Pension carry forward allowance - how to claim/report?

[xeny]

I was in the fortunate position last tax year of being able to contribute in excess of the annual allowance to my work pension.

I made sure that I had sufficient unused pension annual allowance from the three preceding years that I could use carry forward to cover the otherwise excess contribution.

On going to complete my tax form, I discover I can specify I exceeded the annual allowance, but not that I intend to use allowance carry forward to cover it.

Is the expectation that in this situation, you are considered not to have exceeded the annual allowance, and hence no need to record it on the self assessment?

[supersport]

It seems it’s up to you to record how much of your previous years allowance you’ve used.

You just say how much you contributed gross and get the extra 25% back.

I assume that if you breached it for more than four years then that would affect the tax payable.

[xeny]

It's the employer's scheme and salary sacrifice, so I didn't even have to claim, just didn't pay the tax in the first place.

Googling at greater length as the clock ticked down finally found this post: https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/sa/53... . Essentially if you are over the pension annual allowance and have calculated you have sufficient carry forward annual allowance then you are not expected to enter anything in the excess pension payment field.

[MaxFromage]

Yes no need to keep records, but I'd use the HMRC calculator to keep a record:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-have-unus...

[Roger Irrelevant]

xeny said:

Is the expectation that in this situation, you are considered not to have exceeded the annual allowance, and hence no need to record it on the self assessment?

This is my understanding from having researched this exact question as I'll be using carry-forward this year and quite possibly next. Essentially the 'normal' annual allowance is deemed to be increased by any unused AA from the previous three tax years. It gets a bit more complicated if you've also used carry-forward in the previous three tax years, but it doesn't sound like you have (and I haven't either). So provided your contributions were under (normal AA + any CF allowance), there's nothing to report on self assessment. Which was quite a pleasant surprise as I assumed there'd be some sort of PITA notification necessary.

[xeny]

MaxFromage said:

Yes no need to keep records, but I'd use the HMRC calculator to keep a record:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-have-unus...

In my case it is a hybrid scheme, which isn't supported by the calculator, but they do at least provide a clear annual report of amount of allowance used.

[kith]

Question on calculating the annual allowance and the HMRC calculator. Do you just input the value of the contributions into your pot each year per your pension statement or have to gross these up for the tax saved?

Also, I’m now self employed and planning to make a lump sum contribution this tax year - do I enter the £ value of the contribution I’m making on may tax return (and allowance calculator) or gross it up for the 20% tax credit reclaim that will be applied by the pension company?