Pension money splits into two very different things. Contributions an employer makes for staff are a genuine business expense that sits in your quarterly totals. Money you pay into your own pension as a sole trader is a personal payment that reduces your income tax bill — not your business profit.
The big one is a sole trader logging £200 a month of personal pension payments in this category. The quarterly update then shows £2,400 of "pension contributions" that aren't deductible, and the final declaration has to unwind them — often with a nasty surprise tax bill in between. Keep personal contributions out of your expense totals and flag them to your accountant so the relief is claimed in the right place.
Confusion with limited companies runs a close second. If you also run a limited company, that company can usually deduct employer contributions it pays for you as a director — completely different rules from sole trading. Don't carry the company treatment across.
Finally, employer contributions run through payroll are sometimes forgotten in the tracker because they never touch the bank account separately. They belong in your records as well as your payroll reports, so your quarterly totals match.
Select Pension contributions only for employer contributions into staff schemes. Log your own pension payments as personal — outside the expense categories — with a note of the amount so it is ready for the payments section of your Self Assessment return.
Track all your expenses in HMRC's own categories with the MTD Sole Trader Tracker.
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