If you've been meaning to check whether HMRC owes you pension tax relief, one door has already closed and the next one is approaching.
The 2021/22 tax year closed on 5 April 2026. Any higher-rate relief you didn't claim for that year is gone. The oldest year you can still claim is now 2022/23 - and its deadline is 5 April 2027.
How the deadline works
HMRC allows you to claim tax relief for a tax year until 5 April four years after that year ends (section 43 Taxes Management Act 1970). In practice that means you can always claim the four most recent complete tax years, and every 6 April the oldest one drops off:
| Tax Year | Deadline to Claim | Status | |----------|-------------------|--------| | 2021/22 | 5 April 2026 | Closed | | 2022/23 | 5 April 2027 | Open | | 2023/24 | 5 April 2028 | Open | | 2024/25 | 5 April 2029 | Open | | 2025/26 | 5 April 2030 | Open |
The current tax year (2026/27) isn't claimed as a backdated refund - HMRC adjusts your tax code, or you include it on your Self Assessment return.
Who is affected?
If you earned over £50,270 (£43,662 in Scotland) in any of those years and paid into a Relief at Source pension - NEST, The People's Pension, a personal pension or SIPP, or most group personal pensions from Aviva, Scottish Widows, Standard Life, Royal London or L&G - your provider only claimed 20% relief for you. The rest has to be claimed from HMRC, and most people never do.
Net Pay schemes (NOW: Pensions, Smart Pension by default, NHS, Teachers', LGPS, Civil Service and most trust-based occupational schemes) and salary sacrifice arrangements already give full relief through payroll, so there is nothing to claim.
How much is a year worth?
Relief is only due on the part of your gross contribution that falls in the higher-rate band, so the answer depends on how far above the threshold you are:
Earning £60,000, paying 5% (£3,000 gross): the whole contribution sits above £50,270, so the extra relief is £600 for the year.
Earning £52,000, paying 5% (£2,600 gross): only £1,730 of income is taxed at 40%, so the extra relief is £346 - not £520. Claiming the full amount is one of the most common reasons HMRC reduces a claim.
Earning £110,000, paying 5% (£5,500 gross): the contribution also restores personal allowance lost to the £100,000 taper, so the extra relief is about £2,200 - an effective 60% rate.
What changed in September 2025
Since 1 September 2025 HMRC:
- no longer accepts these claims by phone - they must be made in writing or through HMRC's online service; and
- requires evidence with every claim - a statement or contribution certificate from your pension provider showing what you paid in each tax year. Claims that arrive without it are returned unprocessed.
So before you claim 2022/23, log in to your pension provider and download the contribution history or annual statement for that year, and dig out your P60.
How to claim
If you filed a Self Assessment return for the year: HMRC requires the relief to be claimed on that return. You can amend a return for 12 months after its 31 January filing deadline (2024/25 until 31 January 2027). For older years, such as 2022/23, the amendment window has closed and you make a written "overpayment relief" claim instead.
If you're taxed through PAYE: write to Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS with your National Insurance number, the tax years, the net and gross contributions for each year, your taxable pay, the relief you are claiming and a signed declaration - and enclose the evidence. Or use HMRC's online service, which asks for the same information.
Allow 8-16 weeks for a postal claim. HMRC then issues a tax calculation (P800) and you have the refund paid to your bank account through the HMRC app, or receive a cheque.
Don't let 2022/23 go the way of 2021/22
A year of higher-rate relief is typically worth £500-£1,500. Once 5 April 2027 passes, 2022/23 is gone for good.
Check your eligibility now. Our free calculator takes less than two minutes and shows what you could claim for every open tax year; the claim pack then produces a correctly worded letter, the year-by-year calculation HMRC expects, and the exact list of evidence to enclose.
See what HMRC owes you
Our free calculator works it out the way HMRC does. Then, for £99, we produce the correctly worded claim letter, the year-by-year calculation and the evidence checklist HMRC now requires - ready to sign and post.
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