Relief by salary
Pension tax relief on a £60,000 salary
The calculator opens on £60,000 with £7,800 paid into a relief at source pension, which puts £9,750 gross in the pot. Change the amount to see where the 40% relief stops.
Independent site, not a government service. Relief is claimed through your pension provider, your payroll or HMRC (Self Assessment or the GOV.UK claim service).
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Goes into your pension
£9,750
Costs you £5,854: 40% comes from tax and NI relief (higher rate taxpayer).
| You pay from your bank | £7,800 |
| Added by your provider (20%) | £1,950 |
| To claim back from HMRC | £1,946 |
| Cost to your take-home pay | £5,854 |
The provider only ever claims 20%. The rest comes back through your Self Assessment return or HMRC’s online claim, as a refund or a change to your tax code.
On £60,000 the top £9,730 of salary, everything above £50,270, is taxed at 40% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27. Gross pension contributions up to that amount get 40% relief; beyond it, relief drops back to 20%. Paid by relief at source, £7,800 from your bank becomes £9,750 in the pension with the provider's £1,950, and you then claim £1,946 more from HMRC (HMRC, claim tax relief on private pension payments), so the real cost is £5,854. This matches the worked example on GOV.UK, where someone earning £60,270 gets extra relief on £10,000 only. A parent receiving Child Benefit gains more: adjusted net income of £60,000 is exactly where the High Income Child Benefit Charge begins, and every gross pound into a pension above it lowers both the tax and the charge.
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the sums are done
The cost of each contribution
| Into the pension | Relief at source | Net pay | Salary sacrifice now | Sacrifice from April 2029 | Relief (RAS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £2,000 | £1,200 | £1,200 | £1,160 | £1,160 | 40% |
| £5,000 | £3,000 | £3,000 | £2,900 | £2,960 | 40% |
| £9,730 | £5,838 | £5,838 | £5,643 | £5,798 | 40% |
| £12,000 | £7,654 | £7,654 | £7,278 | £7,614 | 36% |
| £15,000 | £10,054 | £10,054 | £9,438 | £10,014 | 33% |
The relief rate holds at 40% up to £9,730 gross, then the average falls as further pounds are relieved at 20%. Net pay and relief at source end at the same cost once the claim is made. With relief at source the difference is timing: the extra relief comes back after the tax year, or through a new tax code.
A raise to £70,000 and Child Benefit
The High Income Child Benefit Charge takes back 1% of Child Benefit for every £200 of adjusted net income above £60,000, all of it at £80,000 (GOV.UK). At £60,000 the charge is nil. A raise to £70,000 would bring half of it back, but a gross contribution of £9,730 lowers adjusted net income to £60,270 and keeps the charge small:
| Children | Child Benefit a year | Charge at £60,000 | At £70,000 | At £70,000 less £9,730 gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £1,407 | £0 | £703 | £14 |
| 2 | £2,337 | £0 | £1,168 | £23 |
| 3 | £3,268 | £0 | £1,634 | £32 |
The Child Benefit guide works through the zone between £60,000 and £80,000 in detail. The higher rate relief guide shows how to make the claim and how far back it can go. At £80,000 the whole salary above £50,270 is in the 40% band, which is the subject of the £80,000 page.
Claiming the extra relief
A relief at source member on £60,000 who pays £7,800 has £1,950 to claim. Without a Self Assessment return, the claim goes to HMRC online, by phone or by letter, with the gross amount paid in the tax year and the scheme's name. HMRC either repays the tax or changes the tax code, and it can keep the change for the following years if the contributions continue. With a return, the gross figure goes in the pensions section and the basic rate band is widened automatically. Claims can go back four years, so someone who has paid into a SIPP since 2022/23 without claiming can still recover the relief for 2022/23 until 5 April 2027. Net pay members on this salary need do nothing: the full 40% comes through the payslip.
Salary sacrifice on this salary has one more effect worth knowing: because the sacrificed amount never becomes pay, it also reduces the earnings used for student loan repayments, which are 9% above the plan threshold for most graduates. The calculator leaves that out, so the true saving for a graduate is a little larger than shown.