What is the allowance?

The annual allowance is the total amount of pension savings that you, your employer or anyone else can make to all your pensions in any given tax year before potentially triggering an annual allowance charge.

This includes any contributions made to

Defined Contribution/Money Purchase pensions

, and the valuation of the increase in any active

Defined Benefit/Final Salary/Salary Related pensions

you may have.

The annual allowance is £60,000 for the current tax year for most people but will reduce progressively if you're a high earner - this is known as tapering and we can work out how this will affect you.

Use the calculator below to see if you need to take further action for the current tax year.

Who is this calculator for?

This tool has been designed for people who are concerned about exceeding their pension annual allowance. Once you've put in your details, the calculator will display an estimate of your current situation.

Calculating your annual allowance is a complex area - if you’re at all uncertain about your pension or your annual allowance position you should seek independent advice.

This tool is not for you if you're:

over 75

a non-UK taxpayer

already taking some of your pension (excluding state pensions) which may have triggered the £10,000 Money Purchase Annual Allowance

currently an active member of any Defined Benefit/Final Salary/Salary Related schemes

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What will you need before you start?

To get the most useful estimate of your allowance, you'll need to have the following to hand:

details of all of your earnings and pension contributions

income you pay tax on, such as Benefits in Kind, rental income or investment income (such as interest on savings or dividends)

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Earnings and pensions details

Please enter figures for the current tax year.

Your earnings

Your current basic gross annual salary 

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£

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Is your pensionable salary the same as your basic gross annual salary? 

Your estimated bonus / commission amount (if any) 

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£

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Your pension contributions

Your annual employer contributions 

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£

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Your annual employee gross pension contributions 

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£

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Amount of additional payments (including bonus waiver) that you may put into your pension 

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£

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Please note

that you're only entitled to tax relief on your personal contributions up to your total earnings, or £3,600 gross a year if you earn below that amount. You'll find more information in our

tax relief guide

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Other income you pay tax on

Please enter figures for the current tax year.

Benefits in Kind 

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£

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Investment income 

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£

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Other taxable income 

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£

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Please note:

make sure you've entered all sources of income and contributions into the calculator. We'll use these figures to estimate whether you might exceed the annual allowance and/or to see whether a tapered annual allowance will apply.
Please also note that you're only entitled to tax relief on your personal contributions up to your total earnings, or £3,600 gross a year if you earn below that amount. You'll find more information in our

tax relief guide

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Result

Based on the information you've given us, your annual allowance is estimated to be £0 and your annual pensions contributions are projected to be £0.

£0

Estimated annual allowance

£0

Projected contributions

You're projected to exceed your annual allowance by £0

Please note:

the above is an estimate based on the figures you've provided - and on current tax and pension rules - and should not be seen as advice.

What can I do next?

Based on your results, we've listed some possible actions you may want to consider. This is a complex area, especially for higher earners who may be subject to the tapered annual allowance or for people with defined benefit/final salary schemes. Before taking any action, we recommend that you seek independent advice.

If you have unused annual allowance from any of the previous three tax years, you can add this to your allowance for this year. This is known as carry forward. You can check your contributions for previous tax years by requesting a pension savings statement or by adding them up from PlanViewer or the equivalent if you have plans outside of Fidelity.

You can then use this to help work out your personal situation by using the

HMRC calculator

. You'll also find more information in our 'Understanding the annual allowance charge'

guide

.

The annual allowance applies to all personal and employer contributions made to all pension arrangements during a tax year. It limits the amount of contributions paid into your defined contribution account and the total amount of pension you can accumulate in a year with your defined benefit arrangement while attracting tax relief. You can find more information in our

annual allowance guide

.

Please note that you're only entitled to tax relief on your personal contributions up to your total earnings, or £3,600 gross a year if you earn below that amount. You won't be entitled to tax relief on personal contributions above your annual allowance. You'll find more information in our

tax relief guide

.

You'll also need to remember any increases in contributions that may result from any future pay review.

If you have no unused annual allowance from previous tax years, or it is not enough to cover all of the ongoing contributions, you may want to look at the level of contributions you or your employer are paying.

You should check that any change you might consider doesn't affect your entitlement to employer contributions or any other benefits.

We strongly recommend that you obtain advice before changing the level of contributions being paid and that you monitor the position periodically.

If you do exceed your annual allowance (and do not have enough unused annual allowance to carry forward), you must declare the excess to HMRC either on your self-assessment or to them directly. You'll then have to pay an annual allowance charge on any excess. This can be done in two ways:

Pay the annual allowance charge

Once you've declared this excess to HMRC, they may arrange for it to be paid through an adjustment to your PAYE code, so it comes out of your taxable income. Alternatively, they may ask for the charge to be paid directly.
To find out more about paying the tax charge, visit the

HMRC annual allowance site

Pay the annual allowance charge through your scheme

It may be possible for your annual allowance charge to be deducted from your pensions savings and paid to HMRC on your behalf after the end of the tax year. This feature is known as 'scheme pays'. To find out whether your pension scheme offers a type of scheme pays that can pay your charge, please contact your pension provider or the pensions representative within your company.
For more information about 'scheme pays', take a look at

our guide

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You might want to consider getting in touch with the pension or human resource representative within your company, as they may be able to give you further options.