Self Assessment Pension Query

The Self Assessment form asked me how much I earned in the 22-23 tax year and how much tax I paid, but not how much I contributed to my employers pension scheme. It is my understanding that anything I contribute towards my pension is tax deductible so where do I enter this? I'm concerned you are now telling me I haven't paid enough tax but have not taken into account my Pension contributions

You have misunderstood how tax and pension contributions work. Only some pension contributions can be included on a Self Assessment return, it all depends on the method used to contribute. If you pay via net pay then you cannot include them. The taxable pay value on your P60 will already reflect the contributions. If you use salary sacrifice you cannot include them as those are employER contributions. And you can never get tax relief on employer contributions. You would benefit by having a reduced salary for tax (and NI) purposes. Again your P60 would reflect this lower taxable earnings amount. Relief at source (RAS) contributions can be included on your return. This is where you pay the net contribution and the pension scheme adds basic rate tax relief. These contributions do not reduce your taxable income but do increase the amount of your basic rate tax band. So more tax can be paid at basic rate and less at higher rate.

Thanks for the advice. Im confused, I paid my pension and tax via my net pay through my employer - I then got told that I needed to fill in a self assessment due to the amount I earned. So having completed the form I'm told I now need to pay another 2k in tax. But I thought any Pension contributions came out of my wage prior to tax and I was paying more than the minimum amount into my pension, so why isn't this taken into account when calculating my self assessment and they haven't asked me for any details of my P60.

Hi kp

On the tailor your return section there is a question that asks if you made contributions to a pension scheme.
You need to answer yes to this to open the section where you declare them.

Thank you

@kp If this is true then you cannot include any pension contributions on your Self Assessment return as you have already received the correct tax relief. "But I thought any Pension contributions came out of my wage PRIOR to tax" These pension contributions would have reduced your taxable income, for example your salary is £130,000 but you pay 10% into your pension and your P60 shows taxable pay of £117,000. You use your P60 pay amount on a Self Assessment return so the pension contributions don't get included on the tax return as they have already been taken into account. The most likely reason for owing tax is that you provisionally received the Personal Allowance in your tax code but your actual earnings were high enough that you were only entitled to a reduced, or no, Personal Allowance. You might want to be more proactive going forward and ensure your tax code is as accurate as possible. Don't forget you will always know more about your expected income than HMRC ever can do and you can keep this upto date via your Personal Tax Account.