Salary Sacrifice

coyrls

zagfles wrote: »

Not sure - presumably there's some way of them checking as otherwise fraud would be too easy. Having said that - HMRC seem incapable of checking pension contributon amounts when claiming tax credits, they usually want the claimant to send proof of pension conts rather than simply being able to check themselves.

I don’t know what they do behind the scenes. I have utilised carry forward and contributed over £40K but didn’t exceed the £40K limit on any one pension. I have also exceeded the £40K limit for a single pension and got a letter saying that the HMRC had been informed. I have kept my own records to demonstrate that I haven’t exceeded contribution limits because of carry forward. In neither case (greater than £40K contribution spread across two pensions or in one pension) did I hear anything from the HMRC. I guess they have total contribution records from occupational schemes and for non-occupational schemes, they ask for a record of contributions on the tax return.