Pension relief and salary sacrifice

[JennyLake]

Sorry if this been asked a hundred times - every previous question I could see is slightly different circumstances. Higher rate tax payer with personal pension through work. My contributions are via salary sacrifice therefore before tax. This means the full 40% tax relief is applied automatically and I shouldn’t claim tax relief via self assessment. Is that right?

Yes. That’s what happens with mine.

Yes if it's been doing through your salary you have already got all your tax reliefs

There’s no tax relief needed because you’ve not paid tax on the salary it comes from. So it doesn’t go on your tax return.

You'd only need to do self assessment if you were additionally paying into a private pension where only basic tax is applied.

Or paying into a charity with only the basic tax relief is claimed as gift aid.

Your pay slip should make this clear. Your taxable salary will be the amount after your pension is deducted.

Yes. Salary sacrifice means you have agreed to your salary being reduced and in exchange your employer makes the pension contributions you otherwise would have made (giving rise to an NI saving). Because your salary is reduced no tax is payable on the amount it has been reduced by (it's not tax relief per your OP, it is simply not payable).

Thanks all!