P45 Total Pay = before/after pension contributions?

Pring

Hi,

Left my job a few months ago and just noticed something odd on the P45 while I was looking through my self-assessment (I run a sole trader business too but that's a separate issue).

My gross pay for the year was £31462, I made £1078 worth of pension contributions. The P45 lists my total pay as £31462 and makes no pension of the pension contribution.

I would have expected the pension contributions to have been taken off that too, as they're tax free?

Is this correct and if so do I have to contact my old employer and ask them to sort it out or is it something I should go to HMRC about?

Thanks!

Debt_Free_Chick

What sort of pension do you contribute to? Is it a "personal" pension or a "stakeholder" pension?

Pring

It's think it's a Stakeholder pension. I paid in X% per month and my employer pays in Y%.

Debt_Free_Chick

If it's a stakeholder or personal pension, then your contributions are deducted from your net pay, so your P45s & P60s will take no account of the PCs.

PCs only come off gross pay, with the net shown on your P45/P60 when you pay into an "occupational" pension scheme - this is a scheme run by your employer, rather than a private plan written in your own name.

Looks right to me!

Pring

Thanks!

The thing that's confusing me is that when I'm filling out my Self Assessment it doesn't seem to take into account the pension payments so it looks like I'm getting taxed on them... I put in the amount I earned in employment, tax paid in employment and earned on my "side business" and it calculates tax on (earnings1+earnings2-tax already paid) rather than (earnings1+earnings2-taxfreepension-tax paid)!

Maybe I'm just filling out the form wrong...