CB for those earning 50-60k

[ac1974]

DH earns about 57k and I am currently a SAHM (with a minute freelance income). On R4 today the suggestion was that we should probably continue to take CB but pay the tax on it, by my DH filling in a tax return which he would not otherwise need to do.

I do need to do one for my freelancing even though my earnings this year and next are likely to be tiny. But I think he has to fill one in as the higher earner.

I'm sure there are already threads on this but I couldn't find quite the right one - any confirmation that we are doing the right thing would be appreciated as I know filling in a tax return is going to be a hassle but it feels like it should stack up.

you would probably be better off taking the CB payment as you will not lose all of the payment in tax - he will have to do the self assessment tax return though. We have stopped the payments but only because dh earns over 60K and we would lose all of the CB anyway

www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefitcharge/index.htm

I'd say you're doing the right thing. Does he make any contributions to a private pension because, if so, they will come off his gross income and reduce the amount of CB to be paid back? He could also get tax relief.

He is a teacher and he makes a reasonably significant contribution to his pension which all seems to stack up in favour of keeping it and doing the return...

For filing I use some software called 'TaxCalc'. Makes it a really easy job and I always seem to get a rebate. If he's paying 40% tax and he's making significant additional contributions to a pension he should get some money back, even allowing for the CB clawback. If he ups the contributions so that it brings his salary before tax down below £50k then you keep all the CB