Just Started to Save

2006Kuredu

Thanks DRP, I currently put £187 per month into my pension (5% of salary) and my employer matches this. This is the maximum they match.

Do I have to fill any forms in to get the tax back? Sorry Im a complete newbie on this!

Drp8713

If you pay in more through work, they would usually take your contributions from your gross pay, so you should save the 40% tax at source, although best to check with them. Do they offer salary sacrifice so you can save NI too?


If not, if you paid £60 into a personal pension, it would become £80 with tax relief and then you would have to call/write to HMRC for the other £20.

2006Kuredu

Thanks DRP, I shall ring them tomorrow, Ive looked on the portal and all it says is: You pay £187.50 per month This is 5.00% of Basic Salary £112.50 per month after estimated tax savings. Your employer pays
£187.50 per month This is 5.00% of Basic Salary. Total monthly contribution £375.00 in Aviva Mixed Investment (40-85% Shares) S6

ColdIron

Unless you do salary sacrifice you will probably only be getting a 20% rebate and the onus will be on you to claim the rest via a self assessment or similar

If you are a HR tax payer, already have a mortgage and your employer offers salary sacrifice it's a no brainer to take it, almost no down side as as mentioned you get a break on NICs as well. Check it out

2006Kuredu

Hmm I cant see if they offer salary sacrifice or not, Ill have to ring up HR tomorrow. Ive noticed it says on the website if you earn more than basic rate taxpayers you will need to complete a self assessment tax return.

Hmm, Ive been paying in all year and never done a SA return before - EEK!

ColdIron

HR should be able to answer that for you. A self assessment is pretty easy to do if your affairs are simple (yours are), especially now you can do it online. Alternatvely you can just give HMRC a ring and get the money back via an adjustment of your tax code

It's another good reason to contribute via salary sacrifice though, none of those pesky tax forms

Edit: your numbers above suggest you are already using SS

2006Kuredu

Thanks ColdIron, I shall email them and see what they say, I have a copy of my last payslip would that give any clues?

masonic

2006Kuredu wrote: »

Thanks ColdIron, I shall email them and see what they say, I have a copy of my last payslip would that give any clues?

It should, because your pension will probably not be listed as a deduction alongside income tax and NI, but instead appear separately possibly just being labelled salary sacrifice, and/or you'll have your whole pension contribution being shown as coming from your employer. Your total gross pay for the month should be net of the pension contribution, so your salary and total gross pay (for tax) should be different.

2006Kuredu

Thanks Masonic, Ill have a look now

So looking at the advice above, my £300 would be best placed in a pension than a savings pot? I guess my only fear is a pension can vanish cant it, im thinking of all the newspaper articles you see about pension black holes!

masonic

2006Kuredu wrote: »

So looking at the advice above, my £300 would be best placed in a pension than a savings pot? I guess my only fear is a pension can vanish cant it, im thinking of all the newspaper articles you see about pension black holes!

Those articles apply to final salary pensions and are a problem for the companies providing the final salary pension more than the pensioners themselves.

Most people have money purchase pensions now and for those you save your own pot of money, so while your investments can lose money from time to time, your pension won't vanish and over the long term the chances of losing money are very slim.