How much tax relief for carry forward pension allowance?

Albermarle

As you have been filing Self Assessment returns your current tax code may include a provisional adjustment to allow tax relief for the current tax year but you would have to inform HMRC if the amount you were contributing changed.

Yes my current tax code is adjusted in line with the extra contributions I made in the last tax year .
The extra contributions this year will be similar to last year but not exactly the same.
So I will have to inform HMRC of the exact amount . So by not doing SA , I have not saved any effort really .

Dazed_and_confused

So I will have to inform HMRC of the exact amount

In theory yes however if the amounts involved are small and you were going to tell them after the tax year has ended it may not be worthwhile as, outside of Self Assessment, HMRC tend to ignore very small amounts.

Of course your 2020:21 tax code is initially going to be based on 2019:20 tax code so at some point you will probably want to update them with more upto date figures even it is just for 2020:21.

But then your 2021:22 tax code will initially be based on your 2020:21 tax code...........

So by not doing SA , I have not saved any effort really .

Wouldn't quite go that far but you certainly won't have saved all interaction with HMRC.

intalex

intalex said:

I guess it's truly "use it by 5th April or lose it" when it comes to additional tax relief...

Am I right here? Is it truly "use it or lose it"? Or is there a way to resurrect higher rate tax relief from prior years?

Mick70

see see my post - the rules on tax relief maybe set for a change (according to today’s FT). 

Lorian

Just to add if you have that extra Tax code allowance for pension contributions and it does vary a bit each year then they quickest way to ask them to make the change is using 
https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account
However even simple things like savings income and receive child benefit for higher earners can mean you should be filling in a tax return, or else face a nasty mail at some point in the future.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

intalex said:

intalex said:

I guess it's truly "use it by 5th April or lose it" when it comes to additional tax relief...

Am I right here? Is it truly "use it or lose it"? Or is there a way to resurrect higher rate tax relief from prior years?

You can only ever get tax relief for the tax year that the pension contribution is actually paid in.

I think you are mixing up carry forward and tax relief.  Carry forward does not impact how tax relief works, you only ever get tax relief for the tax year the contribution is actually paid in.

So good it's been said three times now in this thread!

intalex

Reality is that I lacked enough awareness of the impact of pensions on saving tax in prior years, so I was just wondering if there is any way possible to retrospectively contribute into a pension and have tax relief as though it were done in the prior period. But yes, I get the message - it's not possible!