Claim a tax refund when you've flexibly accessed all of your pension (P53Z)
If you’ve received a serious ill-health pension lump sum or flexibly accessed all of your pension, claim a tax refund with form P53Z .
You can claim back any tax we owe you on a pension lump sum with form P53Z if:
- you’re reclaiming tax because you’ve flexibly accessed all of your pension
- you’ve received a serious ill health lump sum — to reclaim, in year, any overpaid tax on these lump sums
You’ll need to use form P53 instead if you have taken:
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all of your pension as cash — trivial commutation of a pension fund
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a small pension as a lump sum
Before you start
You’ll need to:
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Tell us about any other income you expect to get during the tax year.
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Check you have part 2 and 3 of all forms P45 from your pension payments — we’ll not be able to deal with the claim without the P45.
You can tell us the estimated figures if you do not have final figures. You’ll need to use whole numbers, rounded down to the nearest pound. We’ll make checks at the end of the tax year and contact you if the amount is different.
You should keep this paperwork until these checks are done.
Claim online
You’ll need to sign in to use this service. If you do not already have sign in details, you’ll be able to create them.
Complete this form online if you cannot sign in
You can use our interactive guidance. You’ll need to:
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Get all of your information together before you start. You will fill this form in online and you cannot save your progress.
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Print the form.
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Sign the declaration.
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Post to HMRC.
Pay As You Earn
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AS
If you do not wish to start your claim online
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Print the form.
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Fill it in by hand.
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Post it to HMRC (the address is at the end of the form).
What happens next
We’ll work out any repayment due to you and we’ll send you a payable order. We can send this direct to you at your home address or to your nominee’s address. The payable order can only be paid into an account held in your name or your nominee’s.
Repayments cannot be made by Bacs (Bankers Automated Clearing Service).
Find out when you can expect to receive a reply from HMRC to a query or request you’ve made.
Information you’ll need to claim
You’ll need your:
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National Insurance Number
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employer PAYE reference number — if you have it
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parts 2 and 3 of your p45 — if not tell us why (for example, you may be retired, or a UK Crown servant employed abroad)
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self-employment profits made in this tax year — if there are any
Your P45 shows how much tax you’ve paid on your salary so far in the tax year (6 April to 5 April).
You’ll also need to confirm if you’ve had any:
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pensions from a former employer
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public service pensions
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forces pensions
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personal pension annuities
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small pensions paid as lump sums (trivial commutation)
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State Pension
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taxable benefits from 6 April in the current tax year
You should also check if you’ve had any income from:
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property
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trusts
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commissions
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tips
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foreign income
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profits paid out on UK life insurance policies
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any other source you have not entered on the form
Updates to this page
Published 23 August 2023Last updated 23 August 2024 + show all updates
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Clarified that you cannot save your progress when completing the online form.
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A Welsh version of the form P53Z has been added to cover tax year 2024 to 2025.
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The form P53Z has been replaced with a version to cover tax year 2024 to 2025.
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The planned downtime for our interactive guidance that started at 2pm on Friday 6 October 2023 will now end at 3pm on Friday 13 October 2023. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
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Due to planned downtime, our interactive guidance will be unavailable from 2pm on Friday 6 October 2023 to 10am on Tuesday 10 October 2023.
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Added translation