Self assessment tax - help!

[thevegetablesoup]

I want to cry.

I got a letter saying that as my income last year was (just) over £50k, I have to repay some child benefit.

So I have had to register for self assessment. I've never ever done anything like this before as I have always PAYE.

I've done it and my calculation is something mental like I owe them £7 grand. I thought I must have done it wrong so I tried again and it's even more!

I can't understand how I can owe them that much as I pay tax every month on paye and the child benefit we get is less than 2k in total so even if they wanted that all back it wouldn't be that much.

I'm so confused and have deleted the whole return.

Can anyone help?

You’ve definitely put something wrong in there somewhere or misinterpreted what it is saying.

Can you screenshot it (without revealing personal info).

I do self assessment for rental income and child benefit and even I don’t pay £7k extra in tax!

If all you have is a salary of a little over £50k and some Child Benefit the £7k looks way off beam.

Do you have any other income at all - investments, bank interest, rent from a BtL property?

This doesn't add up, can you give us figures so we can help?

My p60 last year says my net income was 51904. I paid 8190 in tax.

My NI contributions were 5074.

We get 159 a month in CB, it actually goes to dh's account.

I have an employee pension.

No other income.

I know I've gone wrong somewhere but no idea where.

£8190 tax on income of £51904 is right to within a couple of quid.

The HICBC on that for two children is £358.

So the most tax you owe is £361.

That's before any extra higher rate tax relief you may be due on pension payments (if not payrolled).

So, you've entered some figures wrong.

For a start, ignore NIC as it doesn't go on the tax return at all for an employed person.

Start again, just put in the £51904 gross pay and the tax deducted on it of £8190 in the employment section. Then enter £1885 as the amount of child benefit received. Then go to the calculation page and it should show £361 due.

Your pension contributions need to be taken in to account. Just checking is the 51904 net of pension?

When I do my self assessment my PAYE earnings are already on the system automatically. If you have also entered them manually have you double checked that you haven't got them in there twice? (So the system thinks you have earned £100k and not £50k).

No, I don't think that's it. I tried to model it by duplicating the gross and tax figures and it came out with £15k tax outstanding. It was my first thought when I saw the OPs question.

Ok I think I've sorted it- hadn't factored the pension into the adjusted net figure.

Thanks so much for everyone's help!!

Next year you have the option of putting more into your pension to reduce your adjusted net income to below £50k. You then won't need to pay anything back.

Make sure you add in any gifts to charity where you signed so they can claim gift aid. This reduces your taxable income.

You also need to add in any interest on savings but not ISAs.