Paying into a pension earns tax relief, but higher and additional-rate taxpayers often have to claim part of it themselves, and many never do. We make sure you get every pound of relief you are entitled to, including earlier years.
Pension Tax Relief
Pension contributions attract tax relief at your highest rate. Basic-rate relief is usually added automatically, but higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers frequently have to claim the extra 20 or 25 per cent themselves through their tax return. Countless higher earners contribute for years without ever claiming the additional relief they are owed.
Your Tax Help Accountants checks your pension contributions against your income, claims the higher or additional-rate relief you are due, and backdates it where earlier years are still open. We also make sure you stay within the annual allowance and use carry-forward where it helps. Full relief, nothing left on the table.
If you are a higher or additional-rate taxpayer paying into a personal pension, the scheme only adds basic-rate relief, you must claim the rest through your return. Many people miss it entirely, and it can be worth thousands over a few years.
The Detail That Matters
Pension contributions attract tax relief at your highest rate, but higher and additional-rate taxpayers often only get the basic 20% added automatically and must claim the rest themselves. Millions never do, leaving thousands of pounds of relief unclaimed.
Pay into a personal pension and the provider adds 20% basic-rate relief automatically: an £80 net contribution becomes £100 in the pension. For basic-rate taxpayers that is the full relief due.
Higher-rate (40%) and additional-rate (45%) taxpayers are entitled to a further 20% or 25%, but only the 20% is added automatically. The extra must be claimed through your tax return or by contacting HMRC, and countless people simply never do.
Relief is available on contributions up to the £60,000 annual allowance (or your earnings if lower), plus unused allowance carried forward from the previous three years. Employer contributions count towards it.
Where higher-rate relief was never claimed, we can recover it for the current and earlier open years, often a meaningful refund, and set up the claim to continue automatically each year.
The single most common pension mistake is a higher-rate taxpayer paying in for years and only ever getting the automatic 20%, quietly missing the extra 20% they are fully entitled to claim.
Key Figures
How We Help
We claim the extra 20 or 25 per cent pension relief that higher and additional-rate taxpayers must claim themselves, which many never do.
Where prior years are still open, we backdate the claim and recover the additional relief you missed, often a meaningful sum.
We make sure you stay within the annual allowance and use unused allowance from earlier years where it lets you contribute more with relief.
All the forms, calculations and correspondence handled on your behalf, so you never have to decode HMRC's rules or sit on hold.
A clear fixed fee quoted after a free call, your position explained in plain English, and never a surprise bill.
We act quickly, and where earlier years are involved we put those right too, reclaiming refunds or minimising penalties.
The single biggest pension tax mistake is higher earners never claiming their higher-rate relief, because they assume the pension provider handles all of it. We recover it, and make sure your contributions stay within the allowances.
Recent Client Outcome
A higher-rate taxpayer had paid £500 a month into a personal pension for four years and never claimed higher-rate relief.
What we did. We calculated the additional 20% relief due on the gross contributions, claimed it for the current year and backdated the earlier open years, and registered the ongoing claim.
The outcome. They received a backdated refund covering several years of unclaimed higher-rate relief, worth well over £1,000, plus the extra relief every year going forward.
The pension was already funded; all we did was recover the relief they had been entitled to, but never claimed, all along.
Why People Come to Us
Questions Answered
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