Non tax payer - Pension contribution carry forward and tax relief at source.

From HMRC website; Non tax payers can get tax relief at 20% on the first £2,880 paid into a pension each year if both the following apply, 1, low income non tax payer and 2, pension provider claims tax relief (20%) at source. My query is, assuming no prior year contributions can carry forward be applied and contributions made by a non tax payer (£2,880 per year) for prior years and 20% tax relief at source be claimed by the pension provider for each of those years ? The pension provider themselves is unclear !

Hi,
 

If you are a non taxpayer and you meet the 2 criteria in your question, you can pay up to £2800 into your pension scheme and your pension provider can claim up to 20% tax relief for you, from HMRC. Thank you.

Hi, thanks for the reply, My query was second paragraph on the original post; ."...assuming no prior year contributions can carry forward be applied and contributions made by a non tax payer (£2,880 per year) for prior years and 20% tax relief at source be claimed by the pension provider for each of those years ?" Thank you.

Hi Simon D,

Sorry no.  

Your annual allowance is the limit on the amount of pension savings that can be made to all your pension schemes in a tax year before you have to pay tax on them.

This can be from a: defined contributions arrangement - where your pensions savings is the total contributions you (or a third party like your employer) have made, defined benefits arrangement.

Where your pension savings is the increase in the value of your promised benefits under the pension scheme, from the start to the end of the period your pension savings are measured (from 2016 to 2017 this is the tax year).  

You will not be taxed on pension savings over your annual allowance if you have enough unused annual allowance from previous years to carry forward.

You can carry forward unused allowance from the 3 previous tax years.

Your annual allowance for a non tax payer is £2800.00, so there is nothing left to carry forward.

Thank you. 

This response from the HRMC admins on this topic contradicts themselves. The amount from the HRMC webstate states £2880, not £2800 as the admin states. (i.e. £3600 gross is £2880 net with 25% relief) The question (which I also have as well as the original poster) is still unanswered. let me rephrase the original question to give HRMC admin a binary option to answer this question. I am a non taxpayer, but have had a pension, albeit unsued, in all the preceding years. I paid £0 into all my pensions 3 years ago. £0 into all my pensions 2 years ago. £0 into all my pensions 1 year ago and £2880 into all my pensions this tax year. If unused allowances are carried forward from the 3 previous tax years as stated, then can I: (a) pay an additional £2880 multiplied by 3 (£8640) into my contributions this year? (i.e. carrying forward this unused £2880 allowance) or (b) not pay any additional contributions as the £2880 amount is not actally an allowance, it is use-it-or-lose-it, and the allowance for any non-tax payer is £0 for the previous tax years, so there is nothing to carry forward?

This question is very clearly put and I too would appreciate a clear reply to it please. Just like HMRC Admin in an earlier reply,my SIPP provider has only copied and pasted a generic irrelevant non-answer to me!

Hi S Hughes,

The carry forward of unused allowances is only applicable when you have exceeded your annual allowance of £40,000 to reduce any pension savings tax charge that may be due. You can only claim relief on pension contributions in the actual tax year that they are paid and in your case your maximum will be £2880 as a non tax payer. You are correct in that it is not an allowance, but a rleief, and it is as you say a use-it-or-lose-it scenario.

Thank you.