TAX CREDIT CLAIMANTS OF ANY FLAVOUR - C'MERE. <Shouting to get your attention, not in irritation>

[snigger]

Right.

A bit of outreach work here.

As a current advisor, can I just sit you all down and give you your best shot at a trouble free renewal period?

I know there can be errors/bad advisors/renewal packs eaten by dogs, but if you follow this advice you have every chance of things going smoothly, and perhaps my colleagues and I will get a moment between calls between now and September.

(1) Your renewal pack will be issued before 30th June. Go write that on the calendar. If you haven't received it by then, phone up. Don't join the 1000's who clog the phone lines saying "Have you sent me mine yet? Didn't I do this last year?"

(2) If you've phoned up and given an estimate of your 2009/2010 income - THIS IS NOT A RENEWAL.

You've only done your renewal once you've received the annual review pack, checked that your details are all up to date, then phoned in with your income.

(3) Following on from that - PLEASE CHECK YOUR DETAILS ON THE ANNUAL REVIEW. So many people call three years later to tell us they're married/their childcare stopped a decade ago/their kids are all in work of their own. Check.

(4) Write down the date you phone in with your renewal. If you haven't received TWO award notices, (one for 2009/2010 saying finalised award, one for 2010/2011 saying award notice) within three weeks of your call - PHONE BACK.

(5) If you get an automatic renewal that asks you to check your income is within set bandings (eg "Was your income for 2009/2010 lower than £28000 or higher than £75000?") you don't need to call if nothing's changed and the income's within limits. If something has changed, or income's out, PHONE BEFORE JULY 31st - if you don't, it'll auto-renew, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

(6) If you've claimed with a partner/partners, then on your own, at any point between April 6th 2009 and April 5th 2010, even just for one day, you have to renew each and every claim for them to be finalised. Make sure you mention it to the advisor - we're supposed to check, but it's crazy busy, people call in with a years worth of changes, and it's easy to forget.

OK. That's me. I honestly, sincerely, hope that this helps, and if it prevents even one avoidable overpayment, or frees up the phonelines from unnecessary calls, it'll have been worth all the typing.

Best of luck.

can anyone advise if you can change your name via that email form does it go through or are you better to write in.

doesnt effect my claim as we were claiming as couple anyway, but just wanted to get everything sorted out eventually!

TA

Snigger I wonder if you could help me please? I got renewal pack today and phoned (like I have done every year) and was asked for the first time if hubby has any sacrifices on his wages. Well he has a laundry one and a subsistence one and we now have to get all this paper work from his employer i.e. contracts, payslips ,agreements. I have gone through the whole pack and sacrifices are not mentioned anywhere. If I had sent the pack by post I would have been none the wiser on this matter. Whats the deal here and am I in trouble as I have to send it somewhere else but have honestly never been asked about this matter and am in a panic as without our money life as we know it is toast. Thanks in advance.

Hi Snigger....i know im a bit late to join this discussion but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Re- tax credits renewal

I have been on maternity leave since 21/12/10, I work for a very large well known supermarket. Since the day I told them I was pregnant I had nothing but trouble with them. Anyway to cut a long story short, before i left for Maternity, I had a letter off the company saying I didnt qualify for SMP. I argued this and pointed out their mistake. I am currently being paid SMP by my employer. Having recieved my P60 a few weeks ago, I decided to try and get my tax credits renewal in early for a change!!
When I looked at my P60 for SMP it said £0! But I have been getting it from them. (I have a feeling they are just paying me, but it hasnt been given as SMP due to there previous mistakes.

How do I make necessary deductions from my total pay if they havent even put me down as receiving SMP?

Sorry if this sounds confusing!! Its certainly confused me!

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated xx

Hello chaps.

I've been offline for donkeys ages (coffee vs laptop, swiftly followed by technology vs phone line) so sorry for not responding earlier!

2010Dad - if your car allowance is included in your P60 or P11D, then it's a taxable income and should be declared.

If it's covered by the tax free mileage allowance then by rights it shouldn't be included as taxable pay anyway on your payslip.

Hope baby arrived safe and quick!

LeninGrad - firstly, has your maternity leave exceeded 39 weeks?

If it has, then for tax credit purposes your employment ceases and you must phone up and tell us. Secondly, has your SMP landed all in one tax year? The first £100 a week of SMP (and SPP, don't forget chaps, it's only a £200 deduction but it's legit) is not declarable so however many tax weeks of SMP you received in 2009/2010, decuct £100 per week from the figure on your P60. So, for example, if you started SMP in tax week 20 (32 tax weeks remaining), you can deduct £3200 from that years income, and £700 from the following year, provided you took the full 39 weeks and were receiving at least £100/wk SMP.

SNOWball4girlz - you can have unlimited savings/property equity/money under the mattress.

HOWEVER - the income you make on your savings must be declared like anything else - if it's a standard savings account, you'll get an end of year tax statement from your account provider and you should use the figures from that, declaring them as 'Other Income'.

Other income has a disregard of £300 - so in practice, if you had say, rental income of £500, pension income of £200, and bank interest of £300, totalling £1000, you'd ignore the first £300 and declare £700.

Redundancy : if you're made redundant and receive redundancy, the first £30000 is not declarable.

Cheers Tigga

Be back in a bit, I need to stalk round the boards and see what I've missed!!

wow - didn't know that re:SMP in fact think was told different when called up about this 2 years ago!

wow...just called up, that means i earned much less last year, and would (possibly) be geing a refund of £700 from the underpayment - thouh i don't know if they'll backdate it like that it will at least spare me the £20 overpayment that was allgedly made...

maybe i should work it out for 2008/9 too..

op why was the example of income bands that you gave for the upper limit "above £75K"? I thought if the family income was above £58K you are entitled to nothing so wouldn't that be the upper band?

I ask because my sister and her husbands income is literally just above the threshold and she has never claimed for anything - despite the fact they pay £1000 odd per month for childcare. I have aways thought this was right but maybe not?

The way tax credits are worked out is this (short version) :

There are various 'elements' of tax credits.

If you work, you get the working tax credit elements.

If you have children you are entitled to the child and family elements.

If you have qualifying childcare costs, they are included (up to a maximum limit per week, currently £300 for 2 or more children)

These 'elements' are totted up. This is your maximum award.

Then we look at your income.

Once your income goes over certain thresholds, a set percentage of each pound of your award is withdrawn, starting with working tax credit, then moving on to childcare, child tax credit, and finally, the family element.

It very much depends on your circumstances as a whole how much you'll be entitled to - however I would refer you to this page, where you can analyse whether you'd be better off claiming childcare costs through tax credits, or using a childcare voucher scheme if your employer offers one

As to wrong and right choices .... no comment, same boat

Manda25 - under no circumstances leave the form unfilled!

Tax credits runs by tax year, your award runs from 6th April to 5th April.

To prevent hardship, payments continue after 5th April each year, on a provisional basis - ie, we look at the circumstances on your claim (trusting and praying that you've told us about any changes) and the income estimates you've given us for the tax year just ended (again, trusting and praying that you have actually told us about that pay rise/extra job you got mid year) and we assume whether or not you're likely to be still eligible.

Provisional payments are made on that basis, from the 6th of April until you complete your renewal.

If you've had enough, you have to withdraw your claim. The best time to do this is between January and April 5th, because if you decide you don't want to claim any more, and it's after the 5th of April, anything you've received since the 5th April would have to be repaid because you wouldn't have 'claimed' it - ie you haven't renewed, and your 'good faith' payments aren't applicable.

So:

(1) if you've been getting payments since 5th April (including recovery only payments, where the money goes towards an old overpayment), call the helpline (I'd suggest after mid-August, when peak call period is calming down) and tell them you want to withdraw your claim for next year. If you withdraw this years claim everything would have to be paid back - Not A Good Thing.

(2) If you haven't had any payments, or recovery only, call the helpline and withdraw the claim, after confirming with the advisor that this years award is a nil award. Get the advisors name.

Manda25:

this link takes you direct to the Tax Credit Technical Manual pages that relate to student income.

If you are in receipt of a maintenance grant, you cannot claim working tax credits because you are not, technically, in remunerative employment, but conversely the income you receive from your grant is not declarable income ("all other grants" is a great catch-all)

You may be able to claim assistance from your Local Education Authority for childcare, check with them, if you haven't already.

Sorry, last post was actually directed at theslumbertaker.

Wonderif :

As far as I know, the internet portal is currently not in use, so I'd advise that you either write in with your changes in circumstance, or call in.

Designatory changes that don't actually constitute a change in circumstances, eg you've been claiming together for ages and just got married, won't affect the amount or make up of your award provided your claim has been made based on the correct details, so you can call in any time to update your surname, no particular hurry.

You would have been asked if he's in a salary sacrifice scheme.

Be careful that you understand what exactly that is : does he give up any of his pre-tax income for a non-tax benefit, like childcare vouchers, a cycle-to-work scheme, or healthcare, for example?

It seems unlikely he'd sacrifice salary to get tax free laundry and subsistence - are these actually extra payments he receives? Does he get a P11d?

If he gets a P11d that details the cash equivalence of his laundry and subsistence, this is not salary sacrifice, this is income from company benefits.

Go check with your husband and post here, I can advise you once I know more, don't go sending off your life history, it may not be neccessary.

Your payments will continue till at least July 31st, panic not, but act quickly as incorrect income details can sometimes lead to overpayments.

Again, sorry, that last one was to susall.

Thanks for this snigger, I just have a question, is Maternity Allowance classed as the same thing as SMP for tax credits? I was under the impression that as it is a benefit not income it wouldn't be but I've been wrong about these things before

Gemnseph:

I think you certainly have issues with your employer that need cleared up!

Firstly, get your start date, and the date you went on maternity leave. Get a payslip after that date and check it for SMP.

If no SMP showing, or indeed if there is, phone your employer and ask them to confirm that although you've been receiving payments since the start of your leave, your payslips and P60 show zero SMP, or mixed messages, and ask for clarified figures as soon as possible.

If they don't fix it at that phone your tax office and ask them, with your start date and maternity leave date, should you be receiving SMP? If they say yes, again, contact your employer post haste as you want to be sure they're not going to turn around and land you with an overpayment of salary later on. If they're not paying you SMP because you're not entitled, they should have advised you to claim Maternity Allowance and given you form SMP1.

Are you receiving what seems to be full salary, or is it more in line with SMP rates (£124.88/wk after first six weeks)?

here's the direct.gov overview of SMP rights.

Again, pop back here once you have more info.

EnglandAllanPoe - a reduction in income on an already finalised tax year (2008/2009) is unlikely to be processed unless there was official error.

Certainly though, you can call to adjust your renewal income figures up till the 31st July so 2009/2010 should be correctable.

If you haven't had an award notice confirming the new 2009/10 figures within the next couple of weeks - call back. Make sure of this before 31/07/10.

Hi, I would like to know, do I need to tell them I receive housing benefit and council tax benefit?

They know I have started to receive income support from end of Sept 09.

Thanks.

Should I give them another call?

Fabhead :

the 75k relates to an income increase in the current tax year, compared to the previous tax year.

Although the budget amends this figure for future years, currently, your award in the current tax year is based on the previous years income unless the current year income is lower, or more than £25000 higher.

Therefore, a claimant who qualifies at the maximum income of £50000 in the previous year would have to earn more than £75000 this year to have their current award recalculated. Sorry if I phrased it confusingly.

It's likely your sister isn't entitled - check using this calculator