Child Benefit

Crads

Hi

Could someone please help. I am trying to find out what the cut off is for receiving Child Benefit, I believe in the 2013 a limit has been introduced and I am unsure of whether this is £44k or the 40% tax threshold which currently stands at (35k + 7475 allowance) = 42475. Any help welcome :-)

HappyMJ

Crads wrote: »

Hi

Could someone please help. I am trying to find out what the cut off is for receiving Child Benefit, I believe in the 2013 a limit has been introduced and I am unsure of whether this is £44k or the 40% tax threshold which currently stands at (35k + 7475 allowance) = 42475. Any help welcome :-)

There are no exact figures yet. It will be the 40% tax threshold for one member of a couple. If you are close there are many ways to reduce income to below the threshold. Silly really as so many people are going to reduce income by increasing pension contributions or by salary sacrificing to get a company car or childcare vouchers that any savings made by the government will be lost by people paying less tax and NI.

dazza.mk

Crads wrote: »

Hi

Could someone please help. I am trying to find out what the cut off is for receiving Child Benefit, I believe in the 2013 a limit has been introduced and I am unsure of whether this is £44k or the 40% tax threshold which currently stands at (35k + 7475 allowance) = 42475. Any help welcome :-)

The full details of the measure are still not clear but it is the 40% threshold where it will theoretically come into effect. The comments re: £44K would have been written before the increase in the tax free allowance when the 40% threshold was then reduced to £42,475 (to ensure that higher rate tax payers didn't benefit from the increase).

beefturnmail

I reckon this will almost certainly be quietly dropped by the Government as they have no way of policing the following situation:

Mother claims child benefit which is paid directly into her personal bank account she is under no obligation to inform the father of this fact.
Father pays higher rate tax, but is under no obligation to inform the mother of this fact.

A benefit is incorrectly being claimed, but who is at fault?
A) The Mother? But she is not aware the father pays higher rate tax, and is not obliged to know the details of the father's finances.
The Father? But he is not aware the mother is claiming child benefit, and is not obliged to know the details of the mother's finance.

MrsManda

beefturnmail wrote: »

I reckon this will almost certainly be quietly dropped by the Government as they have no way of policing the following situation:

Mother claims child benefit which is paid directly into her personal bank account she is under no obligation to inform the father of this fact.
Father pays higher rate tax, but is under no obligation to inform the mother of this fact.

It'll be in essence a means tested benefit therefore I would expect that in order to claim the claimant would have to give details of household income in the same way they would if they were claiming tax credits, JSA income based etc...

beefturnmail

I don't think so - I thought the whole reason the Government are intending to cut it based on whether any member of the household pays higher rate tax, was because they didn't want to means test it in the same way tax credits etc is done.

This has caused the somewhat unfair situation where a household with 1 person earning £45k would not be eligible for child benefit, whereas a household with 2 people earning £40k each (total household income £80k) would be eligible for it.

If they were going to means test it, they could avoid any criticism of unfairness but simply doing it on household income of say £80k, or some other level.