Reclaiming tax on a flexible lump sum

IanSt

Hello all,

I recently took the maximum 25% tax-free lump sum from one of my SIPPs and then also took a further flexi-access drawdown of a lump sum that was of course taxable on a Month 1 basis.

These will be the only lump sums I take this tax year and I have no other employment so I now want to reclaim the tax that was overpaid on the taxable lump sum.

I've therefore gone onto my online Personal Tax Account, found the relevant link to reclaim tax and started to fill it in - which I assume behind the scenes is a P55 form. Has anyone done this recently and know what I should put down for the following question?

It asks "Do you expect to receive income from any UK pension during the current tax year?". Now at first I thought I should put YES and put the amount of the taxable lump sum down as the income, but the next page then asks "Have you received any pension flexibility payments?" which I assume is where I really put down the taxable lump sum amount and the tax that was deducted.

It is a bit confusing as it says that I''ll be able to find any pension flexibility payments on the form P45 from my pension provider, but I've still money left in that pension so they'll not be sending out a P45 anytime soon!

Many thanks for any help

squirrelpie

Sorry, I don't know enough to answer your questions, but I can suggest that you telephone HMRC instead of filling in the online form. In my experience they're very helpful and will guide you through any questions they need answering.

IanSt

Did as you suggested and rang them this morning as I couldn't find a definitive answer to my question and looking at the other non-Personal Tax Account versions of the P55 form (i.e. paper and adobe online versions) raised as many questions as they answered.

Talked to a very nice guy, who after eventually being steered to the right form, agreed that I should put "No" to the "Do you expect to receive income from any UK pension during the current tax year?" and only put the lump sum into the "Have you received any pension flexibility payments?".

Apparently the first question is only for pension income other than the lump sum that I'm reclaiming the tax for - it would have helped if they had put that, but anyway I've now submitted the form and hopefully all will now go through smoothly - if not I'll be back and let you know!