Tax relief

johnboy13

Hello, I currently earn a basic £47,318 per year. This year ive earned £56,788 with my bonus and overtime.

Ive put into my DC Pension £7422 this tax year and £1,910 into my DB Pension. How much tax could I get back if I did a self assessment. TIA

Isthisforreal99

Depends on the method of relief for your DC and DB schemes. And what is your actual taxable pay?

What makea you think you need to Self-assess?

johnboy13

Sorry I earned £54,636 & paid £10,115 tax & £2,993 in National Insurance.

DRS1

The reason @Isthisforreal99 asked about the method of relief is that there are different ways of contributing to a pension and each carries with it a different method of tax relief.

If you used salary sacrifice then you haven't actually put anything into your pensions. Instead your earnings are reduced and your employer makes a pension contribution. This saves you tax and NICs because your taxable earnings are less than they would otherwise be.

If you contribute using the relief at source method then your higher rate threshold is increased by your gross contribution. In that case you might get some tax back. No need to self assess. There is an online form here

Claim tax relief on your private pension payments - GOV.UK

There is a third method called Net Pay. If that is used you have, I think, had all the tax relief you are going to get.

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661007/tax-relief

At first sight this is going to look horribly complicated, but I'm afraid that's pensions for you!

There's an excellent, clear explanation here about pension contributions and how/when tax relief is given: https://www.litrg.org.uk/pensions/paying-pensions/tax-relief-pension-contributions

Once you've read that, you need to check how your contributions have been made during this tax year. There is no further tax relief available for contributions made via the net pay or salary sacrifice routes, for reasons fully explained in the article to which I've linked.

Any higher rate relief would need to be claimed by you in respect of contributions you made to a 'Relief at Source' scheme. You can only claim higher rate relief to the extent you've actually paid higher rate tax in the first place. So you need to check how much of your earnings in this tax year will fall into the higher rate tax bracket.

Looking at the figures you've given, the higher rate tax you've paid will be based on a maximum of £56,788 - £50,270, so £6,518. If all your DC contributions were paid by you personally to a Relief at Source scheme, your claim for higher rate relief will therefore be limited to higher rate tax paid on £6,518.

If you already do self assessment, you'll need to claim higher rate relief that way, otherwise you can do it now online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments

hugheskevi

For future years, it is worth noting that you can get higher rate relief on up to £10,000 of contributions made via Relief at Source through your Tax Coding notice.

That just involves a quick call to HMRC at any time (even in advance of the tax year starting and before contributions are made) to tell them of your personal pension contributions, and HMRC will issue a new Tax Code that gives you all the higher rate relief due through PAYE.

You can get amounts higher than £10,000 in-year through Tax Coding notice too, but that has to go through the tool Marcon links to above, as HMRC demands evidence for (gross) contributions over £10,000 (for example, contributions made to date, payslip showing regular contributions, etc).

Veloflyer

A related Q perhaps - I have a higher tax rebate to claim for 25/26. In previous years I went through the HMRC on-line application with proof of contributions and they adjusted the tax code to suit. This was fine. However given I am retired, at present I envisage no (taxable) income for 26/27. Adjusting the tax code will thus be of little use in obtaining the rebate. Are they amenable to sending a cheque/crediting my bank account?

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81935206#Comment_81935206

For sure they can just send a bank transfer, but I am not sure how to make sure they use that method.

However if you currently have no taxable income, then they can not give you a tax code, so they would have to pay you direct ( I think) .

johnboy13

Thanks everyone for replying, it's seems a bit complicated to me.

So, i pay £191 into my DB, for which my company puts in £986, (25% of my wage)The pension now is doing really well because there is no more final salary and those who started around 6 years ago can't join this certain pension. So, the pension only costs me £304 so they give me £682 to do with what I want. So instead of extra pay it goes into my DC Pension. I then put in an extra £315 & £39 too. So if I'm only 20% tax relief, is that right.

johnboy13

Screenshot_20260324_113042_Chrome.jpg

This is my payment method for the sums mentioned.

molerat

However if you currently have no taxable income, then they can not give you a tax code, so they would have to pay you direct ( I think) .

My SIL has no PAYE income, only SP, but every year - even pre SP with no income - has a code issued against a job she left in 2021. This year it was a K code and they show an estimated total income of £16K - way above her SP. No code though showing for next year, maybe they have figured it out !