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5 questions for pension savers filing their 2024-25 tax return
Higher earners can use their self-assessment to claim back unpaid tax relief on pension contributions
Most people saving into a pension don't need to file a self-assessment tax return. However, there are some situations in which pension contributions or pension income may require you to complete one.
Here, we set out five questions that both higher and basic-rate taxpayers who are saving into a pension need to ask before completing their 2024-25 self-assessment tax return.
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Get started1. Do you need to claim back extra pension tax relief?
If you're a resident in the UK for tax purposes and under the age of 75, you can get tax relief on pension contributions.
- Basic-rate taxpayers get 20% pension tax relief. This means a £100 contribution effectively costs £80, with your pension provider automatically claiming the relief.
- Higher-rate taxpayers are entitled to 40% tax relief. Your pension provider will still claim 20% for you, but you’ll usually need to claim the remaining 20% from HMRC, often through a self-assessment tax return. In practice, a £100 contribution effectively costs £60.
- Additional-rate taxpayers can claim 45% tax relief. As with higher-rate taxpayers, 20% is added by your pension provider, with the remaining 25% usually claimed from HMRC via self-assessment or by contacting HMRC directly.
Income tax rates in Scotland are different, which affects how much additional pension tax relief higher earners can reclaim.
How you receive tax relief also depends on the type of pension you have. Most private pensions, such as Sipps, and some workplace pensions use 'relief at source', where contributions are taken from your net pay after tax. If you pay tax at more than the basic rate, you may need to take action to claim the extra relief you’re entitled to.
In contrast, many workplace pensions use a net pay arrangement. Here, contributions are taken from your gross pay before tax, meaning you receive your full tax relief automatically, regardless of your tax band. If this applies to you, you won’t usually need to complete a self-assessment tax return for this reason alone.
If you’re unsure which system your pension uses, it’s worth contacting your pension provider. If you’ve missed out on tax relief in the past, you can usually backdate claims for up to four years. If you don’t complete a self-assessment tax return, you can also claim higher-rate relief directly from HMRC, either online via gov.uk or by post.
- Find out more: calculate pension tax relief.
2. Have you paid more into your pension than allowed?
You can get tax relief on pension contributions up to 100% of your earnings, or £3,600 if your earnings are lower. Most people also have a yearly limit of £60,000, known as the annual allowance.
Your personal limit might be higher or lower depending on your circumstances. For example, if you’re a high earner with ‘adjusted income’ of more than £260,000, your annual allowance could be as little as £10,000.
You or your employer may be able to contribute more than the yearly limit and still receive tax relief. This is possible by carrying forward any unused allowances from the previous three tax years.
- Find out more: how to fill out a self-assessment return.
3. Does the annual allowance affect you?
If you contribute more to your pension than your annual allowance and don’t have unused allowance from previous tax years to carry forward, the excess does not receive tax relief and is instead subject to the annual allowance tax charge.
If this applies, you must report the excess contributions on a self-assessment tax return so HMRC can calculate how much tax is due.
Your pension provider should tell you if you exceed the allowance within that scheme. However, if you have several pensions, you’ll need to keep track of total contributions yourself, as you may not get a warning if you exceed the allowance across multiple schemes.
You can either pay the charge yourself or ask your provider to pay it from your pension pot using scheme pays. This will reduce your future benefits. Providers are usually only required to offer scheme pays if the tax bill exceeds £2,000. In either case, the charge must be reported through self-assessment.
- Find out more: how the pensions annual allowance works.
4. Do you need to include pension contributions?
If you complete a self-assessment tax return, pension contributions are declared in the tax reliefs section.
Under ‘payments to registered pension schemes where basic-rate tax relief will be claimed by your pension provider’, you should enter the total gross value of your personal pension contributions.
If you forgot to include this information when filing online, you can log back in and amend your return before the 31 January deadline. You can also make changes online within 12 months of the self-assessment deadline.
If the mistake relates to overpaid tax outside this window, you'll need to contact HMRC to claim overpayment relief. Claims can usually be made for up to four years after the end of the tax year concerned.
- Find out more: tax returns 2025 – important deadlines.
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5. Has your pension income been taxed correctly?
Most pension income is taxed automatically through PAYE, so drawing a pension doesn't usually mean you need to file a tax return.
However, issues can arise if tax hasn't been collected correctly. For example, if you take a large one-off withdrawal from a pension, your provider may apply an emergency tax code, which can result in too much tax being taken.
In these cases, you can usually reclaim overpaid tax by completing a specific HMRC claim form. In some situations, particularly if there are other pension-related issues to report, self-assessment may be used instead.
