To wonder if the child benefit change bashers appreciate.....

[HelpTheresPooballsInMyBed]

How much the government are saving in admin costs by doing it this way?

I'm not defending the changes and I do agree it would be a much fairer system if it was based on joint household income, but the way the current system works means that higher rate tax payers get "flagged" semi automatically on the system and sent a self assessment form which they then fill in and send back to be processed - pretty much job done. Can you imagine how much work it would take to check Household incomes and work out who needs to pay back?!

I'm not convinced anyone is actually checking. It feels a bit like an honesty tax.

The government has recently written to lots of higher rate tax payers (but not all of them!) but I'm not sure whether they'll be checking up that they've self assessed correctly.

I appreciate that BUT they already work out calculations based on a families joint income for Child and working tax credits. Surely it wouldn't be impossible for a system to be put in place where the two departments shared information to allow families to get the support they need.

The child benefit system at the moment is rediculously unfair.

Really?

Thousands more into self-assessment tax is a good thing? The erosion of the hard-won independence in the tax system is a good thing?

And household A (earning £98k) keeps CB when household B (earning £60k) loses it is a good thing?

But just think how much they would save if they scrapped it altogether, no checks to be done, no self assessment to fill in - all our lives would be easier!

But they dont get sent a SA form. All they do is send the higher rate tax payer a letter saying IF they have someone in the house claiming CB and IF they earn over £50k they may be liable. Except they don't actually mention that they don't mean gross salary and presume that the higher rate income person knows what their partners claim. Which is a lot of assumption with very little guidance for people who are on PAYE and have never needed to know what expectations HMRC has.

Though the fines for those who haven't registered for self-assessment covering the period Jan-April 2013 (deadline imminent) will make it look more "affordable".

That's a nasty little twist that hasn't been terribly well publicised.

Deadline is 5 October