The Treasury quietly pockets hundreds of millions a year in 'unfair' tax nabbed from savers paying into company pensions, it has been claimed. Fresh estimates suggest some 425,000 Britons are failing to claim tax back on pension contributions. In a cruel double-blow, the Treasury then rakes in millions more by taxing their incomes in retirement.

One expert said taxpayers could be losing out on as much as £850million every year. Successive governments' failure properly to explain to higher rate taxpayers that they should fill in a tax return and the taxman's policy of not warning people they pay too much tax on their pension has exacerbated the problem. Victims can backdate claims by up to four years under HM Revenue & Customs rules.

But anyone missing the deadline ends up taxed twice on a diligently saved nest egg. The shocking revelations come weeks after Dave Hartnett, Britain's top taxman, resigned under....Read more here--: Treasury pockets £850m from forgotten higher rate taxpayer work pension refunds | This is Money