I've been earning >50k for a number of years and claiming child benefit but have never done a self-assessment tax return!

[JohnnyBGood]

I thought if your salary minus (pension + childcare vouchers) is less than 50k (which mine always is) then you didn't have to submit one ... but it seems I was wrong!

Is it too late to do one for the year up to 5 April 2018?

Aah, cross post with @JohnnyBGood - that's exactly what I don't understand! 😞

This really winds me up. DH has phoned the tax office several times and each time has been told he does not need to fill in the self assessment. He does earn over £50k but the pre-tax benefits he has take him under £50k so they said we didn’t need to.

I told him to phone again this year and every time he tries when he isn’t at work (not possible to do at work) he can’t get through.

We submitted it one year and they told us we needn’t have bothered!

Contact HMRC - they are understanding. We were in a similar situation - and all overpayments now repaid without fines or hassle.

The clawback is if your adjusted net income exceeds 50k.
Your adjusted net income is 49k so there’s no clawback. You don’t have to do anything.

To PP childcare vouchers should be considered. It’s only gross pension contributions and gift aid donations which should be considered when determining the adjusted net income.

I mean only pension and gift aid should be deducted. Nothing else

I've just been on phone to them. From what they've just said to me, you will probably get a 3 month extension if you phone them now and explain (but obvs can't be 100% certain for you)
They were v helpful
Get your figures ready first so they are clear what issue is

OP, I'm a chartered accountant. To work out your adjusted net income, take your gross salary from last year's P60, add on any benefits you received (if you have them you'll have a P11d), take off pension contributions and any charitable donations where you paid gift aid. Do not deduct childcare vouchers.

This is the figure you use. If it is

@TattiePants I’m not the OP but just wanted to say thank you for clarifying! I am at ease (again! Been around this circle so many times...).

@TattiePants thankyou! Can I ask another question? My husband's bonus is variable each year (dependent on lots of factors and can range from a couple of hundred pounds to a couple of thousand) This bonus is always paid as part of his normal wage in March usually and as a result he effectively gets a higher salary payment one month of the year (which obviously means that month he pays more tax than usual too) He doesn't have the form you referred to, just a P60 so am I still right in thinking this bonus has to be included as part of his usual salary rather than as an added benefit? Thank you!

@Hereslookingatyoukid no problem. You are correct that his bonus is treated exactly the same way as his monthly salary and will be included in his annual P60. For example, if he has a £50k salary and £2k bonus, his P60 for that year would show an income of £52k. This is the figure you would use if he had to complete a tax return.

He will only receive a P11d if he receives non-cash benefits such as a company car or private health care.

Thank you TattiePants.

Just one other query ... my p60 doesn't have a gross salary figure. It has a figure for 'Pay' and a figure for 'Tax Deducted'.
The sum of those seem to equate to what my gross salary would have been. I assume that's the figure I use before deducting pension contributions?
Thankfully it's less than 50k!

Thank you Tattiepants

So Tattiepants my husband works for a car company and his car is taken off before tax, as is his health care and something else I can’t remember. Can we take them off his gross income and therefore it isn’t included for child benefit purposes? That seems to concur with what HMRC said in 2014 but nothing on their website about it.

Thank you @TattiePants Does anyone know when this change came into effect?

Realised I wasn't very clear - does anyone know when this 'cap' to Child Benefit eligibility was introduced? Thank you!

@Hereslookingatyoukid it changed 6 years ago in Jan 2013.

The Pay box is your Gross Taxable Pay on P60. If this is less than £50k you should be fine I think, and won't have to do a form.

Oh really? I hadn't realised it went back that far! My husband only got a higher paying job about two years ago and bonus was small first two years so I think it's just last year that affects us. Thanks to everyone on this thread - feel a lot more in the know now!

Your login details take a while to come by post, so don't delay.

The SA return is quite straightforward, at least I've always found it so - despite invariably dreading getting down to it.

I think we are fucked to the tune of about £5k

I bloody told DH to call HMRC so many times and he just said it was hard to get through to them on the phone or he didn’t have the time.

Soooool angry at him

Do make sure you call Tax office and check, it's your responsibility to make sure you are doing the right thing.
It will be treated as fraud if you don't and they don't really accept, I didn't know.

He’s calling tomorrow. I wonder if I should call today.

@LooksLikeImStuckHere I've had the same with DH where I've repeatedly reminded him to do something or cancel something and then we've ended up with a large bill! If he does end up with a tax bill, have a read of this article as it has tips to reduce the tax payable.

Cut tax bill