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Major to sue over tax on pension

From the Evening Press, first published Tuesday 29th Oct 2002.

A NORTH Yorkshire war veteran is to sue the Ministry of Defence over tax he claims to have wrongly been paying for more than four decades.

Major Richard Perkins, 84, of Lastingham, was discharged from the Army in 1959 after he suffered a mental breakdown.

He paid tax on his pension for 42 years, but won an appeal last year for the tax he had paid to be refunded on his invalidity benefits.

The MoD has referred his case to the Inland Revenue, which ruled that Major Perkins was only entitled to two years' back payments.

Now Major Perkins says he has been told he must start paying tax once more.

He said: "It's quite ludicrous. We have a letter from veterans' minister Lewis Moonie on April 3 announcing the fact that my pension was going to be tax-free, which it has to be, but in October they are saying it isn't.

"The law is absolutely clear that a person who has been retired because of service has a pension that is tax-free.

"They are acting unlawfully."

Ryedale MP John Greenway, who has been campaigning for Major Perkins, said: "I think it's pretty shocking the way they are going about this.

"We are doing everything we can to help him."

A ministry spokeswoman said: "It's the Inland Revenue who make the decisions about what is and is not taxable, and a decision has been made that this type of pension is taxable."

Updated: 11:40 Tuesday, October 29, 2002

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