totally confused!

[katiebirdie]

am going back to work part time in february after being off on maternity. i will be going back part time having previously worked full time. before i decide exactly what hours i want to go back i want to work out what i would receive tax credit wise as this may have an influence on my decision. i was pointed in the direction of www.entitledto.com but am being a bit thick when trying to fill in the details. do i fill it in basedon what i previously worked (ie 35 hour week at my salary) or do i try and calculate it based on what i am going to work (athough i dont know what tax band etc that would bring me into)

really appreciate if someone could walk me through this, think am fairly intelligent but this really is failing me!

tia

Ring tax credits and ask them "what if I earned X, now what if I earned Y etc". They will tell you roughly to the nearest penny what you will get, as they base it on what you have already had for this year, whereas entitledto doesn't, it just generalises on full year salary.
Eg, I started work p/t in September, so I get help with Childcare. Because our household income won't increase by more than £25k in this tax year, I have kept my Child Tax credit at the same rate - they just add on the childcare.
After April, it is calculated on full year wages for me and DP so will get sod all for both, and will need full time job to cover nursery costs!!
There is a formula on the net somewhere that you can copy into excel and then you just change your earnings in one box to see different entitlements when you've done it.
Roughly, if your household income is £15k or below, you get full CTC and 80% of child care paid for. Between 15-20k, you get 75% of both, between 20-25k, you get 70% of both. Between 25-30k, I think it's basic CTC of around £545pa + about 40-50% of costs. After 30k, I don't think they pay out for childcare, but I can't be sure on that as we'll probably never earn that much to find out!! That's what they told me to use as a rough guide anyway.
HTH.

Forgot to say, any tax you pay between Feb-Apr you should get back as well, as I got emergency taxed when I started.

thank you charlene, will just phone them and ask them to go through it, am terrified i fill the form in incorrectly and then end up owing them money!

As an aside you can inform them you have been on maternity and will now be on reduced hours as your tax credit is worked out on what you earnt in the previous tax year. This is what I did when I applied for tax credit and they said that was fine as before hand I wouldn't have got tax credit so you should explain this as well.