Pension switching from Relief At Source to Salary Sacrifice

Scruffy_Meee

I am a higher-rate taxpayer and currently contribute to an employee pension scheme operated by my employer under the Relief at Source model. I try and maximise my pension contributions to reduce my exposure to the 40% income tax rate and to mitigate the impact of the child benefit income threshold.

Each year, I complete a Self Assessment tax return to reclaim the additional 20% tax relief on my pension contributions. However, last year HMRC adjusted my tax code to reflect the pension contributions directly, rather than issuing a lump-sum refund after filing. 

Starting in December, my employer will transition the pension scheme to a Salary Sacrifice arrangement. I understand that I’ll need to contact HMRC to request a reset of my tax code to reflect this change.

Looking ahead to the next tax return, I will have approximately seven months of contributions under the Relief at Source model and five months under Salary Sacrifice. How do I correctly fill in the tax return to report this mix of contributions in my Self Assessment.

Last year I entered by Pension contributions in the section under Tax reliefs - "Paying into registered pension schemes and overseas pension schemes" Box no 1.

but it does say "Do not include payments you make to your employer’s pension scheme which are deducted from your pay before tax or payments made by your employer." So I presume I would put on the initial 7 months of Relief At Source  from this year here but do I need to fill in anywhere else for the remaining 5 months of Salary Sacrifice contributions.

TIA

molerat

You don't need to report the sal sac contributions, HMRC are not interested in those as they are not your contributions but are employer contributions.  You will need to ensure your new reduced salary is correct in your on line tax account though.  Why are you completing SA, you can normally claim the relief with either a phone call or by filling the on line form. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

Scruffy_Meee

molerat said:

You don't need to report the sal sac contributions, HMRC are not interested in those as they are not your contributions but are employer contributions.  You will need to ensure your new reduced salary is correct in your on line tax account though.  Why are you completing SA, you can normally claim the relief with either a phone call or by filling the on line form. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

I was told I had to as I was over the child benefit cap + and had to much savings interest so I needed to fill in an SA?

Marcon

Scruffy_Meee said:

molerat said:

You don't need to report the sal sac contributions, HMRC are not interested in those as they are not your contributions but are employer contributions.  You will need to ensure your new reduced salary is correct in your on line tax account though.  Why are you completing SA, you can normally claim the relief with either a phone call or by filling the on line form. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

I was told I had to as I was over the child benefit cap + and had to much savings interest so I needed to fill in an SA?

If HMRC have told you that you need to complete a SA tax return, then you need to do so until they tell you otherwise.

DRS1

You could always look at this page
Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return - GOV.UK