Child Benefit - penalty?

[whatanotherpalava]

Been getting this since 2013 even although Dh is higher earner. Accountant told us to keep claiming as I was unemployed when new law introduced on basis that it would protect NI for me.

Just realised recently realised that Dh hadn't been declaring on his returns (handled by same accountant) although benefit came to me.

I'm guessing that we will have to re pay CB since 2013 plus penalties?

Your accountant should have dealt with it if they knew you were claiming therefore I would say they are responsible for the penalty fees if there are any and you will have to repay the money. It does need addressing asap.

I don’t think you can expect your accountant to remember if you claim CB
My accountant is a close personal friend whose circumstances are much the same as mine so she probably‘knows ‘ I claim it but she doesn’t do my tax return based on that
She gives me a checklist with questions one of which is have you claimed CB this year and how much
Then she sends me a draft of my return to check
One of the questions on return is have you claimed CB
I can’t imagine an accountant submitting a return based on information from previous years without checking the updated position and asking person to check their return

I'm not sure I could trust an accountant that missed an obvious and well publicised part of a tax return. I'd be wondering what else they've fucked up.

Are you sure the accountant hasn't been inclduing CB repayment in the tax return?

When you complete a tax return, it starts off by asking a series of questions to decide which sections you need to fill in and one of them is about whether you may need to repay some child benefit due to income above £50k - note that this is 'adjusted net income' ie after pension contributions but before tax and NI and may also be affected by something like a company car.

In an extreme circumstance where a person had a company car but wasn't contributing to a pension, they would have to repay some even if they earned less than £50k. OTOH, someone with no P11D benefits but making large pension contributions, could earn well over £50k before pension contributions and still keep some or all of their CB.

Just to say they will probably 'just' require repayment of the amount paid to you. However, if you are unemployed it's your husband's liability not yours, and should be repaid via his return in the future.

@BarbaraofSeville
No, he’s not asked Dh for any CB amount ever and that section of the form appears to have been submitted blank.

What else they’ve fucked up? Well from what @PhilCornwall1 mentioned about WFH relief I didn’t even know this was a thing! Accountant has not mentioned it and Dh and I both worked from home during the last tax year 🤬

Selfishly this is helpful to me as I had a panic about this a few weeks ago and was mortified. I always tracked this and paid extra into pension but thought I had misunderstood. No benefits but over 55 but big pension contributions. Our pension person went through the form with me and my payslip and said I was ok due to pension over payment. Lost a lot of sleep over it as would never intentionally mess up. Still seems odd to me but if figs are all salary minus pension contributions then right. Next pay rise will opt out or figure out ni issue I think. Too much stress. Good luck op, I had been googling penalties and was going to call / email once I had checked in with pension person.

What else they’ve fucked up? Well from what @PhilCornwall1 mentioned about WFH relief I didn’t even know this was a thing! Accountant has not mentioned it and Dh and I both worked from home during the last tax year 🤬

For the 19/20 what I had to do was specify the number of weeks WFH and multiply it up by 4 quid. I had 4 weeks leave that year, so just claimed 48 weeks and banged it on the return. It certainly reduced the amount I had to pay back.

I'm going to certainly be doing it for 20/21 and beyond from now on.

For 2020/21 you don't even have to account for how much WFH you've done, and anyone required to do it for one single day can get the full year's relief, you just have to fill in a simple form to get the appropriate adjustment to your tax code - there's an explanation and link on the Moneysavingexpert website.

As it's likely that WFH where possible will continue into the next tax year, I expect the same will apply then too.

For 2020/21 you don't even have to account for how much WFH you've done, and anyone required to do it for one single day can get the full year's relief,

I was hoping it was going to be the same for 19/20, but it wasn't sadly. Would have knocked a bit more off.

I'm curries how this turns out OP. Will you please update? TBH I thought it had been well publicised.

My uninformed bet will be that you don't get any penalties 🤞🏻

I'm just curious as to how much the fine / penalty is?
We claim and repay most tof the CB, but get to keep a bit depending on bonuses etc. I have a friend though who earns way over 60k, and has never paid a penny back. I imagine it'll bite her one day.

This happened to us last year. I earn just below 50 but DHs salary was above 60. No fine at all. We just paid it back when they flagged it up. Has anyone actually been fined?

Gosh, someone I know has just been sent a bill for £7k plus £700 in penalties. Just as I was saying how unlikely it is that you would get fined if you're genuinely not aware of the charge.

I hope you got it sorted OP. I'm interested in this WFH tax relief so I will start researching!

We got notified of this in December 19 and stopped the Child Benefit straight away , again we knew nothing of the high income threshold .
The only reason we went over the threshold because my hubbie got a pay rise and it was backdated almost a year
Cut a long story short we paid the 20/21 in full and pay £50 a month for 19/ 20