I've been claiming child benefit over last 3 years when earing over £50,000

[francis15]

To cut a long story short I’ve been earning over £50,000 The last 3 years but I never knew about the child benefit needing to stop.I’m not making excuses I just wasn’t wise to this.I realised this when a friend mentioned it and I went straight online to fill my self assessment in but I’m worried sick.I really am.How much will I be likely to be fined for this.I’ve looked at some websites and it could be £6,000-£8,000 according to some.Has ANYBODY been in this situation?
My last tax year I earned £64000
Previous was £52000
And previous to that was £52000.
I was below £50000 before that.
PS I'm NOT trying to worm my way out of this I just want to know what the outcome will be regarding fines etc

Does anyone know what happens at the end of our financial year if he has earned 50k? Would I have to pay it all back?

HE would have to pay it all back if he made over £60k. Or some of it on a sliding scale if between 50 and 60.

It's still a good idea to claim and pay back if one of you is a SAHP, (The SAHP should be the one to claim the CHB) as it your NIC record.

bluesu even though he isn't your DSs dad it is still counted as household income.

When my DP started earning more after we had moved in together, I received CB for my children but he had to declare it as part of his self assessment tax return (despite being PAYE through his employer) and we had to repay a chunk of it.

It tapers over £50k and stops completely after £60k but it can be worth claiming it and repaying it if you are a SAHM as it protects your NI contributions and counts towards your state pension.

www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge

Off topic sorry, but isn't the system complicated and inconsistent when it comes to what counts as 'household income' for some things and not others?

My ex could sit around on his backside refusing to work, but live the life of Riley, go on several holidays abroad a year, buy a new house, new car... none if his new wife's income is counted when calculating what child maintenance he owes me as she's not responsible for our children financially. Fair enough, makes sense I suppose although v frustrating.

But if I have a new partner, his income is taken into account when I claim child benefit, tax credits, etc. Seems an odd set up that allows people to look for and use any loopholes they can find, too.

it can be worth claiming it and repaying it if you are a SAHM as it protects your NI contributions and counts towards your state pension.

I can't say this loudly or often enough. My exMIL has recently discovered she is utterly stuffed financially due to not doing this when my ex was a child/teen, then when she was a carer for her own mother later on. She's having to claim UC at 68 because she won't get enough pension or pension credit to feed herself let alone pay any bills or mortgage. They won't pay her any UC money, only her NI conts, as she owns 2 properties (one is her mothers and she's been trying to sell both houses for nearly two years with no joy, just so she can eat!) She's gone from 'not having to work' and a fairly comfortable lifestyle, to being referred to food banks and having bailiffs turning up, for the sake of filling the forms in to claim her 'not needed' child benefit 30 years ago.

You don't need to claim and repay you can fill in a form and opt out but still make the pension contributions

This thread has been really helpful, thanks all those who replied to my post. I've managed to find a child benefit calculator on the government website and worked out if dh ever earned slightly over 50k, at 51k he would only have to pay back £178 of the £1780 I receive.

If you earn over £60,000 and still choose to get child benefit, that's fine, but just remember not to actually spend it unless you're able to find a massive lump sum every year when you have to pay it back!

roomba is your ex-mil award of carers credit? It exists to protect those with gaps in their historic NI payments who have been looking after children
www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/protect/2016/05/are-you-eligible-for-carers-credit-youre-putting-your-state-pension-at-risk-by-not-claiming

Sorry roomba I just realised that may not work retrospectively

divafever99 if you already use an accountant and its obvious your husband is going to earn very slightly too much they should tell him to put the relevant amount extra in a pension. Lots of people are doing that.

I hadn't though of that, thank you.

To echo AnneWiddecombesHandbag, if your partner earns over 60k and you are a SAHP needing to protect NI contributions you do not need to claim the money and repay it. You can fill in a child benefit form to say that you have children but don't wish to receive the money. That way they assess you to see whether you are eligible for child benefit and (assuming you are) you get the NI points (not sure what to call them) but not the the money, thereby avoiding the faff of self assessment and needing to keep the money aside to pay back.

Thanks Eddie. Will they automatically look into how long you've been wrongly claiming for ? (Though I promise I had no idea it had all changed and now my anxiety is through the roof!)

bluesu I am afraid I don't know what they look at automatically. But to help with the anxiety (I have it too so know the feeling of dread) let's break it down into steps.

April 2016-17 tax year: this is the most important as the deadline hasn't passed. Your partner has until January 31st 2018 to file a tax return. If he has never done one before, he needs to register for a government gateway account (quick) AND add self assessment to it as a service (10 days max authentication period). This is tight with the deadline so he should do it asap. He will then need to make sure he has his P60 from April 2017 as he will need to enter detail from it. For advice on setting up the account and authenticating you need to phone the HMRC online services helpline not the main tax line.

Earlier tax years: your partner will have to phone hmrc about these and it seems probable there will be tax to repay and late filing fines

April 2017- April 2018 tax year: your partner will need to do a self assessment. The dealing for a paper form is in October 2018 or January 2019 to do it online.

2018-19 tax year onwards: if you want thereon do opt out of getting the child benefit, phone HMRC and find out how to opt out. Or you can take the money, save it and get interest (if you can find an account with interest) but your partner will have to carry on doing annual self assessment and returning the bulk of the money

Please note I am not an accountant or tax specialist this is just based on doing self assessment myself so you should look through HMRC's info or consult a specialist/HMRC if you are still worried/confused (and apologies if I have anything wrong)

Yep, this happened to us. I thought both parties had to earn over 50k. DH earns over, I claim the cb but earn 8-12k. We had to repay 3 years x 2 and then 3 children, plus a fine of about 700 overall.

Which was nice.

If you earn between £50k and £60k, you only have to pay back part of it. Otherwise, all.

I’m not a tax adviser - this is just my understanding.

Also, HMRC are lovely. Don’t be scared to let them know. If people are proactive and genuine - it was a mistake - they will be cool with you. Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble.

Does anyone know the rationale behind it? Why is it calculated on one person's income rather than the household? The net result isn't equal. Households where both parents earn 49k and pay less tax (as not paying so much higher rate tax), will still receive it.

I have asked to keep the cb claim open but not receive payments, so as to protect my entitlements.

I got a letter confirming they were doing this.

@SueGeneris, it makes no sense at all. I’ll conceived in the extreme. Households earning £99,999.99 get it. Single parents earning £50,001 lose some. Over £60, they lose it all. A fine piece of Conservative party wank thinking.

Does anybody know if there's a way to fix a gap in your NI contributions?
We used to claim but DH now earns over the threshold - we had to repay some the first year he earned over 50k and then cancelled our CB claim. I'm a SAHM and haven't claimed CB for 4 years, I'm going to put in a claim for CB now but not take any actual money. Can I do anything about the last 4 years? Claim retrospectively or something but without asking for actual money?

Eddie thanks so much for all the advice it's really helpful

How old are your dc forkrightorf? Iirc payment only goes back 3 months so may be same for ni. Are you sure you cancelled the claim and not just payments?