MSE News: Chancellor: child benefit cut will go ahead

zagfles

Dorastar wrote: »

Not sure about the pension thing still though as a teacher my pension comes out of my gross wages therefore reducing my net wage, well that's the way it appears on my wage slip. Currently my pension contributions don't take me out of paying higher tax rate.

Could make AVC's, or have a personal pension (eg SIPP) as well.

So when the government put up my pension contributions, assuming I keep my head down and don't accidentally get myself promoted or pass my performance review (cos we don't want anyone doing well), then I might just keep my child benefit. Is probably going to cost me more than Child benefit for the accountant to work out what a bloomin farce this is - or just move in with the old dear next door.

Am really glad I worked hard to progress in my career thus far - I'd have thought they've had long enough in opposition to have thought out something that actually works.

Or learnt from the mistakes of the previous govt. Gordon Brown tried to do something very similar 10 years ago - tax child benefit for higher rate taxpayers. But it proved too hard to implement because of independant taxation. The current plan has exactly the same problems.

zagfles

debtaghh wrote: »

Can I just check, is it definitely on net income?

To avoid being a higher rate taxpayer you need to get your gross taxable income below £42475. You can do this by making tax deductable payments eg into a pension, gift aid, childcare vouchers etc.

Dorastar

zagfles wrote: »

Could make AVC's, or have a personal pension (eg SIPP) as well.

Thought so - but need to wait till they make decisions on the teacher's pension scheme to see how much my contributions go up and where exactly he puts the cut off point for losing CB and how much I have to not earn in order to still get CB. Have already checked with bursar and school is not allowed to pay me slightly less, although there is a rumour that staff can have savings with credit union deducted at source which would then reduce net income (possibly). There must be a way round this madness apart from leaving home or giving up on my career.

Dh has no pension provision yet either - chequered job history - so got to put a couple of quid away to keep him in real ale as he ages.

gavrc

Wow people really have it in for others that earn more than them. I'm going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and say scrap child benefit completely. What a bizzare benefit. As I understand it benefits are there to help those in need. Having a child doesn't do that.
I'd be much happier if my taxes went to the NHS, the police, the fire service, etc, etc
And before anyone assumes otherwise, I am a regular joe, paying basic rate tax all the usual bills like everyone else. But if someone manages to convince someone else to pay them £100,000s and more then well done, you deserve every penny they give you. More fool them, and show me where to sign up.

gav

krisskross

gavrc wrote: »

Wow people really have it in for others that earn more than them. I'm going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and say scrap child benefit completely. What a bizzare benefit. As I understand it benefits are there to help those in need. Having a child doesn't do that.
I'd be much happier if my taxes went to the NHS, the police, the fire service, etc, et

MSE is full of envious people who think workers owe them a living...and a better living than the worker can earn for himself usually.

Naughty_Noonoo

I will bust the threshold by £1000 in 2012/13 and without action I will lose £1750 of Child Benefit.
Therefore my plan is to pay the £1000 into a pension, this in effect means that I am £600 worse off rather than £1750.
Of course, that £600 can no longer be spent in shops so they will lose out (great news for the economy)!
Also, the treasury will be a minimum of £400 out of pocket (great news for the deficit)!
Not to mention the fact that the administration costs of this policy will by far outweigh the amount actually saved, I am trying to work out exactly what Osborne hopes to achieve.

Now here is an idea.......Osborne said he wants to save money by reducing the amount paid in Child Benefit, his party also pledged prior to election that Child Benefit would remain universal. How about they limit Child Benefit to 1 or 2 children per family. This approach would cost nothing to administer, be fair for all and more importantly save loads of money.

BobQ

callum9999 wrote: »

Good - I think the "rich" should be paying a lot more than they currently do.

If being a "couple of pounds" over the £40k limit makes you £2.5k worse off, I'm sure you're employer would be more than happy to pay you marginally less if you asked them...

I wish they would get on with this measure. I do think it should be done fairly but there are far too many ways of avoiding higher rate tax at the margins (upping your pension, salary sacrifice schemes etc) so it should be based on gross income declared for tax purposes.

I do not want the children of low paid to suffer, but those on a household income of £50K should really learn to take responsibility for their own children and not expect a handout.

krisskross

BobQ wrote: »

I wish they would get on with this measure. I do think it should be done fairly but there are far too many ways of avoiding higher rate tax at the margins (upping your pension, salary sacrifice schemes etc) so it should be based on gross income declared for tax purposes.

I do not want the children of low paid to suffer, but those on a household income of £50K should really learn to take responsibility for their own children and not expect a handout.

So is it fair to stop child benefit for a household earning £43K but allow a household with 2 earners totalling £80K to keep it?

Naughty_Noonoo

BobQ wrote: »

....those on a household income of £50K should really learn to take responsibility for their own children and not expect a handout.

As should everyone with children regardless of income!

leereni

As I understand it based on a previous post pensions contributions will deduct from the total gross income when calculating whether you're over the limit?

I earn about £39000 basic but in this financial year I'll have earned about an extra £6000 in overtime abviously taking me to £45000 and over the limit. But I pay after tax about £3000-£4000 into the organisations pension scheme so will be below the threshold. Is that correct?

Will be really unhappy if I end up not getting child benefit. I appreciate it might seem like I earn a lot of money but I live and work in london and my girlfriend only has a basic job. We are planning on having are first child within the next 18 months.

If this happens I won't be voting for the conservative party next. They really didn't learn anything from labours mistakes. I thought they were supposed to be about encouraging people to work.