Claim tax relief on your private pension payments
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-31)

Use this service to claim tax relief on your personal pension and workplace pension scheme or change an existing claim.

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return (https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns), 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:
- an intermediate rate taxpayer (https://www.gov.uk/scottish-income-tax) or a higher rate taxpayer (https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates) that pays into a personal or workplace pension
- 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 (https://www.gov.uk/workplace-pensions/managing-your-pension)
A net pay scheme is where the employer takes your pension contributions from your pay before any tax is deducted.

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 for each tax year you claim for. This can be a letter or statement from your pension provider, or a payslip from your employer. This proof must include:
- your full name
- details of the pension contributions paid and the tax year they relate to
- evidence that you received 20% tax relief automatically from your employer — if you’re claiming for a workplace pension
How to claim

Claim online

You’ll need to sign in to claim online. If you do not already have sign in details, you’ll be able to create them.

You can save your progress and come back later.

Claim now (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/submissions/new-form/claim-personal-pension-tax-relief)

Claim by post

You must send us a letter (https://www.gov.uk/find-hmrc-contacts/income-tax-enquiries) 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.

After you’ve claimed

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

If you need to change your claim

You can make a change to your claim after you submit it, for example because you need to add another pension. If you do this you will need to provide details for all the pensions you added previously, including any new ones. This will replace your previous claim for the selected tax year only.

If you need to make changes to multiple tax years, you’ll need to do this separately for each tax year affected.

You can also remove pension details for a selected tax year but this will cancel your claim for that year.

Online claims

You’ll need to use the same sign in details that you used to make your initial claim.

You can make changes to the information you submitted. You should do this as soon as possible by signing into the service (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/submissions/new-form/claim-personal-pension-tax-relief) and selecting the relevant option to make changes.

Claims by post

You must send us a letter (https://www.gov.uk/find-hmrc-contacts/income-tax-enquiries) with all the details you want to add or remove from your claim, for each tax year affected.