Help a first timer fill out the pension section of her Self Assessment please

newlease

Thanks to encouragement from this forum, I opened a SIPP a few months ago to save on top of my DB from employment. I will be doing my first SA this year and before I begin I would like some help, as I'm looking at the SA100 form and the explanatory SA150 for the first time and would appreciate some assistance from those who've done it all before.

My DB statement from the pension provider lists pension savings for 2015/16 tax year:
mini tax year pre alignment (1/1/15 - 8/7/15) = 7,000
mini tax year post alignment (9/7/15 - 5/4/16) = 12,000

On top of this, I contributed net 8,000 into my SIPP, which my provider topped up to become 10,000. I am due a further 2,000 as a higher rate tax payer which I will claim via my tax return. The SIPP is just my personal contribution, there are no employer contributions.

So, based on this:
- on page TR 3, I should leave boxes 8,9,10 relating to State Pension empty (I'm in my thirties and not receiving any pension)
- I should put 29,000 (7,000 + 12,000 + 10,000) in box 11
- for box 12, I'm confused. The document from my DB provider does not mention any tax numbers. The P60 from my employer only shows the total tax on my salary, which is about 12,000 on 55,000 gross income. My monthly payslips have more detail, about 250 per month is deducted from my gross salary as pension payment before about 1,000 per month as tax and some more for NIC. So, about 3,000 a year is taken from my gross salary for the DB. Does this make the DB portion of box 12 to be 0 (no tax deducted)? So, would I put the 2,000 topup my SIPP provider claimed here?

Then on page TR 4:
- I should put the 10,000 gross contribution (8,000 net + 2,000 topup) I have made to my SIPP into box 1
- I should leave boxes 2,3,4 empty

Where am I going wrong?

Thank you for your help,
Lisa

jem16

From what you are saying, and what I would expect to happen, your DB pension contributions come out of your pay before you are taxed. In this case you do not enter the DB contributions anywhere on your tax return as you already have the full tax relief at source.

If this is correct your P60 will show total taxable pay as your gross salary minus your pension contributions. Is that correct?

So the only thing you need to do is enter the £10k gross SIPP contribution into the box which says pensions contributions where basic rate tax relief is added by the provider. That's Box 1 of TRG7 which seems to be the TR4 you're referring to.

Box 11 is only for pensions that you are receiving not paying into.

greenglide

Is this a paper copy of the self assessment?

The online version is, IMHO, a much easier thing to complete as the bits you don't need are removed when you answer questions stating what you have and haven't got

zagfles

newlease wrote: »

Thanks to encouragement from this forum, I opened a SIPP a few months ago to save on top of my DB from employment. I will be doing my first SA this year and before I begin I would like some help, as I'm looking at the SA100 form and the explanatory SA150 for the first time and would appreciate some assistance from those who've done it all before.

My DB statement from the pension provider lists pension savings for 2015/16 tax year:
mini tax year pre alignment (1/1/15 - 8/7/15) = 7,000
mini tax year post alignment (9/7/15 - 5/4/16) = 12,000

On top of this, I contributed net 8,000 into my SIPP, which my provider topped up to become 10,000. I am due a further 2,000 as a higher rate tax payer which I will claim via my tax return. The SIPP is just my personal contribution, there are no employer contributions.

So, based on this:
- on page TR 3, I should leave boxes 8,9,10 relating to State Pension empty (I'm in my thirties and not receiving any pension)
- I should put 29,000 (7,000 + 12,000 + 10,000) in box 11

No! This is for pensions you received, not pensions you paid into. Leave blank.

- for box 12, I'm confused. The document from my DB provider does not mention any tax numbers.

Same here.

The P60 from my employer only shows the total tax on my salary, which is about 12,000 on 55,000 gross income. My monthly payslips have more detail, about 250 per month is deducted from my gross salary as pension payment before about 1,000 per month as tax and some more for NIC. So, about 3,000 a year is taken from my gross salary for the DB. Does this make the DB portion of box 12 to be 0 (no tax deducted)?

Ignore your DB contributions completely - unless you exceeded the annual allowance, which based on the above you didn't. Your P60 should show your salary after your contributions are taken.

So, would I put the 2,000 topup my SIPP provider claimed here?

No. You enter your total gross SIPP contribution in the Tax Reliefs section.

Then on page TR 4:
- I should put the 10,000 gross contribution (8,000 net + 2,000 topup) I have made to my SIPP into box 1
- I should leave boxes 2,3,4 empty

Yes. That is all you need to do as regards your pensions. The calculation will then give you higher rate relief (by extending your basic rate band).

And declare your P60 income and tax in the employment section obviously.

newlease

jem16 wrote: »

From what you are saying, and what I would expect to happen, your DB pension contributions come out of your pay before you are taxed. In this case you do not enter the DB contributions anywhere on your tax return as you already have the full tax relief at source.

If this is correct your P60 will show total taxable pay as your gross salary minus your pension contributions. Is that correct?

So the only thing you need to do is enter the £10k gross SIPP contribution into the box which says pensions contributions where basic rate tax relief is added by the provider. That's Box 1 of TRG7 which seems to be the TR4 you're referring to.

Box 11 is only for pensions that you are receiving not paying into.

Yes, my DB contributions come out of my pay before tax. My P60 shows total taxable pay and the tax deducted mentioning these values should be used in a tax return. The taxable pay number on the P60 (and also confirmed on my payslip for the last month of the year) is about 600 higher than my gross salary minus DB deduction. I am not really sure where this additional taxable amount comes from. I do have medical insurance as a benefit (it is the only item on my P11D) and anticipated savings interest but these reduce my tax code so I'm not sure about this difference.

The actual form (SA100) has pages as TR, the guide (SA150) as TRG. So, TR4 is explained in TRG7.

newlease

greenglide wrote: »

Is this a paper copy of the self assessment?

The online version is, IMHO, a much easier thing to complete as the bits you don't need are removed when you answer questions stating what you have and haven't got

I am looking at PDF copies of the paper form: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-tax-return-sa100

I don't yet have all my details to do it online. Online does seem to be easier from what I read and is encouraged, sadly there is no demo trial option. If the online version adjusts based on questions, skipping unneeded parts, that would make it even better.

newlease

zagfles wrote: »

No! This is for pensions you received, not pensions you paid into. Leave blank.Same here. Ignore your DB contributions completely - unless you exceeded the annual allowance, which based on the above you didn't. Your P60 should show your salary after your contributions are taken. No. You enter your total gross SIPP contribution in the Tax Reliefs section. Yes. That is all you need to do as regards your pensions. The calculation will then give you higher rate relief (by extending your basic rate band).

And declare your P60 income and tax in the employment section obviously.

Yes, I see now the section is called "UK pensions, annuities and other state benefits received". I have not received any benefits and did not exceed the annual allowance so I can skip this entire section.

I see the Employment section is a separate (supplementary) form- the SA102. It seems strange to have to fill this in when my employment is a simple PAYE and HMRC knows all the details.

The online version should hopefully be easier.

zagfles

newlease wrote: »

Yes, I see now the section is called "UK pensions, annuities and other state benefits received". I have not received any benefits and did not exceed the annual allowance so I can skip this entire section.

I see the Employment section is a separate (supplementary) form- the SA102. It seems strange to have to fill this in when my employment is a simple PAYE and HMRC knows all the details.

The online version should hopefully be easier.

Yes the online version is easier as it asks you what types of income you had and what reliefs you want to claim at the start and then it gets rid of questions that don't apply.

PS don't forgot you have to declare all the interest your received, even a few £ current account interest, and as a higher rate taxpayer make sure you declare any gift aid payments you made as you'll get higher rate relief (25% back).