Can anyone help me- Child Benefit Query

[forallthetea]

DH has got a new job he'll now earn over 80k before any deductions I've just realized I don't think I'll be able to receive child benefit anymore.
We also have just had another baby which I haven't claimed for as yet.
Does this make any difference to the threshold (having 2 children)?
Can you still get any of the benefit over 80k?
Anyone any experience of this?

From what I can find online it states you'll still get it but have to pay it back in form of a tax return but I think it'd be easier just to stop it.

Also seems such an unfair system basically both of us can earn £49,999.99 and still claim the full amount but I may be wrong about that!

But what do you mean by jointly taxed?

Paying tax based on house hold income? I don't see why that's a big issue as spouses with different/ separate finances could opt to split it proportionately so they're still paying tax on their own income but would mean two people on £49k each don't get CB in their household when a household bringing in 50-60k doesn't

I haven't eaten yet today so I'm not sure whether I'm making sense

@Yogaandcocoa I am by no means a us tax expert, I have a friend that is married to an American (she is British). They elected about 20 years ago when they were in the US to be taxed as a household as she wasn’t working whilst raising children. They moved to the uk a few years ago and, despite them being uk resident, because he is a US citizen and they elected to tax the household income all her uk earnings are taxed in the US which they wouldn’t be if they hadn’t made the election. This is a bit extreme but there are quite a lot of reasons why making this election isn’t always a good idea, not just your partner may change, there are hundreds of posts on here where partners have started restricting access to money.

With separate taxation DH and I bring home £4490 between us and we pay would have back all child benefit via DHs tax return.

If joint taxation meant we could split the household income between us for tax we would bring home just under £5000 between us (yes I KNOW it’s a very good amount but we are in our fifties and DH works very hard and we had years when we were working several jobs to keep our home etc etc) PLUS we could still get child benefit.

For a sole earner couple with a household income of £25000, the earner would bring home £1720 per month. If they could split this with their partner then the household bring home would be over £2000.

OP - I hope you don't mind me piggybacking this thread...I started a 12 month Secondment job in September where my salary increased to just under £51k (my previous salary was £38k). Structural changes have now resulted in my salary increasing to £54k. Given that my salary has changed halfway through the tax year and there's a good chance I'll be going back to my previous role & salary, will/should I submit a tax return next year to calculate any overpayment of child benefit that I may have received?

@jennymac31

OP - I hope you don't mind me piggybacking this thread...I started a 12 month Secondment job in September where my salary increased to just under £51k (my previous salary was £38k). Structural changes have now resulted in my salary increasing to £54k. Given that my salary has changed halfway through the tax year and there's a good chance I'll be going back to my previous role & salary, will/should I submit a tax return next year to calculate any overpayment of child benefit that I may have received?

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

If you earn £54k you need to register for self assessment. You also have the option to stop payments. You will likely be asked to complete tax returns not only for this year but for a previous years to confirm that nothing else is due for those years. If you opt for non-payment then at some point they will adjust your tax code permanently and stop asking for self assessment.

PS there’s been a lot of talk on this thread about the NI benefits of claiming Child Benefit (even if the CB is not paid). Remember that if a grandparent looks after a child, the NI credit can be transferred to their record. My mum looked after my children and we topped up her record by 3 years which were missing. www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-adults-who-care-for-a-child-under-12-fact-sheet/specified-adult-childcare-credits-fact-sheet

jennymac it’s your taxable income over the whole tax year that’s important so given that your pay didn’t increase until September, and you may have pension contributions to deduct too, you may well be OK this year. If your total taxable earnings in the tax year after pension contributions have been deducted are under £50k then you don’t need to do anything as there’s nothing to pay back.

I would stop it if you can but still claim the N.I contributions. It’s such a ball ache doing the tax return at the end of the year.

Just to pop in another angle - should you get divorced, being the one who is claiming child benefit can be significant.