Do I legally have to tell my husband I claim child benefit

[mumsneedwine]

So child benefit is paid to me, but DH has to fill in a tax return which asks if I claim it. Do I have to tell him ? I thought the law gave me the right to independent taxation and its not family income they are asking about. So, if I put in writing to my DH that I refuse to tell him as its my benefit am I breaking any law ? Ta.

Thanks for the form link, will tell dh to register.

So glad some of you agree its unfair. Apparently my husbsnd can now get my details from the HMRC, even though I thought this was illegal under data protection. The only support I've had is child benefit so am a bit fed up that its being taken away - the tax office can't even tell me how much as they tell me it's 'too complicated'. Wish I had the time to challenge this in court but I'm too busy working and raising a family.

OP, it's possible that HMRC can't tell you how much you will lose because that number depends on DH's salary which I think they can't tell you. From your POV, you get the same amount; from his POV, he gets a tax charge. So you don't directly lose anything.

The details he can get is the amount of child benefit you receive which is a standard number anyway, so as long as he knows the number of children in your household, he could calculate this without asking you or HMRC.

So how is my income/benefit taxable from my husbands income ? Since when was this legal ? Its all v unfair and has made me v cross when I see how much other people get in benefits, who have a much larger take home pay than us. Husband just rang tax office who told him that couldn't give my details out to him ???

From what meditrina said, I imagine there was a change in the law that made this possible

My guess is they headlined with "not paying CB at all" then someone pointed out the NI implications of this for SAHPs so paying it but reclaiming it through tax was their best option. They'd really prefer you to opt out of receiving it than claiming it through the tax code, but that does neither your cash flow nor your NI record any favours.

It is worth doing the calculations, Op, as it might make more sense for your DH to increase his pension contributions to go under the threshold so you still receive it in full.

Thanks. We have looked at that. We are so close to being broke each month we need every penny - eldest's hall fees just arrived and not sure how we are paying them !! Because we adopted the kids they are not entitled to any funding, whereas if I'd let them go into care they would have cost the state thousands and now get free uni education. It's a barking mad system. But I love em to pieces