Tax charge on child benefit

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So this is the first year we’ve received child benefit with the change to the threshold.

Backdated sums for the 2024-2025 year were paid to our bank on 3rd April 2025 so I suppose falls within 2024/25 tax year.

We will need to pay a tax charge though no idea how much.

Can anyone confirm when we would need to register for self assessment? PAYE so have no clue. Would it be October 2025? Or in 2026?

Lady on the phone who confirmed payment said that after this year it wouldn’t be necessary to file tax returns (but presumably charge still payable) is this reliable?

Thank you.

Register now for self assessment, submit the details and the system tells you how much tax you owe.

Paper return is October 2025, online January 2026

No point leaving it later than necessary. Do it soon and you might even be able to pay the money back by PAYE rather than in a lump sum.

Yes, they are supposed to be looking at an alternative way of reporting the amount that's repayable rather than a full tax return. But if you do register for SA, that is later not required, you must make sure they acknowledge you no longer need to do it, otherwise you could get fined for not submitting.

October 2025. Register for self assessment now and do it as soon as you get your P60 (and PD11 if you get one) from work. Have your student loan and pension figures to hand too - might be on your P60. And savings interest, dividends, capital gains etc. If you’ve made any gift aid donations (tickets, memberships, charity shop donations etc) have the receipts to hand too as you can input figures to offset the tax charge. It’s pretty straightforward to input all of this and it works it all out for you.

The deadlines are here:

www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/deadlines

Guidance plus calculator here so you can get an idea of what it will work out as:

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

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

Thanks everyone, that’s incredibly helpful as was bit daunted.

We're the same, we've registered and just getting all the paperwork done. Would rather do it early and have it sorted