Working & tax credits...

[PDR]

I would like to know if I can claim tax credits (particularly the childcare element) if:

I work in my own house cleaning and managing MIL's rental properties. DH & MIL will pay me a wage of £6/hr for 2 days a week
(16hrs) and I will register as SE and pay tax and NI as required.

I am currently on ML until October but we do get CTC & WTC including the childcare element as DH has made some trading losses which have been carried forward.

If you've already been awarded tax credits the answer is 'yes' you can claim. To find out the likely award put the details of your household income and childcare costs (which it doesn't sound as though you have?) into this Benefits Checker as accurately as you can.

Do you mean that you would want to claim additional childcare costs for the hours that you're working for your dh in your own house?

Yes.

I have 2 options basically:

I can go back to my NMW job for 16hrs a week and DH will continue to pay for a cleaner and MIL will pay for her PA or they can 'employ' me to do those things and i will declare the income formally. cannot do either with 2 toddlers in tow so yes I would put them in childcare and claim some of it back through tax credits.

It's not worth working unless I claim back some of the childcare as I would make a significant loss. My job also has no pension or career prospects so cannot even say it's worth it in the long term. After the DC start school I would like to retrain.

I'm sorry but I really don't think tax credits would consider being paid by your husband to clean the family home as being genuine self-employment and so you wouldn't be eligible to claim the childcare whilst you were doing it. Phone them and check, but I'd be surprised if they would be prepared to pay for your childcare costs while you clean your own home!

When I rang them the guy said it was fine as long as I registered as SE properly but like you say it sounds a bit dodgy. I wouldn't just be cleaning - we currently pay a cleaner for 6 hours a week - the rest would be admin/inspections etc of my MIL's rental properties. One of them is an hours drive away so would easily clock up the hours going there.

The other thing you need to bear in mind is that if you husband is paying you out of his income, then what he pays you will be counted twice - once as his income and once as yours. This will reduce the amount you would get in tax credits, plus as a family you will being paying tax and NI twice on the same money which will significantly reduce how much money you will effectively be making AND you will also have to pay for the part of the childcare that TC doesn't cover.

Will managing rental properties really take 10 hours each and every week on the paperwork, I doubt it.

With regards to the cleaning job, it wont count as its your resident address.

They are doing more and more checks on those claiming to be s.e but earning the bare min/hours as more and more people are registering as s.e just to get WTC.

I cant see why MIL cant pay you as a PA and you wouldnt need childcare as could do the paperwork in hours to suit you.