40% of Nothing
Believe it or not there are a large number of higher rate taxpayers are losing money by not claiming back their additional tax relief.
Prudential has recently published a survey highlighting this issue. The survey found that:
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26% of employees paying higher rate tax do not claim the extra tax relief on their pension contributions.
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It’s estimated 185,000 people are losing, on average, £1,255 per annum.
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A further 15% (over 100,000) are not sure if they are reclaiming the extra relief they are due.
As bad as these findings are there are also likely to be some of those 185,000 who have unnecessarily lost their Child Benefit due to the fact that their earnings haven’t been adjusted to reflect the extra tax relief. Add this potential on and it’s clear that some higher rate tax payers out there are losing a large amount of money.
All is not lost
If you haven’t claimed any relief it’s not too late. You can make a claim for up to four years. So any overpaid tax from 2009/10 can be reclaimed up to 5th April next year.
If you’re not sure whether you have or haven’t we offer a tax relief review service that will analyse your pay slips and tax records to make sure that you are getting what you are entitled to. Just call us on 01163 800 133 to get this underway.
Steve Clark