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How much can I pay into my pension?

The most you can pay into pensions and still get tax relief is £60,000 per year or 100% of your earnings, whichever is lower. This limit is called the annual allowance and it includes:

- your pension contributions

- employer pension contributions

- any tax relief you receive

- third party pension contributions (for example, from a spouse)

You can learn more about the annual allowance on the HMRC website.

There is also the lifetime allowance, which is a limit on how much you can build up in pensions in total over your lifetime.

However, the tax charges for going over the lifetime allowance were abolished on 6 April 2023. From April 2024 the lifetime allowance will be abolished entirely.

This means that you’ll still usually be able to take up to 25% of your pension tax-free, with the rest taxed as an income. But you will not pay any extra tax charges for going over the lifetime allowance.

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