Help! Being charged high income child benefit charge

[Oldtiger]

I just wondered whether anyone had been in the same position as this – today we got a letter from HMRC saying we owe more than £7000 in high income child benefit charge from April 2013 until now. But we haven’t received any child benefit! We last received it in 2012 after my second child was born it stopped because I remember the rules changing. I guess we’ll have to try the dreaded 0300 helpline number this week. If we’ve obviously had no deposit into our bank account do people think this would be easy to sort? Slightly stressful after Christmas and also my previous issues with HMRC have taken two years to sort out.

Oh dear butterfly I’m not sure but hopefully someone wiser than me can help! Once kids are in bed I’m off to raid the filing cabinet!

it all has to be repaid by 31st Jan through your tax return

ButterflyWitch if you earn between £50-£60k then a proportion gets paid back. Once you go over £60k it all gets paid back. The higher earner needs to register to do a self assessment tax return and declare the CB payment and then it tells you how much to pay back

Its £20.70 a week for 1 child paid every 4 weeks = £ 82.80 so it does sound like you have been paid it. They dont stop payments unless you tell them to

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

Oh dear lord someone pass me the smelling salts. Is it gross salary or taxable salary (after pension etc) that counts? Clutching at straws ......

Least yours isn’t £7000+ butterfly

dementedpixie thanks for the link

You've missed the deadline to have it reclaimed via your tax code, any monies owed will be due by 31st Jan as a pp said. Hopefully it's being paid into an account you don't often use and will be sat there.

Butterfly
its the taxable salary on your P60
if your scheme is salary sacrifice
and net of pension contribs if its not (less common)

oldtiger true! But could easily have been that high if I hadn’t seen this thread! DH has been claiming for 4 years and I’d no idea.,,, Im still looking at a hefty bill and certainly don’t have a spare ££££!! Fancy robbing a bank?

Oldtiger were you originally claiming for only 1 child? Have they given you a breakdown of charges as 5 years of payments for 1 child adds up to around £5350? Have they added on a penalty charge or something?

Least yours isn’t £7000+ butterfly

Surely it doesn't matter how much it is. if you have been paid this in error into an old account as you suspect, you will still have the money anyway.

Fingers crossed you find it stashed away in a long forgotten account OP

I do think its pretty poor that employers were not giving their staff the heads up on this.
The PAYE team can tell in an instant if the tax code has been adjusted for this ...

Yes I’ve got a breakdown of charges. It looks right. I’ve no issue paying it back if it’s owed it’s just I’m slightly anxious to work out where the money is
I’ve just been watching Gangsta Granny where she tries to rob the Crown Jewels butterfly.......

£82.80 is definitely CB amount.

@ButterflyWitch yes a monthly payment of £82.80 will be CB for one child. if you pay tax via paye check your tax records to see if you have already had the same deducted. if self-assessed you probably owe quite a bit to hmrc. its OK to be receiving it so long as you pay it back.

HMRC won't know to take it back unless the person registers for self assessment and declares it. Anyone who is over the threshold and receives the money needs to register to do a self assessment tax return

Oldtiger
Each year that you get CB they send you a letter confirming the amount and which bank account it goes to.
Has your DH got another bank account?
Do you not check your statements every month?
are you really rich enough not to need to?

If in doubt, call HMRC tomorrow and ask for a copy of the 17/18 letter including bank details

Hopefully you find it sitting hidden somewhere.

Omg.

DP is purely self assessed. Neither of us earns £50K, but should we be putting the child benefit on his tax return. I get it and I spend it.

Heheh no I’m very far from being too loaded to notice!! I’ve not registered for self assessment as didn’t realise we were still receiving it after initial few months. We’ve not received any letters but have moved house twice? (But that doesn’t make sense as HMRC have our correct address). Am very confused but appreciate everyone’s help and will do some digging/bank robbing and sort out. Sorry again for thread hijack

Thank you for your helpful replies demented pixie

ta1kin not sure the scored comment was needed there. As I said earlier, it’s not coming off our joint account so it may be an old account since jobs, circumstances and houses have changed.

BHStowel
Nope.
If you each earn less than 50k then you are in the clear