Pension contributions tax question

[Truffleshuffle84]

I've a new job, my pension contributions into the company pension comes off after tax and I've been told they don't do a salary sacrifice arrangement for contributions.

Is it possible to claim the tax back on those contributions essentially making them equivalent to salary sacrifice?

I've searched online but it's all a bit vague and confusing.

Thanks

20% tax will be added to your pension pot automatically. If you’re a higher rate taxpayer then you will need to do a self assessment to claim the extra.

www.gov.uk/guidance/pension-administrators-reclaim-tax-relief-using-relief-at-source

As above 20% is done automatically. If you’re a higher rate tax payer you can reclaim the other 20% via self assessment.

But note that isn’t the same as salary sacrifice because that involves a national insurance saving too, which no, you can’t get unless salary sacrifice.

Ah, excellent. Thanks for confirming

As above about your PAYE tax, however, unfortunately you never get the NI tax back that you've paid on the higher earnings, as salary sacrifice is technically lowering your earnings.
I never understand why a company doesn't operate salary sacrifice on pension, as employers have to pay 15% employers NI on your salary too, so they'd save themselves money, as well as save their staff money. (Im an accountant in a big PLC).
Always worth suggesting it to your rewards and benefits team if you have one

The other difference is that any tax relief you claim via self-assessment goes back to you rather than into your pension like it would if you did salary sacrifice.

I've often wondered why som companies don't offer SS too (I work in pensions). The only thing I can think of is if they have lots of workers earning NMW or not much more, which creates issues if SS results in someone getting less than NMW after SS deductions.

You don’t actually have to do self assessment, you can just send a letter to HMRC (if you pay 40% tax). And they sterns the tax you, rather than into your pension, which is a bit annoying but hey ho. There are some good YouTube videos etc on how to do, it’s fairly easy. I do this for my SIPP.