Calculating additional LGPS contributions to retire early

german_keeper

Escapar2020 said:

german_keeper said:

"I'm working on £35k pretax income for two of us, but I'm the only one with a pension".

If your spouse/partner has potentially no retirement income it's probably worth putting any extra contributions into a pension for him/her. As it stands you are going to be missing out on £12,500 tax free income.

How does that work? Does it matter if they're self employed?

This just refers to the tax position after you have retired. If your income is £35k and spouse/partner income is nil you would have £12,500 tax free and pay 20% on £22,500. If the £35k was split for example as £22,500 for you and £12,500 for spouse/partner you would only pay tax on £10,000 as you could take advantage of 2 Personal Tax Allowances..
That's not quite the full picture as there is the Marriage Tax Allowance which allows you to move £1,250 of one person's PTA to the other but this only benefits you by £250.