Child benefit / salary cut off

[newsflash]

I earn £50k per year and my husband earns £35k. Are we entitled to claim child benefit? The forms say you are if you don't have an individual income of more than £50k per year

As I earn £50k am I ok to claim normally? As another section on the form tells you what to do if your salary is between £50-60k...

Not sure whether the standard application is for people who earn bang on £50k or whether it's for those £49,999 and under

Probably being very dim but would like second opinion. Baby brain is in full force!

Yes you definitely should claim / if you earn £50-£60k you pay a proportion back in tax at the end of the financial year so at a salary of £50k that would be minimal.

However, and hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to confirm this, I'm pretty sure it is based on your salary after pension deductions, so if you are paying into a pension you probably wouldn't have to pay any back

Yes you are. Between 50k and 60k you keep some of it and pay some back through your tax return. Over 60k you will pay it all back, but if you do a tax return anyway it may still be worth claiming in case your situation changes in the future. DH has earned over 60k the last couple of years but we're still claiming at the moment since he does a tax return anyway for gift aid and pension relief.

So do I def need to do tax return? Wanted to avoid that...

I do pay into a pension!

If your gross salary is exactly £50k and you pay into a pension, you will be entitled to all your Child Benefit and probably won't have to do a tax return as its your salary after pension contributions that counts.

However, I wouldn't worry about doing a tax return. It's really not hard to do online - DP is self employed and I do his for him and his is quite complicated because as well as being self employed, he does some work where he is paid through an umbrella company and it counts as employed. Doing a tax return just to repay some CB would really be quite simple.

Check the exact wording on the form and your exact salary.

Does it say 'above £50 000', or £50 000 or above.

It doesn't matter whether the cut off is £50,000 or £49,000. OP's pension contributions reduce her salary to below that so she can claim in full.

Not sure why she'd need to do a tax return...