claiming tax relief from lump sum contribution to NHS pension

glitterwobbles

I made a lump sum contribution to my NHS pension to purchase extra pension. I am trying to claim the tax relief but keep hitting  a brick wall. As it was a lump sum contribution NHS pensions will not claim the relief so i wrote to HMRC including the receipt for the payment. 
I have spoken to them on numerous occasions but keep being told that cant claim tax relief as i am not a higher rate tax payer.
Am I misunderstanding the situation I thought that I could pay up to my yearly salary and still have tax relief. 

hugheskevi

As it was a lump sum contribution NHS pensions will not claim the relief so i wrote to HMRC including the receipt for the payment. 

I have spoken to them on numerous occasions but keep being told that cant claim tax relief as i am not a higher rate tax payer.
Am I misunderstanding the situation I thought that I could pay up to my yearly salary and still have tax relief. 

You are just one in a very long line of people who have experienced this issue over the last decade or more. HMRC consistently misunderstands the difference between contributions made under relief-at-source arrangements and contributions made where the provider applies no basic rate relief.

See this thread and post as a starting point, there are many if you search the forum.

Note that you will only get tax relief up to the amount of tax paid, you will not get 20% relief on income taxable at 0% as you would if this were a relief-at-source contribution.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

glitterwobbles said:

I made a lump sum contribution to my NHS pension to purchase extra pension. I am trying to claim the tax relief but keep hitting  a brick wall. As it was a lump sum contribution NHS pensions will not claim the relief so i wrote to HMRC including the receipt for the payment. 
I have spoken to them on numerous occasions but keep being told that cant claim tax relief as i am not a higher rate tax payer.
Am I misunderstanding the situation I thought that I could pay up to my yearly salary and still have tax relief. 

No, this crops up all the time.  Where there has been some misunderstanding is an assumption you will get 20% of your contribution back but it's more complicated than that.

Roughly how much of your income was taxed at basic rate?

And what was the contribution amount?

glitterwobbles

Thanks for your comment. I earned £40603 taxable pay. 
I paid 556.80 tax as my tax code was 1281L

Dazed_and_C0nfused

glitterwobbles said:

Thanks for your comment. I earned £40603 taxable pay. 
I paid 556.80 tax as my tax code was 1281L

That would mean you owe £5k 😳

Is there a digit missing from the tax figure??

glitterwobbles

sorry £5556,80

glitterwobbles

Getting worse I mean £5556.80

xylophone

See

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6311915/can-i-claim-back-the-tax

Dazed_and_C0nfused

glitterwobbles said:

Getting worse I mean £5556.80

Assuming your contribution wasn't more than ~£27.7k you will benefit from 20% tax relief.

Just might take a while to resolve with HMRC 😕

glitterwobbles

I am at the end of my tether as I cant seem to get them to understand what I want. I will send them another letter and try to make it clearer what I am asking them to do.
I must have spoken to at least 6 different people I clearly am not making myself clear. 
Although one person tried to tell me that no one got tax relief on pensions. you think that people working for the HMRC may have a basic understanding of tax.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

glitterwobbles said:

I am at the end of my tether as I cant seem to get them to understand what I want. I will send them another letter and try to make it clearer what I am asking them to do.
I must have spoken to at least 6 different people I clearly am not making myself clear. 
Although one person tried to tell me that no one got tax relief on pensions. you think that people working for the HMRC may have a basic understanding of tax.

Did the cleaner answer?

Seriously though people working for HMRC are actually more likely than most to know about this particular method of contribution as it's primarily something that happens with public sector defined benefit schemes. 

Like the civil service Alpha scheme that HMRC staff are presumably members of!!