advice please

nickwalsall · 25 July 2013 at 2:49PM

Hiya
I am a self employed bod and soon want to retire. My guy who did tax forms retired a few years ago and since died so can't ask him. My wife has spoke with pension company and discussed various things about what I pay in and in what the money is invested. One thing she asked about was when does the tax go into the account and they said no tax goes on to this. My wife has a SIPP and every time she puts money in the govt pay so much but I'm not getting this. Don't know why and if I can do anything about it - been paying in since about 1980. Suggested by my mate to ask on here first so when I ring tax people I will know what I'm talking about.

Thanks Nick

GhIFA · 25 July 2013 at 3:19PM

If you've been paying in since 1980 then I would assume this is a Retirement Annuity Contract rather than a Personal Pension. This being the case, your contributions are paid gross and you reclaim all of the tax relief yourself from HMRC.

If you haven't been claiming then you may well have missed out on a large amount of relief you were entitled to. It is worth talking to HMRC as unclaimed relief can be claimed back, but only for the previous 4 years. You would hope that your accountant had been doing it for you at least up until he retired.

nickwalsall · 25 July 2013 at 3:54PM

Thank you for that. The accounts he did don't show anything so I really don't know. I suppose the HMRC will be able to shed some light on it for me.

dunstonh · 25 July 2013 at 4:33PM

Your pension contributions would be on your tax return. So, did you keep copies of your return? Its always worth holding on for the last 6 years worth.