Child Benefit and higher income - what time period do we have pay for?

[sunface]

hoping someone can please help. i've (probably stupidly in hindsight) still been claiming Child Benefit since the higher income charge was brought in last year and am going to do the online self assessment for my partner tonight (he earns in region of £55K) but scaring myself witless at what we might need to pay back as we can't afford to pay a lump sum. Can anyone tell me if i am submitted a self assessement if it covers 2012/13 tax year? and if so, do they look at CB claimed since the higher income change was brought in (ie Jan 2013) or is it from April 2012? Thank you anyone for any help

thought u'd be ok as the limit is 60k it stops?

Jan to April 2013. You can calculate what you may owe here and as a HR tax payer he probably needs to complete a SA return anyway.

Thanks, and yet another daft question, can he pay it back through his tax code do you know? ssd, worried that with his bonus etc, it might tip us into the over £60 bracket, but then i thought HMRC automatically stopped paying it if that was the case? Just me being naive........

No you have to request that they stop the payments here. I've feeling it may be too late to adjust the tax code (someone mentioned end of December as a deadline on another thread) but unless you have many children you aren't talking about a very large sum. You could call HMRC on 0300 200 3310 to ask fi you can pay in installments or if they have extended the tax code deadline.

Hey sunface I think you're going to have to call HMRC on this one. They are really helpful and will be able to ask your questions. I had to complete a self-assessment form this year for the first time because of the CB changes and had to call them a couple of times.

The main problem though is has your OH registered for self-assessment as you may get penalised if not?

Yeah he has thanks wingdefence. well, i did on his behalf last year ;-) hmm had read somewhere else about having to do it before december to claim back through his tax code, wish they were clearer about it all! All new to us this self assessment stuff. have 3 Dc's so it will be a fair bit that we could really do without having to pay back :-( Own fault and i'll be stopping CB come march. Dreading next year........ will need to make a mental note to get it sorted before december so we can pay back through tax then....

We're in similar situation. Have just both done SA forms online and it certainly seemed to suggest that the CB would be reclaimed through tax code. But is only for 3/4 months anyway so you should be OK?

If you are doing SA don't forget to put in professional subscriptions, charitable donations and any private pension payments not via payroll. You may find you reduce any tax due.

I did SA form yesterday and it gave a deadline of payment by 31st Jan. you can call and ask to set up a direct debit but it cannot be collected via your tax code.

Hi I paid last week and filled the SA form in online on Monday. There is a calculator on the HMRC site to tell you how much you have to pay for the 12/13 tax year (Jan13- March 13). here

Mine is being collected via my tax code. i have already received the notification of the tax code change. I believe they collect via tax code unless the underpayment is greater than £3K. I will probably be due a refund next year due to the fact that I'll have a whole year of increased pension contributions by then.

Thanks all, bigmouth, not sure how the calculator works as it would seem to calculate for April 2012-April 2013 when i only need to work out Jan-March? in addition and just to confuse things, i only got paid for 2 children in the January, none in the february and then a random payment of £47.10 in March :-/ Just out of interest in terms of paying from April 2013-April 2014, is there anyway of paying this off incrementally over the next year do you think? Sorry for all the questions! Maybe i should just call HMRC and see what they suggest?

if you complete the details they will calculate what you owe for the tax year 12/13 - that is the payments btwn Jan and April (in my case £612).

Not collected by tax code in all cases - cannot generalise with tax as circumstances, who is in receipt of CB and who is the HR tax payer, when you register, when the deadline for the payment is and many other factors determine method of payment.

When the SA form is completed then a breakdown of the tax owed and when it should be paid is provided at the end - that is based on the details you give and will be completely accurate (assuming the data input is correct) - then of course you need to pay it by Friday! I used bank transfer as it is quickest route and HMRC will provide the bank details and codes you need.

Sorry to hijack this but is it still the case that when you re not eligible for CB anymore, it should still be claimed for because of it protecting NI contributions?

Sorry for jumping on your thread but we are in the same position. Apart from I opted out jan 2013 but was still receiving payments for my older son - I then opted out again and still got payments, only to find out my old son's CB was in my husband's name??? How random.

So we need to do a tax return have just got our code of it online.

To clarify, you put in jan, feb, and marh payments only? Or jan, feb, march and april?

Confused by this.

Thanks all..

@Frozennortherner. There are several advantages of keeping claiming CB. Yes it can help you claim 'credits' towards your state pension if you're a parent or carer that doesn't earn enough to pay NI. link If your income goes down, you wouldn't have to opt in again. Also, completing a self-assessment form can mean a rebate if the higher-rate tax payer makes personal pension contributions or charitable donations.

You can register the claim for CB (to safeguard the NI pensionable years for non-earners etc) and opt out of receiving payments, thus avoiding the need to SA. www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefitcharge/stopstartpayments.htm

You should register to claim, but you can then opt not to receive payments. The forms are on line so it looks quite easy to opt in and out.

(Not sure how easy it is to claim back child benefit if it later transpires that you were entitled to payments in that year - this would be different to not registering, where I think you can only claim back payments of 3 months).

It's all CB payments received after 7 January 2013.

Actually, as far as I can see, if you register for child benefit, elect not to receive payments but then find out that your income in the tax year was below £60K, there is no way of claiming the payments you elected not to receive. (Sounds a bit scammy to me - does anybody have any evidence to the contrary?)

Self assessment return due tomorrow is for income received between 6th April 2012 and 5th April 2013.

The new child benefit law came in on 7th January 2013.

Therefore relevant receipts of child benefit will be between 7th Jan 2013 and 5th April 2013.

Thanks Cogito (and others)

BBC are reporting that some may get an extension to 15th Feb - worth asking.

Extension is only available to people who registered online or requested replacement activation codes online on the government gateway between 21 and 31 Jan.

Anyway, child benefit to put on the form relates to amounts you were entitled to from 7 Jan to 5 April, not actually the payments received. So for example everybody with 3 kids should put £612, the exact same amount as that is the amount of weeks you were entitled to between 7 Jan and 5 April. In many cases this will not tally with exact amounts paid as payment dates vary.

Payment is only available via your tax code if you submit your tax return by 30 December so any if you filing now will have to pay up today unless you phone debt management and request a time to pay arrangement. You will need good reasons for this and not be able to get the money elsewhere.