Self Assessment

Had to wait a good while, but got hold of a guy. Yes, another letter should be here in the next week or two and he did tell me I owed £193. Better than I thought from my original math work, so still good times as far as I'm concerned.

It seems to be happening when paper filing with foreign pension income this year (20/21). I had the same.

I know I should owe roughly £2k, HMRC originally said I overpaid by roughly £5k. Phone calls, great friendly conversations with HMRC people, reroute my return to the technical people, conversations with the tech people, and all eventually solved. It was obvious from the start - they ignored the foreign pages I included with my return so foreign pensions were not included in the calculations.

In some ways I wish todays HMRC were a bit more like the HMRC of old, the world's premiere tax authority. Great people skills now, but not so great on the tax calculation side.

The yearly amount to report is a great mystery for most people.

Near the end of March each year you will receive a letter from the Pension Service giving the weekly amount you will receive each week for the State Pension for the coming year. Generally, if you multiply by 52, you can declare the result as the amount of State Pension received for that coming year when completing the self assessment for that year. For me, this year (20/21), HMRC have agreed.

I say generally, because in the past it hasn't always worked. The letter will give the date when the new amount will commence, and a similar letter for the following year will tell you when the year ends (by default) and when the next year commences. You'll often find it's not an exact 52 weeks within the April 6 to April 5 dates, and therein lies the rub. Pendants may want to work out the amount by calculating the exact number of days (which still doesn't always work). HMRC may, or may not, agree.

Don't worry about it. When you receive the final self assessment calculation (I've had 3 this year) HMRC will include the amount in UK source income it feels you owe. If it's close to the amount you estimate, it's simplest to just agree. Not the route for pendants, but the one I use.

How much went into your bank account during the tax year very rarely gives the right amount for HMRC.

Thanks for that, I think I will do exactly what you suggest. Got the letter on 16th April with my  21/22 weekly amount so next year I will just put in a value x52 of that weekly amount.

The UK State pension is taxed (weirdly everyone agrees) on an accrued basis, not on a cash basis of what was received in a UK tax year.

The UK State pension is taxed (weirdly everyone agrees) on an accrued basis, not on a cash basis of what was received in a UK tax year.

Thanks.  I understand that now and ongoing it won't be a problem, it's just this first time filing and with a partial year, the last payment being April 16th.  With a private pension that payment on April 16th would have been taxed in the current tax year not the one that just ended April 5th.

My wife has started her OAP end of November so another part year, but this time I'll know how to deal with it.