Child benefit, both earn £55,000

[Alannahxx]

My partner and I both earn £55,000 ( after all deductions like pensions etc). I can't find a clear answer online, are we entitled to any child benefit or not, does anyone know?

Pretty sure you won't, our salaries are similar and we don't

It's pretty clearly set out on the Government website - here's the link

www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get

Eligible but the higher earner will need to do self assessment and pay half back. This can be via tax code if under PAYE.

Once one of your net is £60k you won't get anything. Under £50k you get the lost. Between the two is a sliding amount, so on£55k you'd get half the full amount.

Yes - it's based on the highest earner only so you will receive the full amount and then repay partially via a tax return that the higher earner will have to complete, regardless of who claims it.

...... specifically, the paragraphs below which are a direct cut and paste:

*"If you or your partner earn over £50,000
If either your or your partner’s ‘adjusted net income’ is over £50,000 a year, you may have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances and less things like Gift Aid. Your total taxable income includes interest from savings and dividends.

If you have to pay the charge, you can still get the other advantages of Child Benefit like National Insurance credits. The charge will not be more than the amount you get from the Child Benefit payments.

Work out if your adjusted net income is over £50,000 using the Child Benefit tax calculator. If it is, the calculator will also tell you how much of a charge you’ll have to pay.

If both you and your partner have an individual income of over £50,000, then whoever has the higher adjusted net income is responsible for paying the charge.

If either you or your partner has an individual income of £60,000 or over, you’ll be charged the same amount as you make through Child Benefit payments. You’ll end up with no extra money from Child Benefit.

You’ll need to fill in a Self Assessment tax return each tax year to pay the charge.

You can make a claim and opt out of getting payments if you do not want to pay the charge. You can still get the other advantages provided by Child Benefit, like National Insurance credits."*

Would suggest both increasing your pension contributions to take you under £50k so you can still claim.

You can claim it but whoever earns the most would have to do a self assessment tax return to pay some back. You pay back 1% for every £100 over £50k and when the higher earner goes over £60k it would all need to be paid back.

It's based on a single high earner, not household income

Thank you all. We don't currently claim as I thought they would include both our amounts over 50k making us not entitled but now am thinking its maybe worth applying- although not sure how much hassle a self assessment is to do!

If either of you is likely to get a payrise or bonus you may find it's not worth it. And the higher earner has to do the tax return, although they're quite straightforward if you've just got one job tbh, it's mainly just copying figure off your P60 and P11d and adding up any savings interest.

Doing self assessment where the bulk of your earnings are PAYE is easy.
I started doing self assessment when a bonus pushed me over the 50k for that year and I was still claiming CN at the time.
I also use it now to claim high tax rate back on my personal pension contributions (I have both a work pension where the pension tax is dealt with via PAYE and personal pension where it isn't) and my regular donations to charities.

It takes a while to get set up online initially as they have to post you your login details, but after that it's pretty straightforward

Thanks, we are both PAYE....I'm just not sure who earns most as my income varies a little month by month and there's not much in it. Think I will wait until April so I know exactly what we both earned and then apply.

You can apply now and put the money aside.

On £55k you will receive approx 1/2 so approx £10 per week. To me it is worth a self assessment form for that if you are straightforward PAYE

For this tax year, could I backdate it?

I have 2 children so probably more than £10 a week!

If you've never claimed before it can be backdated for up to 3 months. I'd claim it. You will get the full amount for 2 children and then when the tax return is due for next year the higher earner would register for self assessment and some would need to be paid back.

Yes we backdated it and we received more than 6 months. I thought you could not back date more than 3 months but I think that is for the initial claim. We had registered after birth but not claimed the actual payment until approx 18 months ago.

We keep half in a separate account and are working out whether a tax return is needed for the partial year we started claiming in.

We will have to do a tax return next financial year but estimate we will keep half, pay half back.

With two kids you definitely should!

For 2 kids it's £145 every 4 weeks. Maybe save half of that as that's about the amount that would need to be paid back if the higher earner gets £55k in wages

But if you pay into a pension you will probably find you are eligible for all of it. It's based on adjusted taxable income so my understanding is if you paid £5k into a pension your taxable adjusted income is now £50k?

Plus any charitable giving
But add on any income from savings interest, work car etc