Hi, everyone!
Our situation is as follows at the moment:
- I am currently buying £243 childcare vouchers / month. I am able to do this as I salary sacrifice a good part of my salary for DS2 workplace nursery fees (this is separate from the vouchers), which pushes my salary into the 20% tax threshold.
- DH is buying £124 in childcare vouchers / month as he is a higher rate taxpayer, but not by much.
- At the moment, we are buying more childcare vouchers than we need as only DS1 is in after school club - so we have some savings on the accounts.
- However, from September next year both DS1 and DS2 will go into after school care (and possibly morning club as well). DS2 having left nursery will push my salary up, potentially into the higher rate bracket.
Questions
- How exactly do you calculate the threshold childcare vouchers? If we both were able to buy £243 / month from September, we could cover combined childcare costs with these. If I dropped down to £124 and DH continues to take £124, we'd have to subsidise with cash, essentially, at least once our 'savings' on the childcare voucher account have been used up. Would paying more into pension help to get us back to a point where we can continue to buy vouchers to the value of £243, and how do I calculate how much?
DH says his HR are useless and normally don't respond when you ask them. Plus, he also sometimes gets overtime, which I guess needs to be figured in.
And - related question - what exactly 'counts' for the threshold for child benefit? Is it gross salary minus childcare vouchers minus pension, or is it gross salary just minus pension etc.
Thank you - I am just trying to optimise our finances (a bit obsessed with this....).