Paid into NEST Pension - where do you enter on the self-assessment tax return please?

Anon

I wonder if anyone can advise please?

I am both employed and self-employed. Last year I made an additional payment into my employers pension scheme and can see where to record this on the tax return ("Payments to your employer's scheme which were not deduced from your pay before tax").

However, I also made a payment into the NEST scheme to cover my self-employment status - where does that get recorded on the self-assessment please? I assumed "Payments to registered pension schemes where basic tax relief will be claimed by your pension provider" but then the detailed tax calculation seems to ignore it on the self-assessment website and I cannot see where it then feeds in (as payments to pensions are supposed to reduce your tax liability)?

Many thanks

Anon

Anon

Sorry, another related question if anyone can answer please. How are pension contributions treated when considering the Class 2 National Insurance small earnings exception? If you earn just above the £5885 exception threshold, and pay into NEST, can you take this pension payment off the "profit"/"income" if this brings you below the theshold and then not have to pay Class 2?

Many thanks

Anon

zygurat789

Pensions are pensions and have their own page on the tax return.
Self employment is self employment and has its own pages on the tax return
Pension payments are not an allowable business expence and, therefore, do not reduce profit, they are usually paid net therefore there is no extra tax relief given in the calculation unless income is taxed at 40% when relief given is by extending the 20% rate band.

jem16

Anon wrote: »

However, I also made a payment into the NEST scheme to cover my self-employment status - where does that get recorded on the self-assessment please? I assumed "Payments to registered pension schemes where basic tax relief will be claimed by your pension provider" but then the detailed tax calculation seems to ignore it on the self-assessment website and I cannot see where it then feeds in (as payments to pensions are supposed to reduce your tax liability)?

Unless you are a higher rate taxpayer, paying into a pension where basic rate tax relief is added by the provider will make no difference to your tax liability as you're already getting that tax relief.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer and claiming the extra 20% tax relief, it would then reduce your tax liability providing you make sure to enter the gross payment and not the net payment.

Anon

Thank you for answering - I phoned HMRC earlier and they explained where it was supposed to go and where it would appear - as I didn't know better, I was expecting it to appear in calculations under minus next to "Payments into retirement annuity contract etc" but it actually appears in the calculation under "How we worked out your income tax" where basic rate has increased by X to accommodate it.

Good advice about gross and net - according to another money site page I read, this is one of the most common mistakes on the pension pages as people forget to include the basic rate tax that the pension provider will already claim on their behalf (as NEST Pensions do).

Many thanks

Anon