Why is the Revenue taking so much tax from my pension? Trying to untangle this has been laborious and unsatisfactory. Perhaps the fact that you have various other sources of income including a tiny business venture, which requires you to fill in a self-assessment form, and a part-time job, which you pay tax on at source, added some complexity. There were also some discrepancies I noticed which Phoenix had within your address. Phoenix agreed to make sure the address was the same and indeed correct on both policies. After lots of toing and froing between myself and Phoenix Life you eventually had the right tax codes coming through on these pensions, but they were then changed back by HMRC. As if this wasn't enough, along the way Phoenix Life had written to you that it had incorrectly set up an annuity for you, when it hadn't, and that it had underpaid you which wasn't the right way of expressing what was going wrong. Because of this administrative muddle it offered £150 for goodwill which you eventually accepted. In the end the only way to get the overpaid money back seemed to be via self-assessment which you do for the small business anyway. You report that Phoenix Life sent you a P60, a summary of the tax paid, and you duly put the details down on the form. After that though, in yet another tiresome twist, Phoenix Life sent an amended P60. To your chagrin you now had to go back to HMRC, which you report was understanding. Eight months after you first wrote to me you have the overpaid tax back through self-assessment. I suspect this will be the way things have to be done on this front for the time being.