Child benefit high income charge

[MrsArchchancellorRidcully]

I've been told by HMRC that I owe them over a thousand pounds as I've been claiming child benefit but I earn over £50,000. I've written back and said I don't claim child benefit and haven't since the rules changed.

Back then, my then bf started claiming it but once we found out all the rules he stopped claiming it so I thought.
It seems that now my DH did not stop claiming it and it's been paid into his account without him realising. I believe him when he says he thought he'd stopped it. That's the sort of daft thing he'd do.

What do I do?! I haven't got a thousand pounds or more hanging around and I am shocked the revenue are allowed to link my tax account to my husbands.

Anyone had any experience of this?

Not an expert but I think pension contributions can be deducted so if you earned £52k but paid £2k into pension you shouldn’t have to pay back any child benefit

We've just had similar . Had to pay about £900.... we didn't stop it claiming straight away- not on purpose we just forgot to do it.
Anyway, yes get it paid. You get charged a daily interest amount from the day of the deadline for filing your tax return! We paid it the day we got the confirmation of how much we owed but but still had to pay about £20 interest!!!

Benefit fraud lol ridiculous. You have a choice you can either continue to claim and get charged in your tax code or you can forgive the benefit. My husband claims the benefit he has no income and I pay the tax - perfectly normal. I am crap and keeping track of my spending but I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't notice that. If you owe £1000 it was either a substantial amount over a short period of time or has been going on for sometime therefore why didn't he notice. Regardless you owe the money but if you speak to the revenue they will let you pay it back monthly next year in your tax code. I would suggest you also stop the allowance or you will owe more next year

OP can't stop the payment if it's in her dhs name, he has to do it. You can make a claim for child benefit and opt out of payment or take the money and do a tax return to pay some or all back

Yup, we got slapped with a £2000 bill plus a fine a couple of months ago because DH didn't tick the correct box on his tax self-assessment for two years while we were claiming CB. One was from 2014 and one from 2018. Apparently HMRC are bored and checking old records.

We appealed but lost. A huge hit to take, especially at the moment when everyone is struggling. I'm sorry it has happened to you too.

If it went into his account then he should be repaying it

[quote DemiBourbon]@Clymene it’s based on individual income, so if both were earning £49k each the tax wouldn’t apply, if one was earning £51k and the other £1k then the tax would apply.

OP I’m sure HMRC have payment plans available if you get in touch with them although tbh I would be making my DH pay it back himself.[/quote]
I meant it's household income inasmuch as if one person is earning over £50k, the other person can't claim.

@Chloemol

If it went into his account then he should be repaying it

The high earner pays it back regardless of whose account it goes into

@Clymene - the other person can claim. It just has to bs paid back by the person earning over £50k on a sliding scale. Often a stay at home parent will still claim to qualify for national insurance credits.

@Clymene anyone in the household can claim it regardless of income. If there is a high earner over £50k then some or all needs to be paid back

Alternatively make a claim and opt out of payment

www.gov.uk/guidance/find-out-how-to-pay-a-debt-to-hmrc-with-a-time-to-pay-arrangement
This sets out all you need to know about repaying an HMRC debt.

Really pisses me off that a family earning £98k can claim it but a family earning £51k can’t.

It is net adjusted income, not gross, see here: www.gov.uk/guidance/adjusted-net-income

So for most people this is salary minus pension contributions and gift aid. So if you earn over the threshold but pay into a pension it will reduce your liability. You'll need to start doing self assessment to work this all out.

Because of having 2 earners vs 1 earner I mean.

@skeggycaggy

Really pisses me off that a family earning £98k can claim it but a family earning £51k can’t.

Someone earning between £50 and £60 is still entitled to it on a sliding scale . I agree with the principle Of what you say though.

[quote dementedpixie]@Clymene anyone in the household can claim it regardless of income. If there is a high earner over £50k then some or all needs to be paid back

Alternatively make a claim and opt out of payment[/quote]
Yes you and @TitusPullo are both correct. Not that relevant to the OP though is it?

No @Clymene - but I didn’t want someone to read your post and not claim when they can. Don’t need to get your back up, we were just trying to make sure people saw correct info.

@Clymene i was correcting this point which was incorrect:

I meant it's household income in as much as if one person is earning over £50k, the other person can't claim

OP, your question is peculiar. You pay it back. Or the husband can. That’s it. No one is going to tell you that it’s ok and you can keep it.

@skeggycaggy

Really pisses me off that a family earning £98k can claim it but a family earning £51k can’t.

Yes. This entirely. (Or £60,001 as it should be as the amount you can claim tapers between £50k and £60k....)

Plus although we are taxed as a household for CB purposes I can't use any of my husband's unused personal allowance, as for income tax purposes we are taxed separately...

For those who don't know, you can tick a box on your tax return to say that you are eligible to claim CB but are choosing not to do so. That way you have the NI credits going to your account, but the higher earner doesn't have to pay the CB amount back via tax.

OP, make sure when you reply to them that you discount from your taxable salary anything like pension contributions, charity donations, subscriptions etc (i.e. anything which would reduce your income legitimately if you were self-employed) to get to adjusted net income which is what the CB is calculated from. But unfortunately you are going to have to pay HMRC back.