Claiming tax relief on private pension

Painter23

Hi there. I pay into my employer's workplace pension as usual but for the past few years I've also paid into a private St James Place pension.

I pay £300 per month into the SJP pension on to which a further £75 is automatically paid in tax relief giving a monthly contribution to the scheme of £375.

My financial advisor says I can claim £75 worth of tax relief back each month though my self assessment - which would mean I'm owed c.£1600 since I took out the pension in the 23-24 tax year.

Last year I attempted to start a tax return to claim the tax relief but every option I selected as to why I needed to complete a self assessment was rejected - it didn't seem like I was able to articulate why I was doing a self assessment or choosing the right options.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong or if I'm even going about it the right way?

chockydavid1983

If you don't need to complete a self assessment for any other reason, you can just call HMRC to advise them of your pension contributions. I used to do this years ago and I think that included previous years contributions as well. Just googled and I believe the number is 0300 200 3300.
On a separate note, I don't have any experience of SJP but you may want to do a search of this forum for them as their name often comes up in a negative sense.

NoMore

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

Use the above. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

chockydavid1983 said:

If you don't need to complete a self assessment for any other reason, you can just call HMRC to advise them of your pension contributions. I used to do this years ago and I think that included previous years contributions as well. Just googled and I believe the number is 0300 200 3300.
On a separate note, I don't have any experience of SJP but you may want to do a search of this forum for them as their name often comes up in a negative sense.

You can no longer do that, certainly not for a first claim.  See the up to date position as posted by @NoMore

artyboy

Painter23 said:

Hi there. I pay into my employer's workplace pension as usual but for the past few years I've also paid into a private St James Place pension.

I pay £300 per month into the SJP pension on to which a further £75 is automatically paid in tax relief giving a monthly contribution to the scheme of £375.

My sales rep says I can claim £75 worth of tax relief back each month though my self assessment - which would mean I'm owed c.£1600 since I took out the pension in the 23-24 tax year.

Last year I attempted to start a tax return to claim the tax relief but every option I selected as to why I needed to complete a self assessment was rejected - it didn't seem like I was able to articulate why I was doing a self assessment or choosing the right options.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong or if I'm even going about it the right way?

Fixed one bit for you. I appreciate you didn't ask for advice on this point, but I would strongly suggest you compare the fees (initial, ongoing, exit) and the fund performance of SJP versus, well, just about any other option on the market.

Their sales reps talk a good talk, but assuming you haven't already drunk the Kool Aid here, you will find much better and cheaper options out there for your pension.

QrizB

Painter23 said:

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong or if I'm even going about it the right way?

Are you a higher-rate taxpayer?

jaybeetoo

As this site is all about saving money, I don’t think you’ll find many fans of SJP.  I suggest you do a search.

Painter23

Thanks all.
I'm aware of the noise about SJP but the portfolio I'm paying into is outperforming my workplace L&G pension quite a bit and has done for the last few years. 

I'll try giving the HMRC a call to find out how best to go about it.

artyboy

Painter23 said:

Thanks all.
I'm aware of the noise about SJP but the portfolio I'm paying into is outperforming my workplace L&G pension quite a bit and has done for the last few years. 

I'll try giving the HMRC a call to find out how best to go about it.

I would hazard a guess that this is more to do with your fund selection within your workplace pension than any financial excellence on the part of SJP...

To test that, maybe compare both with the performance of a simple, diversified and (to the point) very cheap global equity tracker like HMWO, and see how that looks...

QrizB

Painter23 said:
I'm aware of the noise about SJP but the portfolio I'm paying into is outperforming my workplace L&G pension quite a bit and has done for the last few years. 

As above, that's almost certainly due to fund selection. You've probably chosen higher-risk investments with SJP than you have with L&G 

Which fund(s) is your SJP pension invested in? And which fund(s) with L&G?