Been an idiot and need help claiming HR Tax Allowance!

Brynsam

Rodders2409 wrote: »

Many, many thanks & sorry for the delayed responses, as I'm working away and connectivity is a problem here.

I'm obviously going to need to get out previous Pay Slips etc when I get home, and find out what was being paid / contributed before the switch to Sal Sac two years ago.

I'll be back soon

Much easier way might be to check what sort of scheme you are in - does it have trustees (in which case it is an occupational scheme and virtually certain that contributions will be deducted from gross pay, giving you full tax relief immediately)? If it's run by an insurance company, and is called something like '[Employer name] Group Personal Pension' it's relief at source - and you would have needed to claim higher rate tax relief before the salary sacrifice arrangement was introduced.

Alternatively, ask your payroll department how contributions were handled before the change to salary sacrifice.

Rodders2409

OK...just checked and I'm an imbecile....cretin...muppet...you could go on!

The scheme was indeed a "xxxx Ltd Group Personal Pension Plan" and therefore it was my responsibility to advise the powers that be that I'd like my money back.

Splendid ignorance from myself and I'm intrigued to know how many others within our organisation, as I'm sure I've never heard of this from my colleagues who've been working alongside me for the past 15 years or so.

Part of me (sadistic part) wants to know how much I've given away over the years, so if anyone wants to break that news to me via PM possibly, feel free. Otherwise I'll just live with a newly developed smug satisfaction that, unlike Starbucks, Amazon etc, I 'like' to pay my way ;-)

Just to be clear though, I guess I should very quickly advise the Tax.GOV that I need to recover my allowances before I lose any more months from the 4 year allowance period....what's the quickest way?

Many thanks for your help all.

Triumph13

Ouch.


Call HMRC on 0845 900 0444 and they should be able to sort you out.

Rodders2409

Thanks Triumph,

I called them and they pretty much said "thanks"..!

And I can only go back 4 calendar years which means as we switched to Sal Sac about 2 years go I can only claim 2 years allowance back....or is there another route I can take?

Rodders2409

So how much (£s) have I been giving away. if for arguments sake, income was on average £60K pa over the past 15 years and I never claimed the additional 20% tax relief?

Hands currently in front of face and squinting through fingers !!!

Also, is it best to call or write in to GOV to start ball rolling or complete an impromptu Self assessment form?

Triumph13

Is the figure of £1,200 a month is the GROSS that you were putting into the pension? So before the Sal Sac the deduction from your monthly payslip was £960?


If so then the pension scheme was reclaiming £2,880 from HMRC each year and you should have been claiming the same amount from HMRC too. That assumes that you were still in the 40% band after deducting £1,200 x 12 = £14.4 k pa from your gross.


I believe the time limit for claims is 4 years from the end of the tax year in question - so the oldest year you can claim for is 2014/15, but you should be able to claim for the whole of that year.

Rodders2409

Thanks Triumph,

It looks like I've gifted approx £15K to HMRC through not claiming the additional tax relief....I hope they spend it wisely !!

So now going to call them and get what I can from the past 4 years...but actually can only claim approx 2 years, as we switched to Sal Sac 2 years ago, with the limit being a total of 4 years.

Before I do, if anyone has heard of some loophole or argument that allows me to get more than the 4 years for 'special circumstances' then please feel free to share....cheers.

Triumph13

Only option I can think of is suing your HR department for not telling you what to do - but that could be something of a career-limiting move!

zagfles

Note also that if you earned any interest etc in those years pre 2016, you needed to declare it to HMRC and pay additional tax, if you didn't then you owe them so might mitigate your loss a bit.

Rodders2409

:):)

Yep, and they'd just point to the small print that I found this morning, on page 5, of the bundle we once got!!