Child benefit tax

How exactly did you find out you could do this. Dh will soon be earning over 60k but because of this meaning different working hours my mum will need to look after dc more after school. If any proof needed for her claiming it?

Put as much as you can into a workplace pension

Any money you pay into your pension gets taken off. The value of benefits like medical insurance gets added on. What's left is your "adjusted income".
You pay back 1% of the child benefit for every £100 you earn over 50k up to your adjusted income.

If your income reduces during the year you can't claim CB for the earlier months, so it's better to claim from the start and put the money in a savings account. If you're off sick/lose your job and your income reduces you'll get to keep the CB money. If all goes well and your income is over the limit, you pay it back and keep the interest.

Why are you shocked that for staying home with their children. Its recongnising the inequality for those who maybe have to stay home (be it finicaly or some other reason). It was shown that women specifically where more likely to be in finical hardship at pension age due to having cared for other family members over time. This helps level that to some extent.

Women who care for young children or other relatives are giving society a lot of support as otherwise the cost to the state would be higher (I know not so much with childcare but it is becoming more as more childcare becomes subsidised. I know that's a whole other topic) also maybe they don't need to claim some other benefits if lower income. Like working tax credits.

I get NI contributions through another benefit so no need to get them through child benefit.

@CeciliaMars a lot of the grandparents will also be higher earners tho. I'm actually shocked people get NI credit for staying home with kids. Maybe it's time universal child benefit was stopped and one parent can claim a tax break of say 1% at 20% or 0.5% at 40% so it encourages everyone to get out and work.

@hellonnme but this means your not getting your pension contributions. You do realise this don't you?

If your paying for your pension contributions instead which you can top up to an extent then you defiantly shouldn't be letting your mum claim. Because you are clearly then finicaly able to aford to give her some money instead.

Just read someone else's post that states the rules. That seems like an incredible loophole! Surely all grandparents of higher earners could claim it, and say that normal grandparent things like presents, treats and days out! Of course grandparents and other relatives who actually raise the children should receive it, but I think personally, you are being immoral claiming it.

Yes, same reason here why I claim it. I don't need it for pension credit as I now work full time and DH pays it back through his tax code. But if he were to be made redundant part way through the tax year, I can't imagine the child benefit being backdated to the start of the year, so makes sense to claim it just in case a disaster hits the family which means it's no longer repayable

This.

Hi superplumb, will they know to ask you and automatically ask, or will you have to do some kind of declaration?

That's funny. But at least you haven't been inadvertently committing fraud and don't have to repay anything. If he's happy to carry on doing that (it's a trivial job if he's doing a tax return anyway) then you might as well continue claiming. Nice to hear a happy ending.

If you did want to stop claiming then there is a box you can tick that preserves your SAHM pension contributions while disclaiming the actual cash.

Yes I knew. I crossed the £60k mark last year with an extraordinary bonus and had to pay £1130 tax back in January.

I keep claiming it because if I don't get the bonus this year or am made redundant during the year, I bet if I put in a claim same day, they won't be so keen to reinstate the claim immediately.

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge

I'm really shocked about this too! Surely this isn't allowed else every higher earner would do this? So you're a higher earning family, lucky enough to be a SAHM, with supportive grandparents next door who could seemingly have the kids if you did need to work, and you're still taking taxpayer benefits?!

I don’t think it is a problem her claiming it but I think your husband still should be repaying it via his tax return.

Ha ha, well that’s good news at least. And you’ve opened a can of worms with this thread in the meantime.

Well yes they could but due to the fact both HMRC and the DWP are woefully underfunded and overstretched even if they could check by asking for receipts they never will so this is very open to abuse.

Yes this is common knowledge. Child benefit has been based on income for a long time.

But even if you are not entitled to the payments, you should still submit an application for it, but tick the option that you do not want the money, to ensure you get the national insurance credits, which is what you need for the state pension.

Receipts?

Thank you for this! She definitely does spend more than CB on them (and it can be proved by standing orders etc) as well as all the benefits in kind.

Yes this is common knowledge - or so I thought. It was all over the press when it started and often discussed on here. I’ve had to repay 2yrs worth, I owe them 1k at the moment. It is frustrating when 2 people on 49k don’t have repay it.

It’s one of the reasons I got divorced.

I’d told him several times he’d need to file a tax return. He’d ignored me because it didn’t suit him to listen, and like people have said it sounds ridiculously complicated.

He eventually got a letter telling him to pay it back and he lost his shit at me because I’d spent it.

Anothet nail in the coffin of our marriage. Had they just sent the letter in the first place it might have been less shit all round.

(worked out for the best I suppose, it was the tip of the iceberg)