Stakeholder Personal Contributions

YorkshireBoy

Apologies if this has been covered before, but...

I'm confused as to the maximum I can put into my employer provided stakeholder scheme. I'm aware that everyone can pay in £2808 net of tax relief and that, depending on age, this figure may be exceeded by an age related percentage.

I've been on the https://www.opas.gov.uk website and found the following table:

To 35.....17.5%
36-45.....20%
46-50.....25%
51-55.....30%
56-60.....35%
61-74.....40%

I'm 44 years of age. Does the 20% of salary mean "in total" or is this my own maximum personal contribution?

By way of an example...

I earn £30,000/annum
Employer pays 4.5% = £1,350

Can I pay in £6,000 (20% of salary) or am I limited to £4,650 (15.5% of salary), or are all these figures gross after tax relief added?

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

isasmurf

The contributions limits are the total contributions (including tax relief) from both yourself and your employer as a percentage of net relevant earnings or £3600 whichever is the higher.

Using your example if your employer puts in 4.5% gross, you can only put in 15.5% gross

YorkshireBoy

isasmurf wrote:

Using your example if your employer puts in 4.5% gross, you can only put in 15.5% gross

Thanks for that.

So, using my £30K example and my possibly dodgy maths, I can put in £3,627 (which is £4,650/100*78) or £302.25 per month.

dunstonh

From April 2006, those contribution limits are being removed. It is being replaced with a lifetime limit of £1.5 mill (increasing annually with budget day announcements. Althugh first years already set). You will be able to get tax relief upto 100% of you annual earnings (each year).