High Income Child Benefit Charge - can anyone help me?

[Sinjistalk]

I’ve just been on AIBU, and think I should ask for help here too.

We received a letter from HMRC in Jan asking if we should be paying the High Income Child Benefit Charge. This was the first time we had heard of the charge, but when taking medical insurance contributions in to account my partner has earned just over £50,000 from 2016-2017 onwards.

We immediately wrote back to HMRC saying yes we need to pay the charge, for 2016-17, 2017-18 & 2018-19, please tell us what to do now. As yet we have had no response to our letter. I am expecting a BIG bill (I understand we will be fined as well as have to pay the charges), but I am also panicking about whether we need to complete a tax return (for 2018-18?) before 31 Jan. I want to avoid any fines I can.

We are both PAYE and have never completed a tax return. Are we too late to register to do this online for 2018-19? I’ve called HMRC too, but not managed to get through as of yet (been on hold for ages). Any advice gratefully received, thanks

Ring your tax office and speak to someone
There should be a telephone number on the letter you received
People always seem to be fearful of doing this but they are actually very helpful

Try to call them at a different time
So times are busier than other times
Ive always got through OK ringing early afternoon
Good luck

Yup, this happened to us. Partner got a pay rise and forgot to get child benefit reduced. We contacted HMRC last to tell them (became aware as moved house and had a thorough review of finances). Payment stopped and ask quiet until September last year when we got HMRC letter asking us to confirm we shouldn't have got the previous payments, which we did. All quiet so we called them and asked what happens next... and had to speak to about four people who all seemed pretty clueless. We wanted to know how much we needed to pay back, and when they would want the money so we could budget accordingly. We are still waiting... partner completed tax return but nothing heard since then. I'm cross we don't sort this earlier, but HMRC are so chaotic!

Just to check - if pension contributions and any other salary sacrifice options have been taken into account when reckoning DHs income? if his salary is only just over £50k including benefits then it is likely that tax-free deductions like pensions, childcare vouchers etc wil bring him back below the line again?

the clawback is on a sliding scale - you only lose the whole CB if you earn over £60k.

We are just going through similar. Yes you need to do a tax return for 18/19. Get online and get registered ASAP and complete it, from what I understand it is quite easy to fill in.
For the other years Hrmc will work out what you owe for each year. You might be fined but when we contacted them they said as we hadn't been sent a letter about the changes they wouldn't fine. However now we have the final bill we have been fined but it's only just over £100.

Thanks everyone - I will keep trying to call HMRC (hard to do when at work).

AdachiOljulo I’m not sure about tax free deductions. We are looking at his P60 & the total amount for the year figure. He also has a P11D which shows a figure for medical insurance, which I think is taxable, & so I have added this amount to total on the P60... you can probably tell I don’t really have a clue what I’m doing here

If you register for self assessment It will calculate it for your there and then for 18/19. But the payment deadline is next week so it depends if you have the money to pay it that year if not just wait to hear from them and work out a payment plan?

I've just paid the full lot back tonight for 18/19 as although my salary was less than £60k my company car benefit gets added on top which I did not realise!

@AdachiOljulo it's your gross salary so before any deductions. So yes you would be liable to pay some back.

If his pension contributions are taken from his net pay then his p60 will not take this into account and the p60 figure will need adjusting to work out his income for child benefit purposes. If his pension is taken from gross salary then the p60 figure will be correct. You should be able to work this out by looking at his pay slips and p60 but if you're not sure then payroll should be able to advise what kind of pension scheme it is.

Thanks again.

Does anyone know if we are too late to register for self assessment for 18/19? I have gone to the .gov website ‘Register for and file your self assessment tax return’ and it mentions a deadline of 5 October 2019 to register for self assessment.

The website also asks for a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) - not sure what that is.

Be interested to know how much the fines are, apparently they can be up to 30% of the amount owed, which is rather frightening!

31/1/2020 is deadline to complete and return last years tax data.

You need various codes and passwords sent via the post to complete in time hence the deadline well before.

I would register for the next year and contact them for advice.

Yes, it happened to us. We didn't get fined though, luckily. We ended up having to pay £5000. Not good.

Just happened to us, we’ve had to pay 15/16 (I think), 16/17, 17/18 and are now doing 18/19 :(

Registering takes ages they have to send you a letter with a special code on it

Sorry to jump on this thread but while there are people here that know what they're talking about...

I have just applied for child benefit (DD is 6 weeks old). I am on SMP. I ordinarily earn £60k basic plus bonus, but obviously will not be earning this while I'm on mat leave. DP is on under £50k.

I didn't tick the box to say we are higher income earners as at the moment we're not... is that right, or is it based on what my salary would be if I wasn't on mat pay?

Sorry to hijack your thread OP!

No worries MKCH

Sockbogies I’ll let you know😬

MKCH be careful - if your maternity leave straddles two tax years and you are a high earner in the bit of the year when you aren't on leave you may need to tick the box - it's the whole earnings from one April to the next that counts.

I have just applied for child benefit (DD is 6 weeks old). I am on SMP. I ordinarily earn £60k basic plus bonus, but obviously will not be earning this while I'm on mat leave. DP is on under £50k

Christ, seriously is it worth it for 20 quid a week? Just claim and opt out of getting the money.

I have better luck ringing either early or later on in the evening OP. They're really pleasant to speak to.

After claiming and then going through this and ending up having to pay most of it back (in a big hit as way more painful) we just opted out and I wish we'd never gone through it!!

Just stop claiming from this point.

So we finally got our bill from HMRC. We have to repay around £2k (fair enough), and they decided not to fine us (which is jolly nice of them, especially considering it was us that told them). But they have charged daily interest on the amount since earlier this year, resulting in an extra £200 odd. So not horrific, but still a bit ouchy!