Claiming Tax on Added Pension Lump Sum Contribution

Bravepants

Hello,


I was just wondering whether anyone has experience of this?


I made a lump-sum contribution by cheque earlier this year to CS Added Pension. I was told I need to complete a tax return to claim back the tax. Upon attempting the process for registering for self-assessment and getting a tax return I have been told by HMRC that I cannot be registered because the information I gave on form SA1 shows that I don't meet the conditions. There was no fixed option on the form to explain why I needed to file the return, so I wrote something in the comments section.


A few weeks ago I also registered by phone for a UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) number, but I'm still waiting for that to appear by post.


I'm hoping that once I have the UTR I can do all this online, but all I seem to find out about online is how to claim a tax refund on pension payouts to ME, not pension payments INTO the pension!


Has anyone any experience of doing this at all?


Cheers,
P

Brynsam

You don't need to complete a tax return to do this - you can call or write. See https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/pension-tax-relief and scroll down to the heading 'If your pension scheme is not set up for automatic tax relief' (which would apply where an individual makes a direct contribution rather than one via payroll).

xylophone

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/buying-added-pensions-and-epa/limitations-and-allowances/

To receive tax relief, if you buy added pension by cheque, you will need to tell HM Revenue & Customs about your contribution and explain you did not receive any tax relief from the pension scheme in relation to the added pension purchase.

Dazed_and_confused

I'm hoping that once I have the UTR I can do all this online, but all I seem to find out about online is how to claim a tax refund on pension payouts to ME, not pension payments INTO the pension!

If you successfully registered for Self Assessment second time around then you should be sent a return for 2018:19 and the pension contribution will be taken into account as part of your overall tax calculation for that year.

Note HMRC never give tax relief for the pension contributions of one year in the tax code of a different tax year.

But they will sometimes include pension contributions in your current 2019:20 tax code once they have processed your return on the assumption you will make a similar payment again in 2019:20.

If that happens and you don't plan on repeating the contribution again in 2019:20 you will need to ask HMRC to change your tax code to remove the pension relief element. Otherwise you will end up with a tax bill for 2019:20.

hugheskevi

You might find this old thread helpful to read through.

I'd avoid calling HMRC as the person you are speaking to may well know less about this type of pension tax relief than you do. Writing is better, as then the letter gets filtered to appropriately knowledgeable teams.

Bravepants

Thank you all for your replies. I shall try writing to HMRC directly, explain the situation and include the letter from MyCSP that serves as a receipt for my contribution.