Child Care Vouchers and Tax Credits

PRofJosh

Anyone fancy helping me through this minefield!!?

I don't really know where to start...
I work for a small company (4 employees). My partner is employed by by a local Council (lots of employees!).
Our daughter is currently in nursery 1 day a week.
At the moment, my partner pays for this days nursery out of her wages before tax & NI. I presume this is through some voucher scheme.

Now our daughter is soon to start a second day at nursery each week.
Can I pay for the second day out of my wages before tax and NI? I understand this would involve the company I work for taking up some sort of voucher scheme - but where do we start?
Is it even allowed to do this?

And having read the relevant sections on moneysavingexpert.com - should I worry about how it affects our Childcare Tax Credits (I don't even know if we get Childcare Tax Credits! - we get one payment for child benefit, and one for tax credits - but i think that's just working tax credit). Makes me wonder if I should be getting more tax credits anyway, as we're not high earners.

Any help about where to begin would be appreciated.
It just seems so unnecessarily complicated.

Cheers.

Josh

DaisyFlower

Would it not be simplier to simply increase the vouchers under the current claim?

You need to find out re tax credits, its a joint claim that you sign so you should know what you claim. You cant claim help with childcare costs from tax credits if claiming vouchers on the same amount.

kev25v6

It costs the company to set up for the vouchers, small ones may not offer the vouchers because of this.I would just take more of your partners wage as vouchers.

karenx

You wouldnt get working tax credits alone it would be child tax credits. Working tax is for if you earn under 18k joint income per year.

[Deleted User]

kev25v6 wrote: »

It costs the company to set up for the vouchers, small ones may not offer the vouchers because of this.I would just take more of your partners wage as vouchers.

It only costs the Company if they use one of the voucher Companies. It is possible to arrange a salary sacrifice agreement in house so long as it satisfies HMRC conditions so the deduction can be made from employee and Employer pays the money direct to nursery.

PRofJosh

Thanks for the replies guys.
As I understand it, each person can only claim £55 per week. That just about covers 1 day at nursery each week. Which is why we were hoping to cover 1 day each to get the maximum benefit.

cosmic-dust

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm

Link above might be worth looking at re tax credits and childcare vouchers.
AFAIK both parents can claim child care vouchers.