Claiming tax relief

Gimmeaminute

Hi all

I am 57 and currently in receipt of my LGPS pension. I work for the NHS and have been paying in to my NHS pension for about 5.5 years. I have worked out that from April 2026 my combined income from wages plus pension will take me in to the Higher rate tax band which is 42% in Scotland. To avoid this I am considering opening a SIPP and paying enough into it to ensure that my tax liability remains at 21% on current income. This will hopefully give me the option to leave my job in a few years and live off the LGPS pension and the SIPP until my NHS and the state pension kick in at SPA. I also have a couple of bank accounts outside of ISAs earning interest of just under £1000pa, so what decision I make might affect that too.

I appreciate that this question may have been asked before and I have read several posts about it and looked on the HMRC website, but still can't get my head round what needs to happen. Is as simple as paying a few thousand into a sipp each year, waiting till the end of the tax year then completing an online HMRC form giving details of all my income and savings and let them sort it out or is there more to it than that? Also, is there a better or easier way of doing it?

Any advice welcome. Thank you.

molerat

Fill in the form on line. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

If you know how much you are going to pay in early on in the year you could just phone HMRC up and tell them the gross amount - what you pay in + the 25% tax uplift - and you will likely get an in year adjustment to code out the additional tax so you never actually pay it.

Albermarle

You will get basic rate tax relief added automatically by the pension provider.
If you inform HMRC of the gross amount added in the tax year ( so including the tax relief) this will be included in your tax calculation for the year.

Gimmeaminute

Thanks both, I was definitely overthinking it. Appreciate your comments for piece of mind.

SacredStephan

I believe that if you report personal pension contributions of more than £10K gross HMRC will require proof in the form of a statement from the pension provider/platform. The online form linked above allows you to upload this.

Edit: the £10K limit was removed from 1 Sept 2025.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-schemes-newsletter-172-august-2025/newsletter-172-august-2025

QrizB

SacredStephan said:

I believe that if you report personal pension contributions of more than £10K gross HMRC will require proof in the form of a statement from the pension provider/platform. The online form linked above allows you to upload this.

Last year, I reported £8k gross which HMRC somehow interpreted as £8k net, £10k gross and then asked me for evidence!

By the time they'd replied to me it was March and it was simpler to just let the tax year roll over and fix it in my Self Assessment.

DRS1

I thought I read somewhere that they have changed it so they will ask for evidence even if the contribution is below £10k gross.

ussdave

DRS1 said:

I thought I read somewhere that they have changed it so they will ask for evidence even if the contribution is below £10k gross.

I've been asked for evidence for contributions below 1k (most of my contributions are by SS so this is just for a small extra sipp).

SacredStephan

DRS1 said:

I thought I read somewhere that they have changed it so they will ask for evidence even if the contribution is below £10k gross.

You are correct (and I was wrong in my earlier post), and also claims can no longer be made by phone.