Question about one-off payments into Salary Sacrifice Schemes

Gaberdeen

So, I received the below from my HR Dept;

Apologies for coming back to you so late on this. I’ve queried this with payroll and our pension provider so hopefully I will be able to answer your query

 

While we can’t process other personal gains apart from your salary through our payroll system for pension purposes you will be able to make large pension contributions directly with LifeSight.

You will need to work directly with them to achieve this…but I have a few instructions from them concerning this matter:

 

• This facility can only be used once in any tax year.
• Members must either be Active members (i.e. still employed by xxxxxx)
• Contributions must be received by LifeSight by 5th April at the latest to ensure contributions are allocated on the member’s record in the current tax year.  
• Contributions cannot exceed 100% of the member’s eligible earnings during a tax year.
• The member is responsible for reclaiming any tax from HMRC in relation to this contribution. Once funds have been transferred to LifeSight, we will provide a confirmation letter that can be used to claim tax relief.
• LifeSight cannot provide members with any tax advice.
• Contributions to LifeSight will be invested in accordance with the member’s current investment strategy selection and this can be viewed and modified only though the LifeSight account. (You are going to receive access to your account soon.)
• LifeSight will only invest funds once a confirmation email has been received from the member advising of the amount and the date the monies have been paid to LifeSight

So, it looks like it is possible and they will issue a confirmation letter in order to reclaim the tax.

Thanks again to everyone who responded.

Albermarle

So, it looks like it is possible and they will issue a confirmation letter in order to reclaim the tax.

Not sure how straightforward that would be, and could be a few phone calls with HMRC needed as it is quite likely anyone you speak to will not really understand why you did not get the relief in the first place ( as it is relatively rare).
For simplicity I would open a new pension/SIPP for the lump sums, where you will get basic rate tax relief automatically. If you are a higher rate taxpayer you will still need to claim the higher rate relief from HMRC, but this a common situation so should not cause any confusion/problems.