Guidance

Tell HMRC you’ve claimed too much relief at source for pension scheme members

Find out how to report and pay back excess tax relief claimed through relief at source as a pension scheme administrator.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 6 March 2018
• Last updated: 21 February 2020 — See all updates

As a pension scheme administrator, you must tell HMRC if you’ve claimed too much relief at source for your pension scheme members on an interim claim ending on or after 5 April 2018.

You do not need to tell HMRC about Scottish starter rate taxpayers who pay tax at 19% but have received relief at source at 20%.

Within 90 days of discovering you’ve claimed too much relief at source, you must:

• report the excess relief to HMRC on your interim claim
• send information about the excess relief with your interim claim
• repay the excess amount you’ve claimed

You can use the template (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 62.7 KB), or contact HMRC if you want to send this information in any other format.

If you do not pay within 90 days of discovering you’ve claimed too much relief, you’ll receive an interest charge from the date excess relief began.

Information you’ll need to tell HMRC

For each member who has received too much relief at source, you’ll need to include their:

• full name and date of birth
• permanent residential address including postcode (if the address is in the UK)
• permanent residential address at the time they made their claim, if it’s different to their current address
• national insurance number, or the reason why they do not have one, unless they’re either:
  • aged under 16
  • a citizen of a country outside the UK and not resident in the UK

You’ll also need to include the dates when:

• the member made contributions during the period they claimed excess relief
• the member stopped making contributions, if they stopped during the period they claimed excess relief
• you first claimed excess relief for the member
• you first discovered the claim of excess relief
• HMRC paid the claim

You must state the:

• amount of contributions made by anyone other than the employer during the period of excess relief claim
• total amount of excess relief claimed
• the rate of excess relief claimed
• reason for the excess relief claim

You can use this template (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 62.7 KB) to report all the information in the section above. The grey boxes will turn white when you’ve entered the information in the correct format. If you need more help, click on the column header for further guidance.

How to pay

HMRC will take what you owe from the amount on your interim claim. If the amount you owe is higher than the amount you’re claiming, you’ll need to pay HMRC.

Published 6 March 2018
Last updated 21 February 2020 + show all updates

1. 21 February 2020

   Information about claiming excess relief has been updated.

2. 28 August 2019

   Excess relief schedule spreadsheet updated to include Welsh basic rate in dropdown menu options.

3. 15 August 2018

   The template spreadsheet has been updated.

4. 13 June 2018

   The template spreadsheet has been updated.

5. 6 April 2018

   Starter rate Scottish taxpayers receiving too much relief at source (due to a different rate for the rest of the UK) won't have to be counted by administrators when reporting that they've claimed too much relief at source.

6. 6 March 2018

   First published.