Your State Pension goes on a Self Assessment tax return in box 8, as what you were entitled to for the year, not what landed in your account.
The figure comes from a letter DWP sends, and the same return has separate boxes for lump sums and other pensions. This guide shows the box, where to find the number, and what happens if you never file a return. Pension Wise is free, impartial guidance backed by government from MoneyHelper, and a sensible first stop if a pension pot is part of your picture. The form on this page also lets you request a call at no cost from an FCA-authorised adviser about matching a State Pension figure with your other pensions for the return.
Do you have to put your State Pension on a tax return?
Only if you send a Self Assessment return. The State Pension counts towards your tax whether or not you file one, and the guide to whether the State Pension is taxable covers when tax is actually due. This page deals with the paperwork side.
GOV.UK lists who must send a return. It includes sole traders who earned more than £1,000, and it says you may also need one if you have untaxed income such as rent or savings interest. Rather than guess, you can use GOV.UK's Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return tool. If the State Pension is your only income, the usual route for any tax due is a Simple Assessment bill rather than a return (see below). A letter from HMRC asking for a return is a separate trigger: you must send it by the deadline printed on the letter.
If you do file, the deadlines fall after the tax year ends on 5 April. GOV.UK's deadline page sets 31 October for a paper return and 31 January for an online one, and 31 January is also the date to pay. To have a bill collected through your tax code instead, submit online by 30 December.
Which box on the Self Assessment form is the State Pension?
It is box 8, in the section of page TR 3 headed "UK pensions, annuities and other state benefits received". The boxes you are most likely to use there, as HMRC's 2026 form and its notes describe them:
| Box | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| 8 | The State Pension you were entitled to receive in the year |
| 9 | A State Pension lump sum, gross, if you deferred |
| 10 | Tax taken off the lump sum in box 9 |
| 11 | Other pensions and annuities, gross |
| 12 | Tax taken off those other pensions |
The form words box 8 as "State Pension – amount you were entitled to receive in the year, not the weekly or 4-weekly amount". The notes tell you to put the total in box 8. HMRC adds that if you use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax software, you must check that the entitlement amount is included when you submit.
What State Pension figure goes in the box?
A full year's entitlement before any tax, not your weekly rate and not the sum of payments received. No tax is taken off the State Pension before it reaches you, so the gross and the net are the same money.
The source is DWP's letter. HMRC's notes point you to the one headed "About the general increase in benefits" to find your weekly State Pension amount, and its tax guidance confirms that the entitlement amounts appear on the State Pension letter from DWP. The rates usually change in April, so for a full year HMRC counts one week at the old rate plus 51 weeks at the new one, if you started receiving the State Pension on or after 6 April 2010. HMRC's own illustration uses £160 a week before April and £170 after: £160 for the first week plus £8,670 for 51 weeks gives £8,830. Those are made-up rates, so use the amounts on your letter.
Box 9 is different. The notes say it is only for people who deferred "for at least 12 months and chose to receive it as a one-off lump sum", with the gross amount in box 9 and the tax taken off in box 10. A deferral lump sum never goes in box 8; how the lump sum arises is in State Pension lump sums. With the box 8 total worked out, an adviser can set it next to your other pensions for you, free, once your question arrives by the form on this page.
What happens if you do not send a return?
HMRC collects the tax another way. GOV.UK says that if you also work or get a private pension, you will usually pay the tax on the State Pension through a changed tax code, so it comes out of your pay or your other pension. How the codes work is in your pension tax code explained.
There is a limit to what a code can collect. In GOV.UK's worked example, £750 is taken through a private pension in the year. That is 50% of the private pension income, the most a tax code can collect, so HMRC sends a Simple Assessment for the £236 still owing.
Simple Assessment when the State Pension is your only income
Where the State Pension is all you have and it takes you over your Personal Allowance, GOV.UK says HMRC sends a Simple Assessment tax bill for the tax due. The bill, also known as a PA302, arrives by post or in your Personal Tax Account and shows what you owe, how it was worked out and how to pay. GOV.UK also lists owing £3,000 or more as a reason to get one.
A Simple Assessment is not a Self Assessment return, so receiving one does not mean you now have to file. If you think a bill is wrong, or tax was overpaid through an emergency code, see how to claim back pension tax.
How do other pensions go on the same return?
Workplace and personal pensions go in box 11, not box 8. Your pension payer gives you a P60 or similar statement, and the notes tell you to add up your UK pensions, leaving out the State Pension, and enter the gross amount before tax. The tax already taken off, shown on the same paperwork, goes in box 12.
Box 11 also takes "taxable lump sums treated as pensions". Which part of a withdrawal is tax-free is in the tax-free cash explainer, and how drawdown payments are taxed is in tax on drawdown. Overseas pensions are different: HMRC's notes send them to the "Foreign" pages, and reporting a foreign pension has the detail.
If you live in Scotland, you pay Scottish Income Tax on your wages, pension and most other taxable income, so the rates on the same figures differ from the rest of the UK. If you also have savings and a workplace pension on the same return, the adviser who rings you once you complete the form can explain how they combine, free of charge.
Questions people ask about pensions on a tax return
Do I put weekly or yearly State Pension in the box?
The yearly entitlement, never the weekly or 4-weekly amount.
What if I started my State Pension part way through the year?
HMRC says that "we tax you on the number of weeks you receive payments for". The notes say to multiply each weekly amount by the number of weeks you were entitled to it.
Do Pension Credit or Winter Fuel Payment go in box 8?
No. The notes say "Do not include State Pension Credit, the Christmas bonus, Winter Fuel Payment or any addition for a dependent child", and the same applies to Attendance Allowance.
Do I declare pension carry forward on my return?
GOV.UK says you might be able to carry over annual allowance you did not use from the previous 3 tax years. What the return asks about is going over the allowance: if you do, GOV.UK says to fill in the 'Pension savings tax charges' section, even if your pension provider pays some or all of the tax, using form SA101 if you file on paper. How carry forward works is in pension carry forward.
Where can I learn how much State Pension I will get?
Your State Pension forecast shows what you are on track for, and the State Pension guide explains how it is built.