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Posted Thu, 09 Jan 2025 13:56:19 GMT by LT
Hi, am trying to calculate my adjusted net income when making direct contributions to my pension scheme.
When reviewing the HMRC guidance I find there are two versions of the calculation at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/adjusted-net-income.
Firstly it is stated that Adjusted net income is total taxable income before any Personal Allowances and less certain tax reliefs, for example: - pension contributions paid gross (before tax relief) - pension contributions where your pension provider has already given you tax relief at the basic rate — take off the ‘grossed-up’ amount
Then in Step 3 around calculating adjusted net income states: Step 3 — take off pension contributions If you made a contribution to a pension scheme where your pension provider has already given you tax relief at basic rate, take off the ‘grossed-up’ amount — what you paid plus the basic rate of tax.
So, for every £1 of pension contribution you made, take £1.25 from your ‘net income’. But then the example listed uses the amount put in a pension pot without the tax relief added on top: Income-related reduction to Personal Allowance, income over £100,000 Bill’s taxable income is £115,000, made up of: income from self-employment £85,000 income from property £20,000 bank interest £10,000 Bill makes private pension contributions without tax relief of £10,000. Bill’s net income is £105,000 (£115,000 less £10,000). There are no further adjustments to Bill’s net income, so this is his adjusted net income. This confuses me and makes it harder to calculate my adjusted net income. Could you please provide advise using the below example: As an example let say my salary for the financial year was £150,000 gross. I've made a pension contribution of £20,000 via salary sacrifice (amount taken before tax) but I also made an additional payment to my pension scheme directly of £24,000 (using money from my net salary after tax) and I get the tax relief at source in my pension pot so they become £30,000 (24,000 + 25% tax relief at source). Would my adjusted net income for the purpose of personal allowance be £100,000 in this case (£150k -£20k salary sacrifice - £30k grossed up direct pension contribution with tax relief at source included) or would my net income be £106,000 (£150k-£20k -£24k not taking into account the tax relief at source added by pension scheme) ?
Posted Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:58:50 GMT by HMRC Admin 25 Response
Hi LT,
For the adjusted net income if the pension contributions are deducted from your gross pay before tax is calculated then you would not deduct again as already taken in to account by your employer for your income.
If the pension contributions are from your net pay then it would be the grossed up figure that you would deduct for the adjusted net income. 

 

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