Child tax credits

[bertiebadger]

We are due our first baby in September and would like to claim child benefit - can we do this immediately? DH earns low to mid 50s so I know we'd have to repay some of it. I earn mid to high 50s but wouldn't be earning anywhere like that on mat leave. I'll be going back to work end of June. How do you make sure you are receiving/repaying the right amount?

From what I understand, it's a fixed amount for a single child so there shouldn't be any issues with being paid the right amount. Its £21.05 per week.

To pay back what you'd owe for being high earners, it's a self assessment tax form each financial year. This link might help:

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

Thanks, that's great. The tricky bit seems to be working out what we would need to repay - seems a bit of a minefield!

If you follow the link above, on there should be another link to a repayment calculator on the high earners tab 😊 and I'm sure it's deducted out of salary tax payments rather than a bill you receive to pay it all back.

Don't forget that it's your 'adjusted net income' that counts not your headline salary. So you can deduct pension contributions but if
either of you have benefits in kind like company cars or private medical insurance, the value of this needs to be added on.

I agree that it sounds like you won't have to repay any CB personally if your salary is signifcantly affected due to mat leave but your DH might, depending on how much his pension contributions are.

There's a calculator on the HMRC website, but I don't know waht the rules are if both parents are subject to the charge, as presumably you both would be if you go back to work full time and continue to earn at the levels you have said. It might be simpler not to bother claiming the money if you're both required to do a tax return and potentially pay some or all of it back as it's such a tiny percentage of a very high household income.

Thanks everyone. As far as I know it's just the higher of the two incomes that is counted. I've just had a look and reckon it's definitely worth it - although we'd have to repay a bit actually we'd still be about £500 a year better off.