LISA v ISA v Pension

[bodgersmash]

Am I right in thinking that a LISA doesn't make sense for me?

Higher rate tax payer. So I need to put as much as I can afford into a pension as I get £100 into my pension for £60 worth of post tax equivalent.

Already have a house, so for medium term savings, an ISA would be better than a LISA so I don't get penalised when withdrawing from it, given I'm not going to use it for a pension or a house.

Is this correct?

99% right.

One advantage of LiSA is that you can withdraw the lot in retirement and won’t get taxed a penny. Whereas pension income gets taxed.
If you’re likely to reach your lifetime pension allowance, then the extra money can get stashed away in a LISA instead.
Also £60 gets you £100 in your pension but £60 into LISA would get £75. So wouldn’t make sense if, say, you earn 100k and put 30k into a pension. However, if you earn 50k and put 15k into pension (taking you into the lower tax bracket), you might as well max out your LISA with some of the money.

Higher rate tax payer.
That makes the pension the most valuable due to the tax relief you get on your contributions (fill out a tax return to make sure you are claiming it all).

Already have a house, so for medium term savings, an ISA would be better than a LISA so I don't get penalised when withdrawing from it

Yes, useful for long term money which you are not ring-fencing specifically for retirement but may get used for that or may get used to bridge between finishing work and retiring.

Ooh I didn't know the bit about the tax return.... so I dont automatically get 40% tax "knocked off" at source? How does this work?

You get 20% automatically - you need to register for self-assessment to get the other 20% back. Self-assessments are pretty simple to do nowadays, all online through the government gateway portal.

Just googled this - it looks like some employers/pensions will apply the 40% relief at source? So I guess I need to check which applies.

www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/personal-pensions/contributing-to-a-private-pension-explained/tax-relief-on-pension-contributions-explained-a27f53z7qg3f

With a work pension everything gets sorted. You need to do the tax return if you’re putting money in a SIPP.

Thank you!