Pensions: Tax Allowances
(asked on 14th November 2025) - View Source
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Livermore on 6 November (HL11291), what were the annual costs of the tax exemption of income receipts and capital gains in pension funds in the past three years.
Estimates of Income Tax relief on pension contributions can be found in Table 6 of the Private Pension Statistics publication. [1]
Table 6 summary: Estimated cost of pension Income Tax and National Insurance contribution (NIC) relief (£million) | |||
| 2021 to 2022 tax year [revised] | 2022 to 2023 tax year [revised] | 2023 to 2024 tax year [provisional] |
Total pension Income Tax relief | 45,300 | 47,800 | 54,200 |
- of which on Net Pay Arrangement contributions by employees | 5,100 | 5,500 | 6,200 |
- of which on Net Pay Arrangement contributions by employers | 16,100 | 17,400 | 20,800 |
- of which on Relief at Source scheme contributions by employees | 3,600 | 3,900 | 4,400 |
- of which on Relief at Source scheme contributions by self-employed individuals | 800 | 800 | 1,000 |
- of which on Relief at Source scheme contributions by employers | 5,900 | 6,700 | 8,100 |
- of which on Salary Sacrificed contributions by employees | 5,100 | 6,000 | 7,200 |
- of which on Deficit Reduction Contributions by employers | 4,300 | 3,100 | 2,100 |
Figures are in £ million and rounded to the nearest £100 million.
The column totals may not equal the sum of the individual components due to rounding.
HMRC does not hold data on the cost of the tax exemption of capital gains in pension funds.
[1] This publication can be access via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-and-stakeholder-pensions-statistics