Reclaiming tax on pension contributions (previous years allowances)

[AddledPeacock]

Does anyone know if I need to do this via self assessment or by contacting HMRC in some other way? I think you can claim cf relief by contacting HMRC direct.

situation: I made around 80k pension contributions last year, using the 60k allowance from 25/26 and 20k from last 3 years allowance. Trying to catch up on missed contributions! About 70k was done via salary sacrifice through work payroll so I am assuming that is all ok from tax pov. Higher rate tax payer.

10k done by paying directly into my SIPP, which has had 20% relief at source credited. How do I claim the additional tax relief, given that this relates to cf tax allowance from last 3 years, not current year? Thanks!

I did this via the onlne account at HMRC. You have to set up a Government Gateway account if you haven't already got one. I just had to let them know who the SIPP investment company were and the amounts and they calculated it.

They send you a payment to your bank though, rather than paying it into your pension.

Just to add, they also changed my tax code at work for the rest of last tax year, so that I paid less tax as a way of reclaiming the money. It was the previous years' additional contributions that were paid to me by bank.