Include LISA payment on HMRC self assessment?

[Brauniac]

Obviously there are details and reasonings for all this but the basic question is:

I've recently gone above the lower threshold for Higher Income Child benefit charge and will need to fill in a tax self assessment for the first time. My situation is simple - one paye employer, no benefits other than child benefit and thats it apart from my LISA. As well as paying into my employers pension scheme I also pay into a government LISA - which I think of as a pension. I can (and do) pay max £4K a year into the Lisa and the government add £1k (20%). But I don't know if it formally 'counts' as a pension scheme? Can I (should I) include it in my self assessment under the private pension section?

I am no expert in such matters. Although you are thinking of it as a pension and that's what you will use the money for, it isn't technically a pension, it is a savings plan.

Who is the LISA provider? Perhaps you could ask them to clarify.

It works like an ISA doesn't it? The bonus and interest is tax free. On that basis I would think not.

No, you may view it as a pension scheme but it isn't. They don't need to be declared on your tax return and doing so would be incorrect.

Yes, fair enough I thought that might be the case. Although to be clear it's not just that I think of it as a pension; the government back it as an alternative pension - hence they give a 20% bonus every year (effectively making it tax free for lower tax payers) and you can't take the money out before you are 60 years old.

With a LISA you withdraw the money tax free

With a pension you are taxed on the withdrawals - which is why you get the tax relief when you put the money in

LISAs are not pensions.

Also, the government do not ever refer to LISAs as "an alternative pension". They do offer the LISA system as an alternative way to save for your old age, true, but it is not part of the pension system or the pensions tax system.

You do not need to declare a LISA bonus or withdrawals from a LISA as income on your self assessment tax return.

A LISA is a lifetime ISA. It is not a pension, it is an ISA.

The fact that it can have similar financial outcome to a pension does not make it one for tax purposes. The money will be tax free when you take it out, unlike a pension.

You don’t need to put your LISA, or any other ISA on your tax return