Tax Relief on Personal Pension contributions

timsmith

Hi

Im completing a tax return at the moment and one part Im completing is talking about tax relief on my personal pension contributions. This caused a discussion at work.

Our "work" pensions are acutally Personal Pension with our employer contributing. Obviously the pension firm claims back tax on our contributions at basic rate. My understanding is that using my tax return I can then claim back the extra as a higher rate tax payer.

The discussion followed as to whether, we quoting the cotnributions to the IR, these should be solely my contributions or mine and my employers contributions.

Effectively, can I claim back tax on the contributions my employer has made on my behalf?

This didnt seem quite right to me but my colleague assured me it was as it is still seen as "an overall contribution" into a personal pension pot.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Tim

whu

I have always been advised by my employers to claim back my contributions - no mention of employers contributions - can claim back 18% on last years contributions and 20% from this year

Bean_Counter

timsmith wrote: »

The discussion followed as to whether, we quoting the cotnributions to the IR, these should be solely my contributions or mine and my employers contributions.

I agree with whu, you can only get tax relief on your contributions.

The company gets tax relief on its contributions in its own tax comp.

dunstonh

employer contributions are paid gross and have nothing to do with your tax position. The employer puts it through their books and gets it classed as a business expense (meaning they get thet tax relief effectively).

timsmith

Thanks everyone for your answers. It's as I expected!

Tim