Talk me through higher tax & child benefit please!

[ChocolateTea]

I’ve been very fortunate to have just been told I’ve received a pay rise, which will take me over the £50k salary by about £300. But now I have no clue about things like higher tax, and how it could affect my child benefit etc (I was a low earner and single parent with benefits top ups for many years until I refrained and qualified a few years ago)

I pay into a pension (around 9% taken at source) - does this therefore drop my “earnings” when it comes to the higher tax bracket and child benefit? I’m on the standard 125L tax code

if not, do I need to start self assessment tax? How does that work?

I’ve looked up online but I’m a little confused still and trying to figure it out. I’ll only get child benefit for next three years max so I’m not overly concerned about losing it long term (I’ve just started putting most of it into the children’s child fund accounts) but don’t want to end up with a large bill or told off (I’m autistic and I hate getting things wrong or underpaying etc. it makes things like insurances really hard as I tend to pay over the odds as I worry so much)

thank you!

Just to add I should in theory receive pay increases of small amounts (2k-4k) the next couple of years as well, so even if it doesn’t affect me right now it could next tax year

No, you're fine - it's over 50k taxable income, so that's with your 9% pension contributions taken off. The pay rises shouldn't take you over either.

Ah brilliant thank you. So I shouldn’t have to worry for another couple of years? Just work out my pension contributions, subtract that, and then it’s if that is over £50k I start to pay higher?

Yes, and if it's only just over 50k, I'd probably stick a little bit extra in the pension to avoid the hassle of doing the tax return.

I’m in the same boat, so this is reassuring!