I must be exceptionally dim - child benefit

[people]

OK, so now instead of one earner in a household earning more than £40k to be excluded from child benefit, it's £50K.

So, that means that some households will have £98K income and still qualify and others with £51k won't qualify.

IMO it's quite right that those on £51k (or £41k) don't qualify, but it doesn't seem fair that those on £98K do (I know been done loads before, I am getting to the point)

What I don't understand is why it's assessed on individual rather than household income? Tax credits are based on the household, so we know it's possible.

If they did it on household income, they would have to allow two tax allowances to be taken into consideration whether the non HRT partner worked or not. That's why all the semantics Ginger.

Yes it is.
Half the households in the country have an income of £26,000 or less

thegingerwhinger - indeed it isn't. Which is why one earner households are so upset about it. Many of those households will be one earner households because they can't afford childcare for the other partner to work.

scaryteacher - yes you're right, it's worse than that. They are basing one person's tax on another person's income, as you said below. It is totally incredible that they can get away with this!

And I do agree £50k is a large sum. We earn much much less than that, and are in no danger of losing child benefit, but £98k is a much larger sum.

£50 k joint household income earned by two people earning both £25k is just due to childcare costs much much much lower than £50k sole earner plus SAHP.

If they replaced CB with some kind of policy which made it more affordable to return to work I wouldn't be too upset.

That depends on their arrangements. Not if they have granny doing the childcare. Not if one of them works nights. And they have the benefit of two £9k tax allowances rather than one...

It is the principle of removing somebody's sole income because of the earnings of someone else, who in tax terms is supposed to be treated as a separate entity. That is what sticks in my throat.

They should abolish CB altogether and increase tax credits accordingly.

Ok i might be a bit thick on this one but we are relying on the hmrc to link me and my partner together even though we have a different surname?

This was the same hmrc who had thousands of people on the wrong tax code?

I appreciate that they have a new and amazing computer but i have already had to deal with their errors on this years self assessment, which ok is a different process, makes me dubious that they could cope with even more complex cross checking of numerous checking of external databases.

have you been getting tax credits of any sort over the past 7 years?

Talking, if you are refering to my post, not tax credits, just additional income i need to declare and pay tax on - they made it so difficult to even get the form i nearly gave up!

I work too. I don't earn as much as dh but we do have two incomes and we will now keep some of our CB whilst a sahm with a husband earning only a little more than dh alone will lose it altogether. It's crazy.

Northernlurker it's not completely crazy. Your family has to pay for childcare. The family you mention, with a sahm and a DH earning a bit more than your DH, doesn't. So for example, if you earn £10k after childcare costs, and the DH of that other family earns £12k more than your DH, they are better off overall as a family than you are, even though your family has two incomes.

Me and husband both work so have childcare and travel costs. Am deliberately not asking him exactly what he earns (he gets bonus based pay) so I'm not lying when I say don't know. And I've told him its none of his business if I claim CB, so that's what he will put on his form. I'll be amazed if the Revenue can link us but good luck to them, but we will not be helping them tax my husband on my income. Sure all this is going to cost a whole lot more to administer than they will save (as its supposed to only affect a small amount of people). And thanks to all the nice, kind people who say I can work evenings and weekends - I already do, but as husband is away with work I still need childcare. My parents live 2 hours away and are elderly so no free options open to us. We pay a lot of tax so contribute to the benefits pond, and this was the only thing we have ever asked for back.

You're amazed if they can link you? Any CB form and tax credit claim I've ever filled in have asked for both my and my husband's NI number.

According to John Whiting on the money programme today, the SA form will be amended to include boxes about children in the house and higher rate tax
and its a criminal offence to lie on a tax return
and they can go back 7 years
NOT worth the hassle of pretending not to know
NB the onus is on the high rate taxpayer NOT the person receiving the CB - so you will NOT be asked about your DHs income