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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how many of you know about the Child Benefit Charge?

380 replies

Ballstothisdotcom · 11/02/2020 15:18

I had to repay over £6k a couple of years ago. Had to get out a loan to do it. The children were mine and not my husbands and I had always claimed as a single parent so just didn’t stop.

Have just read daily mail sad face story about this happening to another family.

My sister and her husband have always claimed it. They have never had it questioned. I just wonder if HMRC are blanket mail sending and hoping people will be honest.

I genuinely had no idea about it until we got the letter. It also seems grossly unfair that two people can earn £49999 per year but if one person goes over it you have to repay it. In our case it was my husband who went over the threshold just slightly so we had to pay back from the day we moved in together.

Any one else?

OP posts:
Hmmmm2018 · 11/02/2020 21:47

We haven't applied yet, in fact this thread has reminded me that I should. They will still get NI numbers at 16 without CB but we/they would need to remember to apply for it, so possibly easier to apply for and cancel CB when you remember to!

Neverenoughcoffee · 11/02/2020 21:48

helloitsme
If tax needing to be paid is more than ( I think) 3k, none of it can be paid back via tax code the following year. All has to be paid upfront. If people owe tax in addition to child benefit they can easily fall into this category.

wonderstuff · 11/02/2020 21:49

I was aware of this, but didn't know how to sort it. I don't earn much, but dh may be over the £50k, much of his income is commission so we never really know where we are in relation to annual income, month on month it varies massively. he's going to ask his finance guy at work. Interesting about it being after pension contributions, might be worth him increasing pension. Crazy that cars are taxable benefits but pension isn't, his car is essential for his job.

Hmmmm2018 · 11/02/2020 21:49

Oops my last reply was meant for @Eastie77

TheClitterati · 11/02/2020 21:54

I'm a single parent and bonuses took me over the threshold a couple of years ago.

HMRC wrote to me ab9ur it and told me I needed to do self assessment. Luckily I had paid bonus into pension so first year I had a tax refund of £250. This year I had to pay them £280.

Xp contributes £200pcm. I pay for everything and raise 2 dc without claiming any benefits (apart from single persons council tax). I'm ok, but far far from wealthy. This child benefit repayment really pisses me of.

PonderTweek · 11/02/2020 21:55

FFS. I'm one of those ignorant people who didn't know about this, or I knew about it and forgot. Blush When I filled in the form I probably wasn't sleeping much due to a colicky baby... I suppose I'm going to have to ring them tomorrow and find out how to pay it all back. I feel like a right tit now, and concerned about how much we owe. Sad

Sooperkat · 11/02/2020 21:59

I knew about it and was so paranoid that once one of us went over £50k I phoned and asked them to stop it. We got a letter this year about the high earner charge but I called and said we hadn’t been paid it for years. They didn’t seem to have any record of this so I’m not sure how joined up the whole thing is.

dementedpixie · 11/02/2020 21:59

They will ask you to register for self assessment and then they will get you to do a tax return for whatever years you may have gone over £50k

Chocolateandamaretto · 11/02/2020 22:09

What I think is bullshit is that we lost child benefit for my daughter when it came out, but my partner (now husband) couldn’t claim childcare vouchers for my daughter (his now step daughter) at that time.
Is he financially responsible or not? Just felt like being shat on from both ends!

LynetteScavo · 11/02/2020 22:13

@Ellisandra - thank you for the link. The last time I put in a claim was over 14 years ago, and that information has never been sent to me.

It is annoying and frustrating when commission is a big part of your salary and you work really, really hard to make more money, then have to pay a higher rate of tax and then lose CB.

IMO a couple should be considered as a couple and it should be how much both earn together. Angry

Original poster
Ballstothisdotcom · 11/02/2020 22:20

The final bill for us was near on £6k with interest that they charged. As I said I took out a loan. It’s a bloody good job my credit rating is good. They expect it to be paid immediately and there advice (like in the article) was to borrow money from friends or family. Erm I don’t know many people I could borrow that kind of money from.

If you put it on a credit card the charge goes up even more.

The irony is dh then got made redundant. Our household income is nothing like it was, so I can claim it again.

Forgot to say I also asked if they could deduct from the amount as they do with tax credits but no. They want you to really feel the pain!

OP posts:
DorothyHarris · 11/02/2020 22:22

@Wally...you dont have to pay the charge if you and your daughters mother are no longer together...it goes on the higher earner in the household, if you are not living together as a couple you needn't declare it. If you have been you should ring the tax office as you will likely be able to amend any returns where you have declared this.

Echobelly · 11/02/2020 22:24

I know about it, but only by chance... it's outrageous it's not made clearer or that they don't just scrap CB for parents above a certain income. DH has been paying it in his tax return (I think! Shock ) because I know he asks me every year when filling it in whether we are paid child benefit and I confirm that we do.

I think BIL got caught by it a few years back.

itwaseverthus · 11/02/2020 22:27

Yes we knew about it. It was well advertised at the time. We could have kept me receiving it but dh would have been penalised in tax if we did.

As for my thoughts on it, well, best not.

turnedabout · 11/02/2020 22:36

Isn't it your salary after your pension contributions have been deducted via salary sacrifice?

Eg your top level salary is £50k but from that you pay £5k into your pension so your CBenefit is based on £45k earnings.

Yes?

MLMsuperfan · 11/02/2020 23:05

David Cameron did many things to complicate the tax system and introduce tax traps, rather than simply raising the top rate.

NameChangeNugget · 11/02/2020 23:10

It was very well publicised at the time

GrumpyHoonMain · 11/02/2020 23:16

@turnedabout - yep that’s exactly how it works

turnedabout · 11/02/2020 23:23

Then all the people here who say ' I earn £50k and can't get cb' should look at their pension contributions, deduct h the end from their top line salary and that's the figure your cb is based on. Loads of folk might be overstating their 'salary' to CB

Xenia · 11/02/2020 23:52

For those saying why cannot they just scrap CB for higher earners - that is the case - you can just tell HMRC you are over the limit and you stop claiming child benefit. I decided to carry on paying and pay every penny back with my tax payment each year as I was annoyed with the state and wanted to give it more hassle and also for some people claiming CB and then paying it back at least means thes taet knows they have a child which can be useful if you stop work or don't work to care for a child and then want national insurance credits for up to 10 years you are home. If insteda you just don't clam the CB because your household earns a lot then you lose the chance of that NI credit as far as I am aware.

turnedabout · 12/02/2020 00:28

Yes @Xenia if someone doesn't want the CB they should still fill in the form and tick the box so they can still qualify for the nation insurance which in turn secured your state pension! A lot of sahm accidentally miss out on their state pension because they didn't fill in the check form correctly!!!

PhilCornwall1 · 12/02/2020 03:38

Maybe but a few hours doing a tax return could be worth the extra couple of hundred up to a few grand depending on how many children and how close to the 60k cut off

For 18/19 it worked out to less than £1k per year after paying back the tax. This is for 2 children.

itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted · 12/02/2020 04:46

It was well publicised as there was much debate about it at the time about it......people just buried there heads in the sand and thought HMRC wouldn't catch up with them

And it doesn't stop as soon as you hit £50k it gradually reduces and If you buy annual leave from work or pay into your pension this comes off the total - so you can be earning closer to £55k and still get it

Sameold2020 · 12/02/2020 05:07

I was well aware of the salary cap, but not the company car issue. How much is a car worth? How do we find out? What do we need to do next?

Dh earns mid 40s, pays pension, and has car.

alexdgr8 · 12/02/2020 05:18

anyone watch the bbc2 programme about universal credit last night. those are the people I feel sorry for.

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