Child benefit on tax return

Sillychuckie

After entering in that I have 1 child, my tax return always shows:
The total amount of Child Benefit you and your partner were entitled to receive for the year to 5th April 2016: £ 1097.00
[This figure is auto-calculated].

The site also says:
If this figure is not correct, select 'No' and you will be given a chance to amend it below.

Having summed up my ChildBenefit payments between 06/04/15 and 05/04/16, the total comes to £1076, not £1097.

A quick google also seems to show that £1076 is the expected amount, so why does HMRC self-assessment produce this £1097 figure.
Should I accept their figure, or record a correction to £1076?

Thanks.
SC

Spidernick

No, change it - mine was wrong too with three kids. I keep a note of all mine on a spreadsheet, so was able to quote what I'd received, being one payment of one amount and then 12 other slightly higher payments all of the same amount.

On my 14/15 return they also got the figure wrong, so there does seem to be a general issue here!

Sillychuckie

Hm, ok thanks.

The figure was wrong for me on the 14/15 return also, but, since that was my first year receiving the benefit (and the fact the amount by which it was out was so trivial [~£20]), I left it as it was in order to avoid any more a prying eye than necessary.

I think this time I'll correct it as you have suggested, but wont bother amending last years return.
Its odd that they haven't fixed this in more than 2 years. Was the benefit ever £1097?
As best as I can tell, they are probably overcharging thousands of people who just click 'yes'.

My payments seem to match yours (1 at amount a, then 12 at amount b), but to a lower value with only 1 kiddie.
Unfortunately, I have to pay it all back anyway, so last year, this cost me (as I had to pay back more than I received due to the error I didn't bother correcting).

SC.

jimmo

Whilst I realise CB isn’t taxable the general principle of taxation of Social Security benefits is that they are taxable on the arising basis. i.e. the amount you are entitled to, not the amount actually received.
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim76004
My State Pension is payable every 4 weeks and, depending on when payday falls some of the money I receive in April is from my March entitlement and some is from my April entitlement. Consequently the amount I actually receive never matches the amount I am taxed on and in the 3 years I have been receiving State Pension I have never managed to reconcile the difference. Not being in SA I don’t worry about it but if I was I think I would just go along with the HMRC figures.
It seems that the government is applying the same principle to the CB clawback. They even provide a calculator
https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-calculator

Sillychuckie

Hmm. Mine has been consistently incorrect though 2 years running, so I'm not sure if it can be explained by that site.

I suppose you are probably right though, as I find a mistake like this unlikely. However, I think HMRC will be quick to ignore my correction if they are sure their figures are accurate, so I'll proceed by writing the amount I was actually paid and mentioning it in my note.

For consistency sake, I also decided to submit an amendment to last years figure.
The difference is small, but, I'd rather type in accurate and honest figures as best I can (to the best of my understanding), and let them educate me if I'm wrong. Based on 'spidernick's reply, I'm clearly not alone.

SC.

james_hewitt

I know this is an oldish thread but it was one of the first returned from Google when I was trying to work out where the £1097 figure had come from as I also believed it to be £1076.

I thought I'd post my findings here in the hope they may help others with the same confusion. As you can tell by the post date, I haven't been the most organised in sorting out my tax return this year

I found a page on accounting web which gave some clarity - I would post the link but as a new user I am unable to - but if you google 'child-benefit-52-or-53-weeks-0' it should be the top hit.

To summarise though, that CB entitlement is calculated (in my case at least) on the number of Mondays in a tax year there are. 2015-2016 has 53 Mondays apparently which is why the number in the automatic calculator was £20 higher than I thought it should be.

Sadly it would appear HMRC are entitled to that £20 I was hoping to keep...