Tax free childcare / 100k+ / maternity leave

[Potato80]

Hi all

Would appreciate anyone's help with this tax free childcare query please. Clarifying anything about this system is a nightmare.

Partner will likely earn over 100k within the next few months, so tax free childcare would be stopped.

But she's going on maternity leave, so her salary will be reduced/stopped for a year or so.

Doesn't that therefore mean that tax free childcare should be reinstated??

I know one could choose to put anything above the £100k into a private pension/give to charity to maintain the tax free childcare, but I wanted to clarify the above question first before we cross that bridge.

Thanks!!

Every three months a reconfirmation of eligibility is required. If no reconfirmation is done, then the account becomes pay only.

I would contact the helpline and ask at what point a reconfirmation could be done once on maternity leave. It may need to be in the new tax year (6th April).

When you do the reconfirmation you are asked are you on your partner expecting to earn over 100kpa in the next 3 months. When she's on maternity leave the answer will be no and therefore you'll be eligible.

The earning over 100k is also for the current tax year, so you will be okay till April... I think we had something similar and we were okay as my husband started earning over 100K in June, but we were able to still use tax free childcare.

You can ask your employer to put more money into the pension so that you are under the threshold. Many people I know do this.

Out of interest were any of you asked to pay back the free childcare hours when you earnt over 100?