claim tax relief on pension: impossible! I need a professional...

loukitten

Dear all,

I've been trying to claim tax relief on my pension contributions for month with no luck.

I've followed this page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

after having contributed some considerable extra amount to my private pension for 3 years (within the tax-free allowance of 60K).

The first time just before the limit (they're supposed to reply within 28 days) I've received a letter saying I didn't provide enough evidence of having my contributions before or after tax, and required evidence of the net amount and the gross amount after tax relief.
I had already sent all the documentation from my pension providers so I honestly thought the employee didn't have the time to read it!

I had to do everything again, I called my pension providers again to find out if they could provide clearer statements, I have this time explained in details where they could find the info in my document (even specifying the page number).
Guess what? I have received the exact same letter again.

I'm fed up, I don't know what to do, it's not clear what they want and I can only to the process online again, I have no one to contact (I've contacted HMRC but they don't make me speak with the right person).

A friend suggested me to send them my March salary and my P60 but I don't see how this could help.

More than help to provide the right documentation, I'm so annoyed and fed up with them that I just want to pay a professional to do this for me, but I don't know who.

can you please let me know what type of professional would do this tax claim for me?

Many thanks!

lou

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6654052/claim-tax-relief-on-pension-impossible-i-need-a-professional

No professional could do anything you can't already do yourself.

Did you make normal "relief at source" contributions?

Marcon

Here's a brick wall, bash your head on it… Urgh!

Are you by any chance in a workplace pension where your contributions are deducted from your salary before it's taxed, and you are making personal contributions direct to this pension (and workplace pensions are private pensions) without going through payroll?

Regardless of the answer to that, don't pay someone to sort out the mess: complain. https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-hmrc

loukitten

Thanks for you replies.

@Dazed_and_C0nfused: I made a normal bank transfer to a pension scheme that was set up by my previous employer. I got the 20% tax relief added automatically, I'm trying to claim the extra 20%.
I assume my contribution classifies as "relief at source" while my employer contribution are "salary sacrifice"…?

@Marcon: I think the answer to that is: YES.
I have already complained, I can do it again but it's useless. I've used that link and I've complained with the HMRC agent I spoke online.

I don't know what to do, honestly I can just re-submit the same documents with the same explanation… I can add march payslip and p60 as my friend suggested, but this is crazy.

I even recently paid extra income tax they asked me for, but they owed me so much more!

I've also tried "unbiased" but no one replied so far, and an app called "pie tax" where they don't do this specific task but suggest to do a self-assessment via them.

I know nothing about Self-Assessment, is it worth paying for that? Would I get some assurance that I'll get my money back or am I just trying my luck?

Thanks a lot :(

Luisa

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81874460#Comment_81874460

It isn't worth paying anyone in connection with this, it's an utter waste of your money.

Did the evidence you supplied clearly demonstrate that you paid a net (relief at source) contribution and the pension company added the basic rate tax relief (which is 25% of what you paid)?

And was it evidence for the tax year(s) you were claiming additional relief for?

And were you definitely a higher rate payer in those year(s)?

A P60 is of no relevance to this. It won't show anything relating to relief at source pension contributions and HMRC will already have the earnings information from your employer.

Also, there is no specific "extra 20%" due. The additional relief due will depend on your particular circumstances. It could be 20%. Or less than 20%. Or more than 20%.

loukitten

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81874476#Comment_81874476

Oh yeah I got confused with the percentage, I thought I got 20% tax relief and so I was due an extra 20% because I pay 40% taxes…. but yeah the final exact amount is not that important.

In the pension provider document where I added my contributions, there is a section called "single premiums" with these columns:

Date, EE net, Tax relief, EE gross, ER gross, Total gross.

The EE net has the amount I paid, the Tax relief is the 25% of that amount, the EE gross is the previous amounts summed. ER gross is 0, Total gross is same as EE gross.

To me, this seems clear enough. Do you think it's missing something?

Why do you think it's not worth paying someone? I think I'm owned a big amount of tax and I've wasted already a lot of time and stress in this (I've been trying since September), so to me it would be worth it.

thanks,

Luisa

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81874524#Comment_81874524

That seems sufficient information to me (assuming the documents are for the tax year(s) you are claiming for) and EE and ER are fairly common abbreviations in the payroll/tax world.

If you want to pay someone then go ahead but there is simply no need to do that.

I think @Marcon's suggestion is a better bet.

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81874460#Comment_81874460

• If you paid contributions personally during your employment (ie by deduction from salary), they would have had tax relief at the basic rate added by the provider if they were taken from your net pay
• if they were taken from gross pay (ie before it was taxed), there would be no tax relief to add by the provider
• If you paid 'your' contributions by salary sacrifice, then they would have become employer contributions and you would not have been eligible for tax relief on them (you didn't receive the sacrificed bit of your salary in the first place, so wouldn't have paid either tax or NI on it)
• 'true' employer contributions are the contributions payable by your employer
• all employer contributions are always paid gross.

The answer to my question can't be 'YES' if this is a relief at source scheme - it's either a net pay scheme (hopelessly confusing terminology, since any personal contributions are in fact deducted from a member's gross pay before their pay is taxed), or a relief at source scheme - and I think it's the latter, given the details you've supplied above. Could you name the pension scheme in question, just to be quite sure it is relief at source?

In your answer to Dazed you've said you 'assume' and you 'think'. Getting into a scrap with HMRC is always frustrating and is guaranteed to be made worse if you aren't giving them absolutely correct and unqualified information.

I wonder if the confusion is arising because you've been drowned in the complexities and inadvertently given HMRC inaccurate information?

loukitten

@Marcon

this is becoming confusing, I'm going to change my nickname to "Dazed_and_confused_2" :P
(I'm joking, thanks for your patience with this).

I could add to the confusion that I'm actually claiming for 3 years and I've changed job and pension providers in the meanwhile, but anyway let's stick to the one where I added personal contributions.

It's a scottish widows "group personal pension plan" set up by my old employer.

The "regular premiums" that my old employer used to make fell under SALARY SACRIFICE. In the transaction history document they don't have an item under EE net, tax relief and EE gross (it's 0), but only ER gross which is the monthly payment done by my employer.

In addition to this, I have personally added a lump sum, from my own savings, within the tax-free allowance of 60K p.y.
I'm not sure how you would call this, but it's my money and it has nothing to do with my employer, I'm not sure if in your bullet points above these are included.
Anyway as mentioned before, they are in the document under "single premiums" that shows that after adding my amount, a 25% extra tax relief has been added.

Does this clarify my situation?

P.S. I did complain again…

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875460#Comment_81875460

That is a relief at source contribution.

Which is no doubt what the overwhelming majority of claims the new HMRC form for claiming relief is going to be used for.

With a bit of luck someone who knows what they are doing will look at your complaint.

You have probably already done this but if not you might want to make an advance note for yourself of what you expect the outcome to be, in terms of tax saving, so you are prepared for whatever tax calculations you eventually receive.

Marcon

I could add to the confusion that I'm actually claiming for 3 years and I've changed job and pension providers in the meanwhile, but anyway let's stick to the one where I added personal contributions.

I get you are thoroughly fed up with all this and your original post asked where to turn for (paid) help, but you would need to provide any paid ‘helper’ with full information – so no harm in trying to nail it down here as far as possbile, not least because it should crack the issues you are having with HMRC.

Let's try a few questions which I hope might be a bit simpler to follow/easier to answer, and should go a long way to help move things forward.

You say you are claiming for the last 3 years, but there was only one where you added personal contributions. In the other 2 years:

• were all your employee pension contributions made by salary sacrifice?
• if not, and you made 'employee' contributions by monthly deduction from your salary, were these contributions taken before or after they'd been subject to income tax?

and

• why are you only now claiming for the last 3 years - is this because you didn't know you could/didn't get round to it, or because you are trying to use something known as 'carry forward'?