget was the alignment of the National Insurance Contributions (NIC) thresholds for individuals with the personal income tax allowance. For 2022/23, self-employed individuals will be required to pay class 2 and class 4 NIC on profits above £11,908; from 2023/24 both class 2 and 4 NIC will be payable on profits above £12,570 per year.

However, this change brings a conundrum for those self-employed individuals who have profits below the lower profits threshold (£11,908 for 2022/23) - should those individuals make voluntary Class 2 NIC payments?

Class 2 NIC is charged at a flat rate of £163.80 per year (£3.15 per week) for 2022/23 and importantly, paying it allows the individual to maintain a full NI contribution record for the year to build up entitlement to the UK state pension and certain other state benefits.

For 2022/23, the class 2 small profits threshold of £6,725 remains in place such that those self-employed individuals who make a loss or have profits below that amount have the option of paying class 2 NIC voluntarily. However, an individual who makes profits between the small profits threshold (£6,725) and the lower profits threshold (£11,908) is not liable to pay class 2 NIC and as such will be unable to pay voluntary Class 2 NIC.

To ensure that those low-profit traders are still able to maintain their NIC record, the government has created a new class 2 NI 'credit' which leads to the situation for 2022/23 as follows:

Profits in the band:	Class 2 NIC payable:
Up to £6,724	Voluntary NIC: £163.80 per year
£6,725 - £11,907	NI Credit given: zero payable
£11,908 or more	Compulsory NIC: £163.80 per year

To be eligible for the class 2 NI 'credit' the taxpayer must report self-employed profits at least equal to the class 2 small profits threshold of £6,725 on their 2022/23 tax return.

Each additional qualifying year works out to be an extra £5.29 a week (£275.08 a year) in State Pension, based on 2022/23 rates. To gain any state pension 10 years payments must be made or credit given with the full pension entitlement being 35 years. Therefore it is important for every self-employed individual to keep a check on the number of years they have built up towards their state pension and take advice accordingly. This information can be found using this link:

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension