If a registered pension scheme has had UK Income Tax deducted from its investment income you can ask HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to repay the tax.
On this page:
To make a repayment claim you must be either:
You can't reclaim tax deducted from:
If you're the trustee of a registered pension scheme you must complete form SA970 Tax Return for Trustees of Registered Pension Schemes. You can reclaim tax before the end of the tax year by using form R63N Repayment request for Registered Pension Schemes but you'll still need to complete the SA970 at the end of the year.
If you're not the trustee you must use form R63N no matter when you're reclaiming tax.
More about Self Assessment for trustees of registered pension schemes
Go to form SA970 - Tax return for trustees of registered pension schemes
Go to form R63N - Repayment request for Registered Pension Schemes
Before reclaiming tax the legal owner of the scheme's assets must do both of the following:
HMRC won't repay tax until all this information has been given.
You'll need to send in an amended form APSS146 if:
Go to form APSS146 - Registered Pension Scheme Registration for Income Tax Repayments
Detailed guidance on completing form APSS146
You can nominate more than one third party to make repayment claims. If you want to nominate a third party to apply for repayments you must complete form APSS 146A Registered Pension Scheme Repayments Third Party Authority. If they're a company you also need to fill in form APSS 146B Registered Pension Scheme Repayments Specimen Signatures.
HMRC won't process any repayment claim from a third-party until they have a completed APSS146A (and form APSS146B if appropriate) for that third party.
If the details of the third parties change, or you want to nominate a new third party you'll need to notify the amendments using form APSS146A or APSS146B.
Go to form APSS146A - Registered pension scheme repayments third party authority
Go to form APSS146B - Registered pension scheme repayments specimen signatures
To make a claim for repayment you'll need both the:
The PSTR is given to the scheme administrator when the pension scheme is first registered. If the scheme was set up and tax approved before 6 April 2006 it will have been given a PSTR but the scheme administrator may not know what it is. Follow the link below if you don't know the PSTR for your scheme.
The UTR is a 10 digit reference number given to a scheme after the first repayment claim is made. You can find the UTR on correspondence about repayment claims or SA970 tax returns. If this is the first repayment claim for the scheme you won't have a UTR yet, so tell HMRC that this is your first claim, using a covering letter.
Using the Pension Schemes Online Service
You shouldn't send in tax vouchers with the claim form. If HMRC wants to see the tax vouchers they'll ask for them.
Pension schemes can claim a refund up to four years after the end of the tax year in which the tax was deducted. See the table below showing deadlines for getting repayment claims to HMRC.
| Year tax deducted | Claim deadline |
|---|---|
| 2008-09 | 5 April 2013 |
| 2009-10 | 5 April 2014 |
| 2010-11 | 5 April 2015 |
| 2011-12 | 5 April 2016 |
| 2012-13 | 5 April 2017 |
| 2013-14 | 5 April 2018 |
You can only make one repayment claim each month and the amount reclaimed must be at least £5,000.
If the amount is less than £5,000 you must wait until either:
Where more than one third party is nominated to make claims, HMRC will accept one claim per third party per month, as long as each claim is at least £5,000.
Make sure you've received the repayment before the scheme is wound up. A repayment made to another person afterwards could be subject to an unauthorised payment tax charge.
Unauthorised payments from pension pots
