UK SIPP Tax Relief Calculator

You put money into your SIPP net of basic-rate tax. The pension provider claims 25% on top from HMRC to gross it up — so a £8,000 contribution becomes £10,000 in your pot. If you're a higher-rate or additional-rate taxpayer, you claim the extra 20% or 25% relief via your Self Assessment tax return — that's paid to you personally, not into the pension. Basic rate relief is automatic (relief at source). Higher rate relief has to be claimed and is often missed.

For 2024/25, the pension annual allowance is £60,000. That's the maximum you can contribute and receive tax relief on. Contributions above this face an annual allowance charge that effectively removes the tax relief. If you earn less than £60k, your allowance is limited to your relevant UK earnings (with a floor of £3,600 gross even for non-earners). The allowance also tapers for very high earners (adjusted income above £260k).

Between £100k and £125,140 of income, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 you earn. Combined with 40% income tax, this creates an effective 60% marginal rate on this band. A SIPP contribution reduces your 'adjusted net income' by the grossed-up amount — so putting enough into a SIPP to bring your income back to £100k restores the full Personal Allowance and gives you an effective 60% relief on that portion (or 62% once employee NI is factored in). This is the single biggest personal-tax hack in UK finance for higher earners.

Yes and it's fiddly. The basic-rate relief-at-source is added by the pension provider at 20% UK basic rate, even for Scottish taxpayers whose actual basic rate is 20% (matches) or intermediate rate is 21% (mismatch). Scottish higher-rate (42%) and top-rate (48%) taxpayers claim additional relief via Self Assessment as normal. The calculator handles both rest-of-UK and Scottish taxpayers.

Not with tax relief. Your relief is capped at 100% of your relevant UK earnings for the year (with a £3,600 gross floor even if you have no income). A non-earning spouse can have £2,880 net (£3,600 gross) contributed and still get 20% relief. High earners can also use up to 3 years of unused annual allowance via 'carry forward'.

Basic rate relief is added to your pension straight away by the provider. Higher and additional rate relief is claimed via Self Assessment for the tax year you contributed in. HMRC either sends you a cheque, adjusts your tax code, or credits your Self Assessment balance. It's easy to forget — HMRC estimates ~£800m of higher-rate pension relief goes unclaimed every year in the UK.

You can access a SIPP from age 55 (rising to 57 in April 2028). 25% is tax-free (up to the £268,275 Lump Sum Allowance for 2024/25); the rest is taxed as income at your marginal rate. So the tax play is: get 40% relief now, pay 20% (basic rate in retirement) on 75% of withdrawals + 0% on 25%. That's a very good arbitrage if you go into retirement in a lower band than you contributed in.