how much to contribute to pension?

nine

Albermarle wrote: »

You can just call HMRC, probably simpler if you wait until the end of the tax year.

Just saw this one. I do need to wait until the end of 2018-19 tax year to claim extra tax relief for my pension contributions... as my base salary is £42,600 and bonus of £6200 is not guaranteed... so in the eyes of HMRC I'm a basic tax payer for now, right? I will get the bonus in Jan 2019.

Dazed_and_confused

You can provide them with an estimate of your taxable wages for the year (you can do it online through your personal tax account if you want) and then the revised tax code should include the pension tax relief due for the current tax year but if the bonus doesn't materialise then you will have a tax debt to pay back.

Dazed_and_confused

nine wrote: »

Thank you! I will ring HMRC next week see what they say re 2017/2018. I paid £1200 into the pension, and got £300 tax relief (the 20%).

That was a typo sorry - it should have been 48.8K..

expected 2018/2019:
£48800 on p60
plus the £1550 health insurance

Then the figures in post #9 still apply (assuming you don't have any other undisclosed income such as savings interest or dividends)

nine

Thank you all!

AnotherJoe

Albermarle wrote: »

As you are a higher rate taxpayer , basic rate tax relief should be added on by the pension company and then you have to claim back the higher rate element from HMRC. They will send you a tax rebate and/or adjust for it in your tax code.
So for each £100 you contribute , the pension company should add £25 and then you will get another £25 back at a later stage when you claim for it .
The amount you are putting in is a bit on the low side and your current pension pot is very low for your age. As you can see pension contributions are very advantageous for a higher rate taxpayer , so increasing your contributions would be a very good idea all round.

Op should not be claiming for tax relief on pension contributions to a company scheme, the payroll should take account of that.

I agree, OP isn't putting anything near enough in, amd rather than agonise about how much they "should" be puttimg in the answer is as much as they can afford without seriously impacting their current quality of life.

OP if you want to retire "now" which I realise was likely tongue in cheek,but to speed that day forward, the simple answer is to adjust your lifestyle so you spend less, and save more, definiteky into a pension if yiu area higher rate taxpayer. . Do not make the other classic mistake of overpaying a mortgage, your normal payments helped along by time and inflation will take care of that but your income in retirement won't take care of itself.