Didn't do self assessment to pay high income charge, child benefit, when will it be noticed?

[ohrattan]

This might sound bad apologies if it does!

I am on a fairly low wage (only earning 12k a year part time), my husbands wage is £55k. Obviously appreciate this sounds high but in a current economy when it's covering a family of 4 it really doesn't feel that way. I had never bothered claiming child benefit as I knew I'd have to pay it back and we didn't want the faff of the tax return. This year things got tighter than ever so we decided to claim and just deal with the return. I claimed and got £457 from it being backdated however much they do that and then 2 weeks later realised it factors in bonuses so my husband was in fact on £60k and we'd have to pay all of it back so I phoned them and stopped the payments and asked to transfer it straight back and they said I couldn't.

Made a mental note to mention it to dh to do a tax return and pay the lot back but forgot, this was all back in like March. I mentioned it to him the other day as I still have all the money they paid me sat in a Monzo pot waiting to be paid back. He's never registered for self assessment and doesn't have the foggiest how to do it. Of course we are both adults and can figure it out between us.

I'm just wondering really if I can wait for them to approach me and plead ignorance that we didn't understand. I have a loan with £954 on it with astronomical interest and really want to use the money to pay that off and free up some money each month to help us get by. If it's going to be in 1 years time they'd notice then I could of recouped the money by then but I don't know if we need to do a tax return this year or we'll incur charges or anything

No need to do a tax return every year if you didn’t claim any child benefit within that tax year. Get him to register asap, which I think he is a bit late for but it should be fine.

Only issue with paying it back through the tax code is that they change it immediately to get it back before April. At least that’s what they did with me recently when I expected it to be over 12 months.

You can also register for child benefit to claim the NI credits but choose not to be given any money. So no need to keep doing returns and paying it back.

As well as failure to notify penalty, if your DH doesn't file a return in time, they could get late filing penalties.
If he wants the tax paid through his tax code, I think it needs to be filed by 30/31 st December, rather than the standard 31st January deadline. And need to check the box to get it coded out on the return.

He earns £55k and gets a £8k bonus so I don't think we'd be able to keep any. We only have £457 anyway as I opted out soon as I realised.

If he pays into a pension it's worth doing a tax return anyway as he'll get back the difference between standard tax rate and high tax rate on his pension contributions

End of Jan is the due date for the form, but weirdly you need to notify (eg register) by 5 October.

See here:
https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send-a-tax-return

HMRC sent my husband a letter and then he called and paid. It wasn’t a tax return.

I kept claiming CB until I earned more than £70k because with pension contributions and other salary sacrifice arrangements it was still worth my while.

Assuming your DH pays into a pension you will only have to pay some of it in tax.

You should check it out before you stop receiving it.

Register for SA asap . He can still complete it online in January for 2022-23 tax year and should be straightforward if he is paye. Or less rush if this only applies to 2023-24 tax year. If it turns out to be a one-off hmrc will tell him not to do further years but he has to make a return until they do.

but weirdly you need to notify (eg register) by 5 October.

Well-spotted! I'm sure registering now would still be fine.

This! Do not think you can plead ignorance, you will get a fine and still have to pay back the cb, plus interest. Happened to a friend recently. It's really simple to do and if your husband pays into a pension you may not even have to pay all of it back.