Tax relief on contributions
SIPP tax relief calculator: what your payment becomes, and what to claim back
Type your earnings and what you pay into the SIPP from your bank. You get the gross amount in the pension, the extra relief to claim from HMRC and the room left this tax year.
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 SIPP
£10,000
Real cost £6,054 once you claim £1,946 back.
| You pay from your bank | £8,000 |
| Basic rate relief added (20%) | £2,000 |
| Extra relief to claim from HMRC | £1,946 |
| Real cost to you | £6,054 |
| Most you can pay this year with relief | £45,600 |
| Annual allowance left after this | £47,000 |
Carry forward can raise the allowance but never the earnings limit on relief.
A self-invested personal pension works by relief at source. You pay from money already taxed, and the provider claims basic rate relief from HMRC and adds it to the pot: every £80 you pay becomes £100, a top-up of 25% of your payment. A higher or additional rate taxpayer then claims the rest through Self Assessment or HMRC's online service, which extends the basic rate band by the gross contribution (GOV.UK, pension tax relief). On £60,000 of earnings, £8,000 paid in becomes £10,000 in the SIPP, with £1,946 more to claim, for a real cost of £6,054. Relief is limited to 100% of your relevant UK earnings, or £3,600 gross if you earn less (Finance Act 2004, section 190), and the £60,000 annual allowance counts your employer's money as well.
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the sums are done
The same payment at five levels of earnings
Everyone gets the same 25% added by the provider. What changes with earnings is the claim that follows. A basic rate taxpayer has nothing to claim; a higher rate taxpayer recovers another 20% of the gross amount on the part of income taxed at 40%; at £110,000 the contribution also brings back part of the Personal Allowance, which is why the real cost drops so far.
| Earnings | In the SIPP | Added by provider | Claim from HMRC | Real cost | Relief |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £40,000 | £10,000 | £2,000 | £0 | £8,000 | 20% |
| £60,000 | £10,000 | £2,000 | £1,946 | £6,054 | 39.46% |
| £80,000 | £10,000 | £2,000 | £2,000 | £6,000 | 40% |
| £110,000 | £10,000 | £2,000 | £4,000 | £4,000 | 60% |
| £150,000 | £10,000 | £2,000 | £2,500 | £5,500 | 45% |
Scotland, and earners below the limit
A Scottish taxpayer pays the same £8,000 and gets the same £2,000 from the provider, but the claim is worked out on Scottish bands: on £60,000 it is £2,200, because part of the income is taxed at 21% and part at 42%. Someone paying £4,000 with only £2,000 of earnings is over the limit: relief is due on £3,600 gross only, and the provider must hand back the top-up on the £1,400 above it. The calculator flags that case.
What the calculator leaves to you
It does not know your other pensions. Enter workplace contributions and employer money in the fields provided, since they share the annual allowance with the SIPP. It ignores provider charges and investment returns, which do not change the tax. If your total savings for the year go above £60,000, the carry forward calculator shows how much unused allowance from the last three years you can use first. To see how relief at source compares with net pay or salary sacrifice for the same amount, use the pension tax relief calculator; the higher rate relief guide explains how the claim is made.
When a SIPP is opened by transfer from an old workplace pension, the transfer itself gets no relief and does not count towards the annual allowance; only new money does. The calculator therefore asks for the payment you make this tax year from your own account.
Paying for a partner or a child
Anyone can pay into someone else's SIPP, and the relief belongs to the member, not the payer. A parent paying £2,880 into a child's pension sees £3,600 invested. A partner with no earnings gets the same. The higher rate relief of the payer is not available, because the contribution is the member's.