Confused about personal pension relief

Dazed_and_C0nfused

waveyjane said:

OK I think I understand now. During my phone call with HMRC they said that I wasn't expected to make a self assessment just for claiming the rebate, and that I should just call or write to them next time with the gross contribution figure. That may be less confusing perhaps?

If you have no other reason to need to complete a return then yes, it's easy to do.

But the same principle applies, you will get tax relief provisionally through your tax code and then it gets finalised after the tax year ends.

The simplest thing by a country mile is to keep HMRC informed of your contributions and keep your tax code as accurate as possible.  Then no surprises after the tax year ends.

Albermarle

waveyjane said:

OK I think I understand now. During my phone call with HMRC they said that I wasn't expected to make a self assessment just for claiming the rebate, and that I should just call or write to them next time with the gross contribution figure. That may be less confusing perhaps?

Alternatively you can request a change in tax code via your on line personal tax account, citing as the reason - increased or decreased pension contributions. The only issue here is you need to be able to work out yourself what your new tax code should be. I suppose if you calculated wrongly they may correct it. Or as D&C says if you did get it wrong, it all comes out in the wash when your final tax calculation is done. If you do not do SA, then this calculation is usually done in October/November after the tax year in question.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Albermarle said:

waveyjane said:

OK I think I understand now. During my phone call with HMRC they said that I wasn't expected to make a self assessment just for claiming the rebate, and that I should just call or write to them next time with the gross contribution figure. That may be less confusing perhaps?

Alternatively you can request a change in tax code via your on line personal tax account, citing as the reason - increased or decreased pension contributions. The only issue here is you need to be able to work out yourself what your new tax code should be. I suppose if you calculated wrongly they may correct it. Or as D&C says if you did get it wrong, it all comes out in the wash when your final tax calculation is done. If you do not do SA, then this calculation is usually done in October/November after the tax year in question.

Pretty sure you don't really need to be able to work out yourself what the new tax code should be, you just need to report the up to date pension contributions figure for the current tax year.  Making it clear if this is gross or net.

HMRC should then use this to calculate a new tax code.

There are situations where the tax code addition for the pension contributions isn't as straightforward, for example where higher rate relief is due but only basic rate tax is being paid under PAYE.

Or higher rate relief is only due on part of the gross contribution.

Or there is a knock on effect to other elements of the tax code such as Gift Aid, tax underpayments being collected in the code or the amount of interest which can be taxed at 0%.

Not every case will be as straightforward as the op's 😀

Albermarle

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Albermarle said:

waveyjane said:

OK I think I understand now. During my phone call with HMRC they said that I wasn't expected to make a self assessment just for claiming the rebate, and that I should just call or write to them next time with the gross contribution figure. That may be less confusing perhaps?

Alternatively you can request a change in tax code via your on line personal tax account, citing as the reason - increased or decreased pension contributions. The only issue here is you need to be able to work out yourself what your new tax code should be. I suppose if you calculated wrongly they may correct it. Or as D&C says if you did get it wrong, it all comes out in the wash when your final tax calculation is done. If you do not do SA, then this calculation is usually done in October/November after the tax year in question.

Pretty sure you don't really need to be able to work out yourself what the new tax code should be, you just need to report the up to date pension contributions figure for the current tax year.  Making it clear if this is gross or net.

HMRC should then use this to calculate a new tax code.

There are situations where the tax code addition for the pension contributions isn't as straightforward, for example where higher rate relief is due but only basic rate tax is being paid under PAYE.

Or higher rate relief is only due on part of the gross contribution.

Or there is a knock on effect to other elements of the tax code such as Gift Aid, tax underpayments being collected in the code or the amount of interest which can be taxed at 0%.

Not every case will be as straightforward as the op's 😀

OK , perhaps I was trying to be 'too clever' and calculated myself what my new tax code should be. Then requested this with the explanation. Anyway it worked.