Declaring SIPP contribution increases tax payable!

[jokerman]

Hi - I wonder if somebody can explain this anomaly....

I'm filling in a tax return using TaxCalc.
There is a life assurance gain which pushes the income into higher rate. The TaxCalc calculation shows that top-slicing relief has been applied.
If I now add into the return the SIPP contribution (which is the only pension payment) which is 3600 gross, entered into the box where pension provider claims basic rate tax back, then the tax payable actually increases! Only by around £100 but it still is an increase.

Looking at the calculation this is because the top slicing relief only gets applied if the income starts eating into the higher rate band, which doesn't happen if the pension payment is included. But still strange that the pension payment actually seems to raise the tax payable!

Is this correct? If it's in my interest (as it is in this case) to not declare the SIPP contribution is that OK not to declare it , or would that be breaching the rules?

Thanks in advance!

[jokerman]

I did find some independent posts where people were suggesting that pension payments only need to be entered on the tax return if the person wants to claim tax relief. So unless somebody guides otherwise, I won't enter the SIPP payments on the tax return.

Still puzzled about why this is beneficial!

Thanks.