Clarification on pension contributions on self assessment tax return

PledgeX2

I'm filling in my self assessment tax return for the first time and I'm struggling with the pension section.

I've had two jobs during the 2022/2023 tax year, both standard PAYE setups, nothing out of the ordinary. I've not got much paperwork from the first role which is making things tricker. I contacted the pension provider for my first job and they sent me a statement showing that the only contribution to the pension was £273.10. This was on a salary sacrifice scheme.

For the second job, the last payslip of the 2022/2023 tax year shows that I contributed £4,600.03 over the year, and my employer contributed £2,299.97. This is NOT a salary sacrifice scheme.

On the pensions page of the self assessment form, there's a bunch of different fields that you can populate. Would I be right in saying that my pension contributions from both jobs fall under the following section:

"Payments to registered pension schemes (also known as PPR) where basic rate tax relief will be claimed by your pension provider (called 'relief at source'). Enter the payments and basic rate tax:"

Would I be right in saying that the value I need to enter this section is 273.10 + ((4600.03/80)*100) = £6023.14?  I.e. Contributions from my first job (without adding tax relief as it was salary sacrifice), plus the net payment of my contributions from my second job, with the tax relief added.

I don't think it matters, but just in case, I am a higher rate tax payer.

Thanks for any assistance.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You can never claim any tax relief on a salary sacrifice contribution as you didn't pay it, your employer did.

You sacrifice salary in return for increased pension contributions.

For the second one you need to establish if the contribution was paid using the net pay method or relief at source.

PledgeX2

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

For the second one you need to establish if the contribution was paid using the net pay method or relief at source.

It's a relief at source method.

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

You can never claim any tax relief on a salary sacrifice contribution as you didn't pay it, your employer did.

You sacrifice salary in return for increased pension contributions.

I'm confused by this bit. So do I not include any contributions associated to the first job (the salary sacrificed one)? I'm a higher rate tax payer now, but I can't recall if I was at the time of those pension deductions.

To be honest I'm happy to just ignore the pension contributions from the first job just to try and keep things simple and reduce any complications, but I'm not sure if excluding it would make things even worse?! 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

PledgeX2 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

For the second one you need to establish if the contribution was paid using the net pay method or relief at source.

It's a relief at source method.

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

You can never claim any tax relief on a salary sacrifice contribution as you didn't pay it, your employer did.

You sacrifice salary in return for increased pension contributions.

I'm confused by this bit. So do I not include any contributions associated to the first job (the salary sacrificed one)? I'm a higher rate tax payer now, but I can't recall if I was at the time of those pension deductions.

To be honest I'm happy to just ignore the pension contributions from the first job just to try and keep things simple and reduce any complications, but I'm not sure if excluding it would make things even worse?! 

You cannot claim tax relief for pension contributions you didn't make.  Salary sacrifice are employer contributions so there is no tax relief for you to claim.

You benefitted by not paying tax (or NI) on the amount sacrificed.

You do include the relief at source contributions you paid.  Your net contribution plus the basic rate relief added by the pension company.

PledgeX2

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

You cannot claim tax relief for pension contributions you didn't make.  Salary sacrifice are employer contributions so there is no tax relief for you to claim.

You benefitted by not paying tax (or NI) on the amount sacrificed.

Right, so I don't declare pensions contributions made through salary sacrifice anywhere in my self assessment at all then?

It doesn't fall under any of the other categories on the page (listed below), so I guess I just leave them out?

• "Total of any 'one-off' payments to registered pension schemes included in the 'Payments to registered pension schemes where basic rate tax relief will be claimed by your pension provider' box:"
• "Payments to a retirement annuity contract (Also known as RAR) where basic rate tax relief will not be claimed by your provider:"
• "Payments to your employer's scheme which were not deducted from your pay before tax:"
• "Payments to an overseas pension scheme which is not UK-registered which are eligible for tax relief and were not deducted from your pay before tax:"

purdyoaten2

You don’t because you didn’t make the contributions - your employer did!