My baby is going to be earning, can you advise me please?

footballmanagerwidow

Hi all,

My 8 month old son has been taken on by a reputable modelling agency, has been to his first casting and has been chosen to do a large advertising campaign for a well known brand of yoghurts :rolleyes: . Now, the problem is that I do not know what to do with his earnings - obviously they are going to be put away for his future, but should I put them in his existing child trust fund or should I open some sort of high interest savings account for him? Also, I know this is probably the wrong board to ask this on, but what are the tax implications for him earning his own money? Do I have to register him as self employed or something?:rotfl:

Many thanks in advance,

FMW x

anselld

As far as I know, children are like anyone else from income tax viewpoint. Provided the don't earn (including savings interest etc) more than 6,035 this tax year there is no tax to pay. If they earn more than that, and it is not taxed at source, they will need to declare it. But I don't know how you get a 8 month old to do a tax return :-)

footballmanagerwidow

Can anyone advise me with the best thing to do on the bank accounts please?....Cheers!

i_need_help_3

This sounds great for your childs future. I am looking for an agency to use for my baby could i ask who you use or does anyone know a trustworthy agency for us to use?

Many thanks.

omelette451

footballmanagerwidow wrote: »

should I put them in his existing child trust fund or should I open some sort of high interest savings account for him?

Not my advice, but straight from Martin himself (as heard on the Jeremy Vine show): "Never put extra money in a child trust fund... Always find the top-paying account and open one in his name." The reason is that overall the rates are fairly similar, but this way you get more control over it. Everyone hopes their children will be impeccably decent people at 18, but the truth is that this far in advance it's really not possible to tell, and many parents wouldn't consider their 18-y-o children responsible enough to spend a lot of money wisely. A child trust fund can be accessed by your son on his 18th birthday and you have no say in it, whereas if you open an account on his behalf it's entirely up to you to decide when to give him the money.

If it's not a huge amount, I personally would consider investing it in a stock-market tracking fund. Obviously do your research first, but over the next 17 years I would hope (though this isn't financial advice, as obviously no one knows what will happen) that the market will rebound fairly significantly. You also have the advantage (potentially) of buying in near enough the lowest point, so (potentially) getting quite a lot of return. It's a gamble, of course, but it's worth considering.