cash basis accounting - end of year confusion

jodusno1

Hello folks, any help with this puzzle gratefully received:

I made a pension contribution on 4/04/2025, it was pending for a bit and then showed up in my pension dated 4/04/2025. So far so good. 

However my bank account has dated this transaction as 7/04/2025. So now I don't know whether to include this in my self-assement tax return for this financial year just gone. 

Whichever way I do it seems like it will be wrong - if I don't include it as a pension contribution this year then it won't match their records on pension/tax relief contribuition side. But if I do include it it feels as though I would be cooking the books by back-dating a tranaction.

Any ideas?

sgthammer

Include it in your 24/25 return. You made the transaction on the Friday, and it's gone into your pension accordingly, which means you can prove it if you have to (you almost certainly won't, though). Your bank not updating their records till Monday is possibly annoying, but not worth worrying about – especially as in plain cash terms you could easily find yourself in the same position next year, which makes it a wash. 

jodusno1

Thanks for the help. Yes I think I'll go for this.  Hopefully next year I'll get round to it a few days earlier to avoid it happening again.