Can a person make a backdated avc lump sum and borrow the money to do this? I know that it is no longer possible to backdate over 10 years, just 1 year but was wondering did they ease the borrowing restrction when they reduced the term from 10 years to 1 year.
What 10 year rule are you referring to? I thought that one could only backdate pension contributions for the purposes of tax relief to the previous tax year once the contributions were made before October 31st of the current tax year. Also as far as I know one can carry payments forward indefinitely for the purposes of tax relief (e.g. if you maximised tax relief in one year and contributed above the relevant limit then one could claim tax relief in a subsequent year if tax relief was not maximised. However I'm not 100% sure on this latter point...
The latter rule is still the case and it was in effect the reason for the 10 year rule, which allowed the backdating of relief iover a period of time to a maximum of 10 years if going forward was not an option i.e. at retirement.
The 10 year rule was replaced and you can now only backdate AVCs to the previous tax year, but onyl if the payment is made by 31/10 in the current year.