Tax Credits Advice

scaredofdebt

Hello, would like some advice/info please.

We are expecting a child in early 2015 and my wife is considering giving up her job for at least a few years to bring up the baby.

Problem is that I lost my relatively good paying job a couple of years ago and although I have a new job the pay is a lot lower.

My wife has a well paid job so quitting will be very hard financially.

She is considering setting up a business working from home and has a few ideas but nothing that would replace her salary.

So we are looking at tax credits etc to cover some of the shortfall.

Trouble is the .gov tax credits calculator assumes that we would be claiming today and it only gives figures from today until the start of the tax year in April 2015, ie 7 months or 30 weeks give or take.

If I use those figures and multiply them by 1.7 (to give 52 weeks give or take) will this be about right for the annual figures?

I realise tax credits can vary but if I use this for a ball park figure is it likely to be somewhere realistic?

Also I know there's an election due.............

Thanks for any advice.

Other than child benefits, working tax credits and child tax credits is there anything else we can claim? Income is likely to be minimum £15k per annum between us.

scaredofdebt

Thanks.

My wife is currently working and earning around £30k before deductions, baby is due Feb 2015.

Income jointly Apr 2013/14 was around £45k.

Income 2014/15 is expected to be similar as she gets full maternity pay for the first few weeks and would be looking to return to work depending on how the business plans pan out. If the business isn't viable then she would return to work. However, the business won't be started until after the baby arrives so we are trying to plan ahead for all eventualities. I realise maternity pay may have to be paid back if she doesn't return to work, we are planning for that possibility.

Income Apr 2015-2016 could be as low as £15k but could be higher if she does go ahead and sets up a business. I would like to forecast some figures for a variety of scenarios ideally.

Hope this makes sense!

One other question - she has 3 other children* from her previous marriage and her ex-husband gets tax credits for them as he is on a low income. When the tax calculator asks for number of children I am entering just 1 as I assume you can't get paid twice for the same kids, is this correct?

Thanks again.

* yes, we are mad