Pension tax relief calculator

Salary sacrifice: your salary is reduced and your employer pays the difference into your pension. You save income tax and National Insurance, and so does your employer.

Net pay: the contribution is taken from your pay before income tax, so you get relief at your top rate automatically. National Insurance is still charged on it.

Relief at source: the contribution is taken after tax and your provider adds 20%. Higher and additional rate taxpayers claim the extra 20% or 25% through Self Assessment or by contacting HMRC. Personal pensions and SIPPs always work this way.

Relief at source only gives you 20% automatically. If you pay higher rate tax, you can claim another 20% on contributions that match income taxed at 40%, and 25% where income is taxed at 45%. Claims can go back four tax years. In Scotland, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rate taxpayers can claim relief above 20%. The calculator shows the amount you can claim.

You can pay in up to £60,000 a year, including employer contributions and tax relief, and get relief on personal contributions up to 100% of your UK earnings, or £3,600 gross if you earn less. For people with threshold income above £200,000, the allowance tapers by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over £260,000, to a minimum of £10,000. Once you flexibly draw a pension, the money purchase annual allowance of £10,000 applies. Unused allowance from the previous three years can be carried forward.

From 6 April 2029, pension salary sacrifice above £2,000 a year will attract employee and employer National Insurance, so larger salary sacrifice contributions will lose part of their NI advantage. Income tax relief is unchanged. The normal minimum pension age, the earliest you can usually draw a private pension, rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028.