Frustrated @*&^! Shouldn't childcare be tax deductible!?!

[W6mum]

Who do I go to, where do I start to get a pressure group to force a change in law/policy? Any I can join???

I earn a good salary yet have this hideous amount going out on childcare, and that's along with doing all the bloody paperwork we have to do as 'employer' (nanny share arrangement so roughly same as nursery cost). After these costs I really am just working for some intellectual stimulation. Other ladies in my NCT group, inteligent women at that, cannot even afford to go back to work.

What the hell? I'm sure the legislation Baroness Scotland drew up then flaunted herself in her employment of an illegal Tongan nanny was all about getting mums to feel too guilty to pay cash in hand and use us as tools to effect Labour's failed anti-immigration measures (as if we didn't have enough guilt already)

So...... DAVID CAMERON - I want my childcare costs coming out of my PREtax income now!!!!

Erm, it can. I pay mine pretax. Childcare vouches.

Child care vouchers!

but that is a really tiny part of it all, though clearly better than a slap in the face.

It's ridiculous given that having a chauffeur is tax deductible.

Childcare vouchers - only if you're employed. I can't get them as I'm self-employed.

I'm talking the whole lot, pretax income. why not?

um are you a single parent?

if not then why are childcare costs your responsibility?

I use childcare vouchers - £243 a month tax free.

Perhaps those intelligent women who want to go to work should see it as a joint expense if they have a dp or dh....Sometimes fathers pay childcare too you know....

Posted too quickly - meant to say that we both use this amount but it doesn't cover our full amount and I really wish it could ALL be tax free as it is an expense directly incurred as a result of working.

I completely agree. It is absolutely ludicrous that the sums can't be reclaimed as a legitimate working expense. Am minded to write to an MP about it. Would Sarah Teather MP (Minister of State for Children and Families) be the right person do you think? Or someone in the treasury?

rainbow - my husband's childcare vouchers give us £243 but I can't get them as self-employed - we both require the childcare - should be tax deductible for both, surely - 50% each would be fair... It is a joint expense, of course it is.

Rainbowin the sky - not kidding. These are dual income families but in low income jobs

Just to remind the "but childcare is a joint responsibility" brigade, yet again, that it really doesn't make any difference whose salary you say the childcare is coming out of, if the family are worse off at the end of the month due to one parent (usually the woman) working instead of staying at home.

Pedantic comment about whose responsibility childcare is really aren't helpful if you can't afford, as a family, to pay the bills if the woman wants to return to work after baby is born.

Annie - yes, that is your opinion. I am allowed to have a different one.

So right Annie!! I apologise to those of whom I did not qualify my post by adding 'my husband is pulling his weight but we still struggle so don't worry about stating the absolutely blinking obvious in return'

Sarah Teather sounds like the right person - though of course at a time of pulling in the reins and reducing costs they're not going to want to give up a huge source of income.

It's not my opinion, Rainbow, it's a fact. Please explain to me how it will make everything better if you say "right, DH, childcare comes out of your salary, I'm going back to work. Incidentally, what I will earn will be less that you pay for this childcare and we won't be able to pay the mortgage, but that's OK, because you're the DC's parent too and you're since you're paying the childcare, that's not my problem."

When women talk about their salary not covering their childcare costs, they're not being all un-feminist and absolving their DH's of childcare responsibility. They're saying that it makes no immediate financial sense for the family for them to return to work.

Why would I expect dh to pay for all the childcare?

Are you deliberately missing my point, rainbow?

But your posts makes out I said to dh he has to pay all the childcare because I insist on going out to work??That's not what I said at all.

If childcare was tax deductable... would that be any different to making all childcare free?

In other countries, such as in the Netherlands, childcare is subsidised to a greater extent. However taxes are higher I think.

it woudln't be free but, as a quick example, if your salary were £50k gross, the £20k childcare comes out of the £50k then you get taxed rather than you get taxed first (being left with say £30k) and then ahve to pay childcare

But you're being pedantic again. I'm trying to make the point that if a family are worse off as a result of the childcare costs when one parent goes back to work, it makes no difference whose responsibility anyone chooses to say the childcare costs are.

You said "Perhaps those intelligent women who want to go to work should see it as a joint expense if they have a dp or dh....Sometimes fathers pay childcare too you know...."

But even as a joint expense, if childcare outgoings are higher than one salary income, the family are worse off at the end of the month and surely it makes more financial sense for that person not to work?

I am having a bit of difficulty seeing why the taxpayer should subsidise peoples lifestyle choices. If you can afford kids have them, if you can't, then don't.

Yes I live in the Netherlands and we get ?900 in tax back on ?1100 childcare bill. We have two children and both are in nursery two days a week.

But tax is very high - no tax free allowance, and a basic rate of over 30%, rising quickly to over 50%.

There's also tax relief on mortgages...

The taxpayer subsidises the CEO's chauffeur and noone kicks up a fuss about that, so I can't see that they'd object to subsidising her nanny too. The problem is that rules on what's tax deductible are utterly unfair and possibly sexist. I heard on the radio this week that UK childcare costs are the highest in the world.