Limit on pension contributions -salary sacrifice

22johnny22

I understand there is a limit of £60,000 or 100% of my salary that I can contribute into a pension p/a but wondered how any limit applies via salary sacrifice.

if I earn £80,000 per annum can I sacrifice £50,000 to leave an income of £30,000 or so is this considered as me contributing more than my salary?

FIREDreamer

22johnny22 said:

I understand there is a limit of £60,000 or 100% of my salary that I can contribute into a pension p/a but wondered how any limit applies via salary sacrifice.

if I earn £80,000 per annum can I sacrifice £50,000 to leave an income of £30,000 or so is this considered as me contributing more than my salary?

Fine to do that as long as £30,000 exceeds minimum wage - which it should do unless you do stupid hours for your £80,000.

r6mile

Also my understanding is that via salary sacrifice you are not the one contributing to your pension, it's your employer. So you are not limited by the 100% of earnings limit. 

Secret2ndAccount

Yes, if you did that, your company would be contributing 50,000 and you would be contributing zero. Therefore your personal contrib (zero) would be a lot less than your earnings (30k). 
Presumably your company is also paying its own contribs to your pension - maybe 3k, could be more - what they would be paying if you weren't using salary sacrifice. Don't forget to add this in to your total annual pension contribs, which must be <60k