Your P60 is a record of:
- The amount of pension paid to you between 6 April and 5 April of the following year.
- How much tax, if any, that’s been deducted from this amount.
You can use your P60 to complete a self-assessment tax return or prove your income. Otherwise, you can just keep it for your financial records.
Your P60 will be posted to you. You will usually receive it before your April pension payment. We will also upload a copy of your P60 to your secure online account, which you can view, download or print whenever you need to. If you haven’t logged in before, please contact us for an activation code.
Reading your P60
The different elements included in your P60 are explained below:
The is our tax registration number. HMRC will usually ask for this when you contact them to query any tax you’ve paid on your pension. You will also need this to complete a self-assessment tax return.
If you contact us about your pension, we will ask you for this number. Please ensure you include it in any correspondence you send to us.
This is the last tax code we had on your record before the P60 was produced. This would be after your March pension payment. If a different tax code was applied to your pension before March, or if your tax code changed after March, it won’t be reflected on the P60.
This is the amount we paid to you during the year and any tax that was deducted from it. The pension is the gross figure before any tax has been taken.
This is the amount of other taxable income received over the previous tax year that HMRC has told us about. HMRC doesn’t always tell us about other taxable income. For most people this will be blank.
These are the final figures of how much pension you have received and how much tax you have paid from your pension during the tax year.
This shows the amount of Lump Sum Allowance (LSA), and Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA) used by your ABF pension. You will be asked for these figures when you apply to start receiving any other pensions you hold. These figures are explained in more detail in the next section. If you’re receiving a dependant’s pension, you won’t have this information shown on your P60 as your pension isn’t tested against these allowances.
What is the LSA and the LSDBA?
These limits were introduced by the government on 6 April 2024 and replaced the Lifetime Allowance.
- The LSA is the total tax-free amount you can receive in lump sums from all your pensions.
- The LSDBA is the total tax-free lump sums and death benefit lump sums that can be paid from all your pensions.
For most people, the LSA is limited to £268,275 and the LSDBA is £1,073,100. However, if you have valid lifetime allowance protection, your LSA and LSDBA may be higher.
If you exceed the LSA when you put a pension into payment, you pay tax on the excess. If you exceed the LSDBA when you die, your beneficiaries or your estate will be required to pay tax on the excess.
If you took your pension after 6 April 2006, your P60 will show how much LSA and LSDBA has been used by your ABF pension. If you have another private or occupational pension, you will usually need to provide the LSA used to them when you apply to take your pension.
How the LSA/LSDBA on your P60 is worked out
How the LSA/LSDBA used is worked out, depends on your pension commencement date, which is shown on the letter attached to your P60.
- If you took your pension before, or on your Normal Retirement Date, the pension commencement date will be the date your pension came into payment.
- If you took your pension late, the pension commencement date is your Normal Retirement Date.
If your pension commencement date is after 6 April 2024, the ‘LSA/LSDBA used’ is the amount you took as a tax-free lump sum when you started receiving your pension.
If your pension commencement date is between 6 April 2006 and 5 April 2024, before the LSA was introduced, different rules apply when working out the ‘LSA/LSDBA used’. Instead of the actual lump sum you took, it is worked out as 25% of the Lifetime Allowance used. The Lifetime Allowance was the amount you could have in pension savings without incurring a tax charge on the excess.
Below is an example based on this method:
Mary’s pension benefits used 20% of the Lifetime Allowance when she retired on 23 May 2023
The 2023/2024 Lifetime Allowance was £1,073,100
So, we can work out the value of her pension benefits as: 20% x £1,073,100 = £214,620
The LSA/LSDBA used can therefore be worked out as: 25% x £214,620 = £53,655
You can find out how much Lifetime Allowance your pension used, by looking at a previous P60 we sent to you.
If you took your pension benefits before 6 April 2006, the LSA/LSDBA used by your ABF pension is not shown on the P60. If you apply to take a private or occupational pension, you will be asked for the capital value or the annual pension amount for pensions that started before 6 April 2006, rather than the LSA amount. Your pension provider would then work out how much LSA has been used based on that. The amount of LSA/LSDBA used by a pension that started before 6 April 2006, is generally worked out as 25% of the capital value of your pension benefits, though this calculation can vary in certain circumstances.
Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificates (TTFACs)
If your pension commencement date is before 6 April 2024, and you took less than 25% of your pension benefits as a tax-free lump sum, you may be able to apply to have the amount of ‘LSA/LSDBA used’ calculated based on the value of the actual lump sum you received. If you are successful in your application, you will be issued with a Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificate (TTFAC). More information on how to apply for a TTFAC, as well as further details on other pension tax limits, can be found on our tax-limits webpage.
Questions about the P60
If you have a query about your P60 that hasn’t been answered on this page, you are welcome to contact us. However, please keep in mind that we won’t be able to help with queries about tax. Pension is seen as ‘income’ by the tax office, and counts towards your personal allowance. If your income exceeds your personal allowance, you will usually pay tax on the excess amount. More information about personal allowances can be found on the HMRC’s website at: www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
If you don’t think you have paid the right amount of tax, or have a query about the tax code applied to your pension, you will need to contact HMRC.