Registering for Child benefit help - higher income families

[lemonygem]

Hello all,

My DC is 2 and a half, and I never registered for Child Benefit - I genuinely had no idea that I had to (an the MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD goes to... ME!) because I thought it was for low income families.

I only realised that I SHOULD have registered her when my mum applied for some benefit/tax credit/GOD KNOWS WHAT (yes, I'm THAT CRAP) payment because she looks after DC 2 days a week. Well, it was rejected, because I hadn't registered for Child benefit.

OK, well there's the background. Basically, our household income is in the higher tax bracket which from what I can gather means we'll have to fill in a tax return if we claim. I've been told that I should register even if I don't actually claim money. How do I do this? Is it just a case of filling in the forms, or will I have to jump hoops made of fire or something?!

Appreciative of any help in advance,

www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/forms.htm

I'm intrigued as to what tax credit your mum thinks she can get for looking after your child. Is she a childminder? If you are wanting tax credit help for childcare I think it is you that would have to apply, rather than your mum.

Do follow the link above and, if one or both of you are higher rate taxpayers, don't see filling a self-assessment return as a bad thing. If you make pension contributions or donate money to charity for example, you can potentially claim back some tax-relief which may offset the CB claw-back.

You can register but not receive payment. It means you get NI credits even if not economically active or not earning enough to pay NI itself. However it may only be backdated 3 months. If you are a HR tax payer you should probably be filling in a SA return anyway.