Delayed tax relief at source

Hi all, I have an account for which I add pension contribution to from my net salary. I get relief at source when I add a contribution i.e. I had £1000 I get an extra £250. However, the £250 tends to take 11 weeks or more to appear in my pension account so Feb and March don't come in until after Apr 6th. I wanted to check what should be declared on a self assessment pension for the relief that comes in after April 6th. Should I declare that I made £1000 in contributions or £1250 as we know the £250 is incoming? Thanks Phil

Hi,
The date the relief is applied is not relevant as it is the date of the actual contribution that determines when you can claim. You can refer to the following guidance to ensure your contributions/relief are claimed in the correct tax year.
Deemed date of contributions
Thank you.

Thanks HMRC for the fast response. Can I double check my understanding: Tax year 2024/25: £1000 cash contribution with debit card paid. The pension company applies to HMRC for tax relief in 2024/25. Tax relief of £250 arrives in tax year 2025/26. You can claim only the £1000 on you 2024/25 tax return as pension but your £250 relief on you 2025/26 return? Thanks!

My reading of the HMRC response, and other material online, is the opposite - claim the entire £1250 in 2024/25. There aren't any boxes on the tax return for contributions with relief pending in a future year, nor relief received in respect of an earlier year, and Finance Act 2004 s. (1) and (3) [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/12/section/192], though not entirely clear, seem to favour treating the entire contribution as an indivisible single event.

Hi ,
 

Please have a look a the guidance at PTM041000, which advises that the deemed date of contribution is the date on which the details are received by the scheme administratore.  This will then determine the tax year in which the payment is made and the tax relief is claimed.  See :    PTM041000 - Contributions: essential principles   .   Thank you .

@HMRC Admin 17 Nothing in PTM041000 explicitly clarifies the tax treatment when a pension scheme shows the original payment and the associated tax relief arriving into the pension on different days, in different tax years, though. Answers on this forum have clarified, but neither PTM041000 nor any other document I have managed to find serves as a simple citation to reference on the matter. The closest I can find is FA 2004 s. 192(3)(b) "When the payment of the contribution is received any amount so recovered is to be treated for the purposes of the Tax Acts in the same manner as the payment of the contribution." speaking to a certain amount of indivisibility between the original sum paid and the relief reclaimed, but there is still room for ambiguity in whether "same manner" encompasses "same tax year" or not.

maxb, thanks for your help on this too, the ambiguity is the root of my question I guess. The documents are not totally explicit about the situation that I describe above. Thanks @HMRC Admin too for your responses. I guess I just want to be 100% clear. I recognise there is a fine line that you are treading not to give financial advice though. However... @HMRCAdmin 17, to check... this confirms that the date the individual's contribution is received by the administrator acts as the date when both the contribution and the tax relief is paid for self assessment purposes, it is irrelevant when the relief is actually credited to the account.