Wait - should I have been claiming pension tax relief on my self-assessment forms?

[PizzazzRoxyStorma]

I'm a 40% tax payer, who jumped down a rabbit hole trying to work out what the impact on take-home would be if I bumped my work pension contributions up by £250 a month. Now I'm wondering if I have been missing out on a massive chunk of change via Self-Assessment for the past few years. Please can somebody wiser than I am set me on the right track?

I pay into two pots every month: my workplace pension (£400 matched by employer, plus an additional voluntary contribution of £350). I also pay £100 into a small personal pension.

Now I am reading online that, in addition to getting 20% tax relief at source / via my payslip, I should have been actively claiming an additional 20% via my annual SelfAssessment form for HMRC.

Does this this sound right? Would it not have been credited automatically?? Either via my payslip or the online self-assessment form?

If you know anything about this and can point me in the right direction, thank you!

If the work scheme is salary sacrifice then the 40% would have been automatically covered by your salary reduction.

If it's not salary sacrifice then you may have to claim via self assessment.

For the £100 into a personal pension yes you would need to claim that extra back via self assessment

It depends whether your contributions are salary sacrifice, relief at source or net pay arrangements. Check with your employer or look at your payslip. You may need to claim additional tax relief on self assessment depending on the arrangement.

Thank you for the advice. I've scoured payslips but they aren't clear. I'm going to pick this up with HR. Fingers crossed I'm in line for a payout!

You should be able to claim HR relief back to 2019/20 on the personal pension (and the rest if it's not net pay).

I recommend joining the meaningful money community on Facebook for advice on this kind of stuff.

What salary does your p60 show?

Your payslips will show whether you're taxed after your pension contributions or before so you should be able to work it out yourself. If you are salary sacrifice then you'll be taxed after your contribution comes off.