Self Assessment for Child Benefit - HOW to pay?

[sellotape12]

I'm going round in circles on the HMRC site. I need to pay the Higher Income Child Benefit charge for 23-24 as I took a few months benefit without realising my pay had gone over the amount. I cannot see where to file this return.
There's a button the homepage saying Do you need to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge? then it just gives advice, no through button. When I click on my Self Assessment page it says
Self Assessment
Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR): 123456
Your returns

You have filed your return for tax year 2023 to 2024.
...and when I click on 'amend', I get this message:
Submitted Return
As the HMRC service was not used to file a tax return for this year, you can't use the service to amend that return. Self Assessment Helpline for further assistance.

Am I being thick? I've spent 42 mins online getting nowhere.

Have you registered for self assessment and completed a tax return? You declare the CB on the self assessment and then you will be told how much to pay back.

Why are you asking how to pay but then trying to submit an amended return. Did you submit the return correctly with the Child Benefit included the first time? If so just pay you don't need to be submitting anything new just Google how to pay and it will give you the bank details then use your UTR followed by a K as the reference. If you didn't submit the return correctly and need to amend it, it needs to be amended the same way it was submitted the first time so if that's through an accountant they have to amend it

Sounds like an error at their end, it will be easiest to call them to ask what’s going on.

I honestly do not remember submitting a self assessment return in April. I was employed by a PAYE company so had no reason to. I since learned I claimed child benefit when I probs shouldn't have, so I know I need to pay some of it back... but can't find how to.

I need to do this too, but HMRC changed my tax code in December. I haven't submitted SA yet and assumed they were clawing back CB via my tax.

I'll have to do it in the morning and hope it's straightforward.

If you haven't registered for self assessment then there won't be a return for you to amend. Start by registering for self assessment and then you can do a tax return and declare the CB and be told how much to pay back.

Did you pay into a pension? The CB thresholds are on taxable income so after the pension has been deducted.

You have to submit a Self Assessment Return to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge, it's the only way. Then you pay the charge the same way as you would pay tax on a Self Assessment Return.

Looks like you or someone else has submitted a return for 23/24.

I suspect the only way you are going to get to the bottom of this now is call them but be ready for a long hold

I suspect there isn't a tax return there for you to amend if you have never registered for self assessment. You cant pay back CB without doing the tax return and declaring the amounts on there.

Be aware payment can take a few days to go through once you actually click the pay buttons and payments have to be made by tomorrow, so prepare yourself for a fine potentially.

As others have said, you register for self assessment, then complete for 23/24 wait a day or so for them to confirm charge then you can make payment

Have you ever done a tax return? Do you have a UTR?
it seems odd as the system seems to think you have filed already 🤔 potentially via someone else like an accountant.

Will it let you register for self assessment?
what about if you look in the app?

surely if you did file you’re going to have a confirmation email about it somewhere.

i would take time stamped screen shots to show you tried to go on and amend your return/make your return before the deadline, then try and call them.

The higher earner resistering and filing a self assessment is the only way. Amongst the multitude of boxes there's one that asks whether you or your partner claim child benefit then the higher earner pays it back.

Are you trying to pay for financial year 23/24 or going forward? It's too late for you to register for 23/24 but really don't worry. Contact them when the phone lines quieten down in a week or two and they'll sort it. Hmrc know that they've done a poor job in communicating this and will be glad you've contacted them.

I did this but they are saying I don't owe anything and I think I owe £800. It's an exercise in frustration trying to call them

Yeah, I’ll call the helpline tomorrow. Something just doesn’t make sense. I’m not self-employed so I can’t have filed a self assessment when I didn’t need one. I knew I was going to need to do one to pay this CB tax charge but the website just sends you round and round in circles. The Self Assessment did say I owed them £1.47 so I paid that. But there’s no acknowledgement of child benefits and no way to amend the return.

But you can’t owe them £1.47 if you’re not “in” self assessment already? How do you not know if you’ve filed returns before? Something odd is going on as the fact you have a self assessment balance suggests you have filed previous returns

And you might find it best to wait a week or two as pp said, phone lines will be mad tomorrow

For you to have a UTR and a Self Assessment liability you must be in self assessment. You don't get a UTR unless you register for one.

They have recently upped the threshold to cut off/reduce CB.

I had to do a self assessment return for CB. I stopped claiming CB after a few years.

Recently I was invited to reclaim as the threshold had gone up. So I did & they sent me ££.

As a single parent it always irked me how they work it out.

@RobinEllacotStrike that will be for next year's assessment, 23/24 is before the changes.

OP it doesn't really distinguish between taxes and child benefit. Even as a PAYE employee you have to register, then fill out to say what you earned, what child benefit you received, you even need to state what interest you've earned that year even if you wouldn't have needed to if it wasn't for CB, then it'll calculate what you owe.

I'd like to know how to pay too, we've done the tax return thing and need to pay just over £800 but cannot find how to pay?!

https://www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill

Even if all you need to pay is the High Income Child Benefit Charge you pay it the same was you pay tax through self assessment.

If you've done a tax return via your online account you log in and click where it says pay my tax ( or similar wording) on the home page and it literally takes you through it step by step

When you say we, you mean the person who has to pay the tax? You can't do a joint return

It’s usually pretty straightforward. You do the return, it gives you a figure and you pay by bank transfer or whatever:

only thing I would say is if you don’t want to repay in a lump sum(in future) then get your return in by the end of December and they will take your owed money back in instalments via PAYE ;)

Definitely call them, but before you do it may be worth calculating how much you paid into a pension (+ tax relief) for the same year.
If your salary after pension deductions was less than £50k you should t have to pay anything.