Will we lose all of child benefit payment?

[Snugglemonster84]

Aibu to be completely confused? My husband is about to get a paryrise and will earn 52k plus a 5% bonus.
I thought when you hit 50k you lost your child benefit, it just stopped. I've been reading and discovered it doesn't stop, my husband will have to pay it back in tax.

Does anyone mind who earns similar telling me how much you pay back at this salary?
Which would be the better option for us?

1. Stop recieving child benefit to keep things simple or
2. Still recieve it, inform them so tax code changes and husband pays it back (or some of it)

Ive also read that you have to complete a tax return? We haven't a clue how to do this as he's just salaried and why do you need to do that when you've informed them and the tax code should be altered accordingly?

It's also looking at ways to get yourself below the threshold eg childcare vouchers and also buying an extra weeks annual leave or paying more into your pension - these are all deducted before tax and therefore will make your salary look lower

Cornishmaid1 he has tried that and it doesn’t work

As I said up thread, if your partners income is over the threshold you don’t have to claim to protect your state pension contributions. There is a box on the form that says “I do not want to claim Child Benefit but I want to protect my State Pension.”

If he pays into a pension scheme, his salary might end up just below the £50k. Which means you'd keep all of it.

It’s worth bearing in mind that company car benefits are added to salary as well. I think it’s the P11D value that you have to add on. So if you earn 40k but you’re P11D value is 15k you’d have to pay some child benefit back as your adjusted net income would be 55k.

@Sinjistalk

We’re also in the same position as my DH’s redundancy payment two years took us over the threshold, we have been advised by HMRC that we won’t be fined and are also still waiting for a letter to come through to confirm how we need to pay the money back.
It’s too late to register now I believe to do a tax return online by 31st jan so we’re just chasing up this letter every week or so.

So what happens when you hit fifty ? At the moment we are on 42,000 but when I go full time we will be just over the 50k but that's combined... do we not get cb anymore?

I wouldn't worry too much as my salary is around that but I still don't pay tax on the child benefit because of the pension contributions. If my salary goes up slightly I plan to increase my pension contributions.

Even if you don’t claim the child benefit you still get NI contributions.

@DownstairsMixUp it only applies if at least one of you individually earns £50k or more. They don't look at the combined sum.

I really think it needs to change as it is very unfair! I am soon to be single and will be on my salary of around £52k and will pay tax on CB but there could be a couple with each earning £49k (so a combined income of just under double mine) and they won't have to pay the tax!

Ah ok thanks for telling me. Yeah it definitely needs a rethink!

Its absolutely fucking bollocks.

DH earnt between 55-60k for years and we weren't aware of the change. He then had cancer and his salary has dropped right back.

Weve just had letter about the change. They've said the used a media campaign but didn't inform individuals so are waiving our self assessment fines as goodwill

We are left owing thousands. We will have to take out an almost 5 figure personal loan

Bunch of cunts

The further over he goes the more he pays back. Have a look at the Child benefit calculator and put in different amounts and it will tell you how much.

We were in this position and we just contacted HMRC by telephone. H gave them the details over the phone and they changed his tax code there and then to reclaim it through his PAYE tax. He earns too much for us to claim it at all now so we've stopped it completely (I work) but he didn't have to do a self assessment form.

Ask them for the Pension contributions but to not pay you child benefit.

It's the easiest way in this mess.

My husband paid if back off his tax for 2 years even though we informed them. We switched to not receiving it but it pays my pension contributions.

We are in the same boat. Were never informed of the high income charge, have genuinely never heard of it until we got a letter 3 months ago. The upshot is that we now owe £7k - we had to pay half in a lump sum and the rest in monthly instalments.

Apparently HMRC waived the high benefit charge for a few thousand people but have now stopped. This is totally unfair on those who are left to pay it. They did not inform us that such a charge existed, its not that we were avoiding it!

And it is total nonsense that one single person earning over 50K is subject to the high income charge, and two people in a 'couple' can earn 49K EACH (so bringing in DOUBLE the household income) and not be liable for the charge. Utter madness and totally unfair.

It was MASSIVELY publicised at the time, precisely for the reasons you've set out. Newspaper, news, Martin Lewis jumping up and down for months about it.

I earn £52k and receive child benefit (single parent). I don’t pay much back in tax because of something to do with large workplace pension contributions. Do you tax return on line with your payslip handy and it works it all out for you.

There are THOUSANDS of people in this situation. In fact, the letter from HMRC said in the first line ' we have been made aware that some people don' t know about the high income charge'. They practically admitted that there are many people who knew nothing about it. The charge apparently started in 2013, and out children were born in 2006 and 2007, so there was never a reason for us to believe that things had changed.
If the campaign was massive, it certainly passed us by, as well as the other thousands of people it has affected.

Keep it - it continues NI contributions.

It's a sliding scale between £50k-£60k on what is repaid, but pension contributions are deducted from the gross (obviously and benefits in kind - cars, healthcare etc are added).

If your DH is in the higher tax bracket, then depending on his pension, he perhaps would be better off doing a self assessment anyway.

I can't see how it passed people by, as it has been on television, radio, newspapers and online for 7 years.

It's talked about on mumsnet almost weekly. It has been well publicised.

You DONT need to claim it for your NI contributions - in the section on higher earners there is a box to tick that says “I do not wish to claim Child Benefit but I want to protect my State Pension” which means you will be credited with the NI without the faff of claiming the CB and paying back via tax.

But cave mum that's only if you won't get any at all. Pension contributions etc and the sliding scale mean that some people still need to claim.

Yes some people do still need to claim, but there are some posters on here who are saying they still claim even though they don’t qualify for any of it. Ticking a box to opt into the NI is far easier than filling out a self assessment form every year in those circumstances!