Stakeholder pension and self assessment

ANGELFLOWER

Hi,
I am looking at filling in my tax return for last tax year. I have a stakeholder pension which I need to add to the SA100. HMRC says to calculate the gross payment which they say should be payments divided by 80 multiplied by 100 (to take account of 20% tax relief). I understand that, however when I look at my stakeholder statement and add up all the payments and tax relief received in the tax year the figure from the HMRC doesn't match. I have found that there is a two month lag in the tax relief payments e.g. if I change the amount of the pension payment the tax relief amount doesn't update for two months, so it is always playing catch up.

My question is what figure do HMRC want? The actual payments and tax relief received in the tax year according to my statement, or what should be the correct figure from the calculation? The first figure is incorrect I think as since they only want the gross figure it would appear that I had paid more in i.e. total - 20%.

I am waiting to hear back from the pension company to see if they can give me figures for the tax year as they see them.

Hope I have explained this OK. Sorry it is quite wordy. Hope someone can clear this up as this surely must be quite common?

jem16

HMRC want the figure that should be correct so do what they have told you and add up all your contributions, divide by 80 and multiply by 100. Forget the tax relief - that's for your provider to deal with.