Is this TC amount right?

mitchaa

Deepmistrust wrote: »

I can't believe that? Surely if a new partner moves in say half way through the year, they cannot expect the payments you received from April (for 6 months) to be an overypayment? Otherwise surely no one would move in with their partners at any other time of the year that April.

You will see a statement in brackets

I cannot see a way round it though as if you are claiming as a couple you have to give the P60 figures for both. It is therefore irrelevent when in that tax year that the couple got together. When declaring your new partners income there is not an option to state, well he earned £30k but only 4/12 of that applies to me as he never moved in until december. You have to declare his FULL P60 figures, no ifs, no buts, you just have to

In this scenario, they should normally be protected by the £25k disregard though unless of course it's more than the £25k. Remember income is going up and tax credit award going down in this scenario, not the other way around.

Deepmistrust

mitchaa wrote: »

You will see a statement in brackets

I cannot see a way round it though as if you are claiming as a couple you have to give the P60 figures for both. It is therefore irrelevent when in that tax year that the couple got together. When declaring your new partners income there is not an option to state, well he earned £30k but only 4/12 of that applies to me as he never moved in until december.

In this scenario, they should normally be protected by the £25k disregard though unless of course it's more than the £25k. Remember income is going up and tax credit award going down in this scenario, not the other way around.

Yes but when a partner moves in you are ending one claim and starting a new one.

So when you end your single claim, your award is calcuated at that date. So all your earnings up to that date (assuming you have all your payslips/accounts etc) are used to calculate your award.

It's the same when you end from a couple to a single. You can end the couple claim anytime through the year, and start claiming immediately as a single person - based on your new single income details.

mitchaa

Deepmistrust wrote: »

Yes but when a partner moves in you are ending one claim and starting a new one.

So when you end your single claim, your award is calcuated at that date. So all your earnings up to that date (assuming you have all your payslips/accounts etc) are used to calculate your award.

It's the same when you end from a couple to a single. You can end the couple claim anytime through the year, and start claiming immediately as a single person - based on your new single income details.

True up until that point, yes I agree. (Hence my statement in brackets, i'm not too sure myself on this aspect) The full P60 earnings however need to be declared at the end of that tax year and not part of and this is what may lead to overpayments, even from a new couple claim if the estimated figures are incorrect.

Deepmistrust

mitchaa wrote: »

True up until that point, yes I agree. (Hence my statement in brackets, i'm not too sure myself on this aspect) The full P60 earnings however need to be declared at the end of that tax year and not part of and this is what may lead to overpayments, even from a new couple claim if the estimated figures are incorrect.

That seems far fetched surely?

Surely, when a new claim is set up (say in the December), as it is a fresh claim, then both incomes will be used to estimate the award? So if the couple jointly earn 30k (say 15k each), then from the Jan-Apr they will be paid TC based upon an income of 30k.

So, when you declare your income in the April of 30k, that the tax credit system will think that there is the equivilant of 9 months payments still to pay in? I'm sure the tax credit system is capable of splitting the award into days, as is what happens with council tax surely? I hope so lol.

mitchaa

Deepmistrust wrote: »

That seems far fetched surely?

Surely, when a new claim is set up (say in the December), as it is a fresh claim, then both incomes will be used to estimate the award? So if the couple jointly earn 30k (say 15k each), then from the Jan-Apr they will be paid TC based upon an income of 30k.

So, when you declare your income in the April of 30k, that the tax credit system will think that there is the equivilant of 9 months payments still to pay in? I'm sure the tax credit system is capable of splitting the award into days, as is what happens with council tax surely? I hope so lol.

You are confusing me now haha. No, that's right, they will be awarded 4mths at the new lower rate. The only chance they would have of an overpayment would be if they underestimated their income.

Deepmistrust

Ah, haha,

I think I see now. So as long as they estimate the income for the FULL year (rather than the remaining 1/4), then when it comes to April (assuming the P60 ties up with the estimate), then they shouldn't have any overpayment.

OrkneyStar

tigtag02 wrote: »

Ok - following that (do you work for them) but can you excplain how I always seem to have an overpayment even though I advise of everything as it occurs because surely if this years award is based soley on last years earnings then there should never be an overpayment?

If you always base the current years award on the previous years income there is a £25K disregard.
If you phone them up and ask them to change this years estimated income (ie not base it on last years estimate) every penny over will count! This can happen, for example, if someone is on maternity leave and knows they will earn a lot less- they will allow you to use this new lower income estimate and possibly award more tax credits in current year. However if you accidently lowered it by too much then any income earned over your new estimate is counted. This happened to me as they lowered income due to me being on maternity pay, but my maternity pay was £1000 or so higher than I had originally thought because I was paid some extra money (basically pension- we were paid that on top of salary as company had no pension scheme- and invested in private pension!). Had to pay a little back which I was happy to do!
I think they do this to stop people saying 'oh yeah my income will be a lot less this coming year' when they are lying!
hth!

OrkneyStar

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

I hope all this gets stopped now Labour is out.

Its the system that is at fault, what did people do before all these tax credits?

Got qualifications, got a good paying job and had children when they could AFFORD to. Giving these handouts just makes us more dependent on the state, someone else supporting your children, I wouldn't be personally very proud of that as a mother.

This board is for help not opinions- comments like this need to be on discussion time, not here!

themonkeybutler

mitchaa wrote: »

Yes I agree, a major flaw in the system that has cost the taxpayers billions. It does not make sense and its not too hard to work out why the country is in the mess it is in. It is poorly thought out.

The tories/lib dems I think will take a good look at this. I read somewhere that 6mthly declarations may come in as opposed to 12mthly but it's early days for this government so far and no one really knows.

It is crazy that you can earn £35k say this year and still being awarded as if you were earning £10k. It is unnecessary waste. Perhaps what the tories are speaking about.

It seems TCO are in a no win situation. They get panned for people getting overpaid due to their own delay informing of income rises, then when they increase the disregard from £2500 to £25000 to greatly reduce overpayments, the get panned for it costing millions.