Reclaiming higher rate pension tax relief

[fatandwheezing]

Turns out that since my salary rose into the 40% bracket, my pension has only been topped up with 20% tax relief.

Do I need to complete a tax return, or just write a letter to HMRC? And can I inky claim back the lady tax year?

I've had a good look around the website and all I've managed to conclude is that its too late to do a tax return this year...

[Eric Mc]

Phone HMRC after the Christmas break and explain the circumstances. They might just give you the tax relief by amending your current (2017/18) or even the next tax year's (2018/19) PAYE coding.

It's not too late to submit 2016/17 tax return.

The filing deadline for a 2016/17 self assessment tax return is 31 January 2018

[fatandwheezing]

Thanks for the reply. Ill give that a go.

[ringram]

Just reclaim it on a tax return. Simples

Tax codes are almost never right and doing a return is often of benefit. Especially if you throw VCT's etc into the mix

[fatandwheezing]

Quick call this morning, and all sorted. 600 quid back.

[Eric Mc]

fatandwheezing said:

Quick call this morning, and all sorted. 600 quid back.

Good result.

HMRC are doing their best to get people off Self Assessment. Their ultimate goal is to close the Self Assessment system down completely - for the simple reason, like self certified mortgages, self assessment has been a licence to effectively decide how much income you felt you wanted to return to HMRC.

It has been a national disaster and one that has perpetuated for over 20 years. I think it has only dawned on HMRC and the Treasurey in the past four or five years how much they have been taken for a ride over Self Assessment.

The whole introduction of Making Tax Digital is their current plan to kill SA - but the plan is faltering because it is proving extremely difficult to implement.

For those who are chiefly taxed under PAYE it SHOULD be posssible for HMRC to have a good handle on a person's tax affairs. That doesn't always prove to be the case however but rather than force people down the SA route, they are prepared to listen over the phone (even if that route is also potentially open to abuse).

Essentially, SA screwed up HMRC's ability to see what people were actually earning and MTD is an attempt to recitify that disastrous decision.