Child benefit, high rate tax payer

fabforty

I am getting confused about this. I currently earn £58k, so expected to repay most of the child benefit that I received last year through self assessment. I used the calculator on the Gov. UK website which confirmed this. However my final pay slip for the year (still waiting for my P60) shows my taxable pay as £49,000 and my pension contributions as £8400 (approx.) The figures are approximate but pay was definitely just under £50k with pension contributions making up the rest. The calculator asks for pension contributions deducted after tax is paid, not before so I take this to mean that I should not put the £8400, as this is taken off before tax is paid. But if my taxable income is below £50k does this mean that I am liable for the tax charge or not?

Darksparkle

If the taxable income on the P60 is less than £50,000 and you have no other taxable income then you don't need to repay any child benefit.

TheSaint_2

Everyone gets a £10000 tax free allowance, that is why you are seeing the difference on your p60. I believe that is not relevant for your child benefit repayment though, so I think you will have to pay back most of your benefit.

For future ref if you pay money to charity by gift aid then this can be used to lower your taxable income. So in your case if you paid £8000 to charity it would mean you dont lose any benefit. You have to be happy to donate that much to charity though

Darksparkle

TheSaint wrote: »

Everyone gets a £10000 tax free allowance, that is why you are seeing the difference on your p60. I believe that is not relevant for your child benefit repayment though, so I think you will have to pay back most of your benefit.

For future ref if you pay money to charity by gift aid then this can be used to lower your taxable income. So in your case if you paid £8000 to charity it would mean you dont lose any benefit. You have to be happy to donate that much to charity though

Sorry but that is incorrect, the personal allowance isn't taken into account on the P60 other than showing the tax code operated. It has no impact on the taxable pay figure shown.

fabforty

Thanks Darksparkle. TheSaint, I already make a giftaid donation of approx. £500 per annum, which I have deducted from my calculations.