Reporting an annual allowance charge on the self assessment return

The annual allowance charge is the member's own liability (FA 2004 s.237A), and a member who files self assessment reports it on their return (PTM056200, PTM056300). That holds whether the member pays the charge through self assessment or a pension scheme pays some or all of it. This guide goes through the boxes on the 2025/26 return. Whether there is a charge at all is covered in has my client breached the annual allowance?, and how the charge is worked in how the annual allowance charge is calculated.

The box numbers here are those of HMRC's 2025/26 paper forms, published on 6 April 2026: the SA101 additional information pages (2026), their notes, helpsheet HS345 (2026) and its working sheet.

Where the charge goes: page Ai 4 of the SA101

The annual allowance boxes are in the ‘Pension Savings Tax Charges’ section on page Ai 4 of the SA101 additional information pages. They are not on the main return (SA100), so a member filing on paper asks for the SA101 pages (PTM056200). Boxes 7, 8 and 9 of that section are not in use. The three that matter for the annual allowance are:

• Box 10: ‘Amount saved towards your pension, in the period covered by this tax return, in excess of the Annual Allowance’;
• Box 11: ‘Annual Allowance tax paid or payable by your pension scheme’;
• Box 12: ‘Pension scheme tax reference number’ (the PSTR).

Boxes 11.1 and 11.2 in between are for the overseas transfer charge, and boxes 13 to 18 for unauthorised payments and overseas pension scheme refunds (box 17 is not in use). The SA101 notes say the scheme administrator should have given the member or their adviser most of the information for these boxes.

Box 10: the excess, not the charge

Box 10 takes only the part of the member's pension savings for the year that is over their annual allowance, after any carry forward. It is not the total pension input amount and it is not the tax.

Carry forward needs no claim. If unused allowance from the three previous years means no charge is due, nothing is reported (HS345; PTM056200). The exception is the money purchase annual allowance: a member who has flexibly accessed their pension can have a charge on money purchase savings over that allowance even where their total savings are within the available annual allowance, and that charge must be reported (PTM056200). The rules for the allowance itself, including the taper, are in HS345 and the guides linked above.

How the charge itself is worked out

The section has no box for the charge itself. The excess in box 10 is added on top of the member's taxable income for the year and taxed at the rates that slice would bear: 20%, 40% or 45% in the rest of the UK, with Scottish or Welsh rates where they apply (PTM056110; HS345). On an online return HMRC works the charge out automatically (PTM056110). A paper return that works out its own tax can use the HS345 working sheet, which takes box 10, charges it band by band, deducts the tax in box 11 and gives the figure for box 6, ‘Pension charges due’, on the SA110 tax calculation summary.

Boxes 11 and 12: when a scheme pays

Where a pension scheme is paying some or all of the charge, whether under mandatory scheme pays or on a voluntary basis, box 10 is still completed with the full excess. The amount the scheme has paid or will pay goes in box 11, and the paying scheme's PSTR in box 12 (HS345). If box 11 is left empty, HMRC's own warning applies:

• More than one scheme paying: box 11 takes the total, box 12 one scheme's PSTR, and the other PSTRs go in the ‘Any other information’ box on page TR 7 of the main return (HS345).
• An overseas pension scheme: it has no PSTR, so the name and address of its scheme manager go in ‘Any other information’ instead (HS345).
• Arranged after filing: if the scheme agrees to pay, or to pay more, after the return has gone in, so that box 11 is no longer right, HMRC has to be contacted to amend the return (HS345).

The member stays liable for the whole charge, with a credit for what the scheme pays (HS345). The conditions for mandatory scheme pays, the maximum a scheme can be required to pay and the scheme's own reporting deadline are covered in scheme pays: mandatory or voluntary, the deadlines, and reporting the charge.

Estimates and amendments

If the pension input details are not available in time, the return is completed with an estimate of the excess. A note in ‘Any other information’ explains that the figure is estimated and when the final figure is expected, and the box showing that estimated figures have been used is ticked. Once the figures are known, the return can be amended within 12 months of the statutory filing date; where the estimate was too low, the extra tax is due with interest for late payment (PTM056200).

A member who does not normally file self assessment needs to register with HMRC to get a return (PTM056200). A personal representative completing the return of someone who died in the 2025/26 tax year, for the period up to the date of death, can ignore boxes 10 and 11, and box 12 so far as it relates to the annual allowance charge (HS345).

The 2025/26 dates

• 6 October 2026: a scheme must send a pension savings statement by 6 October following the end of the tax year where the member's input to that scheme is over the standard annual allowance, or their money purchase input is over £10,000 after flexibly accessing their pension, though the date is later in some cases (PTM167100);
• 31 October 2026: the paper return is due (GOV.UK);
• 31 January 2027: the online return is due, and so is the self assessment tax for the year, including any charge the member is paying direct (GOV.UK);
• 31 July 2027: the usual deadline for a mandatory scheme pays notice (s.237BA(2)); it can be earlier or later in some cases. It falls after the online filing date, so box 11 takes tax ‘paid or payable’.

A worked charge, reported both ways

These figures come from ParaplanAI's pension engine, run on the 2025/26 tax-year figures for a client who is not a Scottish taxpayer. It is the same case as in the scheme pays guide: employment income, one money purchase scheme into which the employer paid a single contribution, and no carry forward because the three previous years' allowances were fully used.

The excess stacks on the client's taxable income and falls wholly in the higher-rate band, so the whole of it is charged at 40%. The charge and the input to the scheme are both over the mandatory scheme pays thresholds, so, with notice given in time, the client can require the scheme to pay all of it. The return looks different depending on who pays.

The working sheet deducts box 11 from the charge, so none of the £10,000 is left for the client to pay through self assessment. The client remains liable if the scheme does not pay.

Here the whole £10,000 is added to the client's self assessment liability for 2025/26 and is due by 31 January 2027. Either way, box 10 shows £25,000.

Test the position on the annual allowance calculator. For planning and illustration only; this guide describes the forms and rules and is not tax or financial advice.

SA101 (2026) page Ai 4 · SA101 Notes (2026) · HS345 (2026) and working sheet · SA110 (2026) box 6 · PTM056110 (rate of the charge) · PTM056200 (telling HMRC) · PTM056300 (who pays) · PTM167100 (pension savings statements) · FA 2004 ss.237A, 237BA