Guidance

Claim tax relief on your private pension payments

Use this service to claim tax relief on your personal pension and workplace pension scheme.

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
3 February 2025
Last updated
10 March 2025 — See all updates

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, you must claim through your tax return (for the current tax year and any previous years). Use this service if you are claiming tax relief through your tax code for just the current tax year.

Who can claim

To be eligible to claim tax relief you must be:

  • a basic rate taxpayer that pays into a workplace pension but the employer does not or will no longer claim tax relief
  • a basic rate taxpayer that pays a lump sum into a personal or workplace pension that is not under a net pay scheme
  • an intermediate rate taxpayer or a higher rate taxpayer that pays into a personal or workplace pension

What you’ll need

To claim tax relief on your personal and workplace pension payments, you’ll need to know:

  • your National Insurance number
  • the type of pension
  • the name of the pension provider
  • the net amount of pension contributions for each tax year you’re claiming for
  • your payroll number or reference number

You’ll need to upload or send proof from your pension provider of payments made for each tax year you’re claiming for, where any of the following apply:

  • they’re more than £10,001
  • you paid a lump sum
  • you are a basic rate taxpayer and no tax relief has been claimed at source

How to claim

Claim online

You’ll need to sign in with your Government Gateway user ID and password (if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you first try to sign in).

You can save your progress and come back later.

Claim now

Claim by post 

You must send us a letter if you’re:

  • unable to claim online
  • an agent acting on behalf of a client

You’ll need to include all the information from the ‘what you’ll need’ section in your letter.

After you’ve claimed

We will review your claim and contact you within 28 working days.

Updates to this page

Published 3 February 2025
Last updated 10 March 2025 + show all updates

  1. The 'Who can claim' section has been updated to include eligible basic rate taxpayers and the 'What you'll need' section tells users when they must send or upload evidence.

  2. Added translation

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