How to enter lump sum payments into personal pension on self assessment return

Enigmaman

I am unsure as to how to handle payments into my personal pension on my self-assessment return.

I made regular monthly contributions plus a couple of slightly larger one-off contributions.
Is this what this box is talking about? 

"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'? 

Should I enter anything in this box?

Or enter nothing and put the whole figure in the box below: 

"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:"

[Deleted User]

You enter the irregular contributions in the ‘one off’ box and the regular payments in the other box. 

There is a good reason for this. HMRC will assume that the regular payments will continue. If you put the one-off payments in the regular payments box they will assume that they will recur also. Not what you want!

CaptainParkingspace

Hi all, hope it's OK to reanimate this thread as I have a related question. Let me know if a new thread would be better.

I have only ever made lump-sum payments into my personal pension, so the two question boxes covering the same payment are confusing me. (I recall having the same confusion last year, so hoping I did it right.)

Say for example I paid in £4800 in one go, right before the end of the tax year, which with tax relief became £6000. The help notes and example about Emma make it clear I should put 6000 for the first question. Fine.

Now onto the second question, "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." Do I put £4800 there, as it's what I paid, or £6000, following the previous question's logic? There's no example provided so we don't know what Emma from the previous question did.

By way of explanation, it adds "One-off payments are payments made in the year to 5 April 2025 that you do not intend to repeat in the year to 5 April 2026." Well as a matter of fact I did intend to repeat it, and I have. So maybe I should leave it blank?

Enigmaman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81406030#Comment_81406030

Sorry, but I do not believe this is correct.

Google Gemini has this. Yes, I know it's AI but it does cite a cource and it also makes more logical sense.

"For your self-assessment tax return, you should enter your pension contributions as follows:

• Box 1 (Payments to registered pension schemes): Enter £2175.
  • This is the total grossed-up value of all your personal contributions for the tax year (both regular and one-off).
  • It is calculated by adding your monthly payments (£1175) and your one-off payments (£1000).
• Box 1.1 (Total of any ‘one-off’ payments): Enter £1000.
  • This box is used specifically to identify the portion of the Box 1 total that was a non-recurring lump sum.
  • GOV.UK +4"