High Income Child Benefit Charge

jimmo

unkle wrote: »

I'd love to hear of anyone who has actually been able to get information as to whether (or not) their partner is receiving the benefit. I don't believe they can.

I(we) must be terribly old fashioned. When we married my wife and I made some vows and took them seriously. With a little bit of common sense, I already know exactly when she was entitled to receive child benefits and we both know roughly how much we each earn. If either of us wants or needs more accurate information we can ask each other. We don't need the government to be a middleman in our relationship.

Wayne_O_Mac

Tony_p wrote: »

Same thing here. HMRC are an absolute disgrace. All you get is legalise, mambo jumbo, subversion and threats in letters. It's impossible to get through to them on the phone line. They have flat out refused to acknowledge my queries and concern or any culpability for confusing, convoluted lop-sided system. I for one refuse to be bullied. They're not getting a penny out of me until they ackowledge and address the issues. And for those saying your responsibility etc etc, you are nothing but brainwashed indoctrinated idiots, the wet dream of the elite who actively avoid tax because your spineless and fearful parts who'll pick up the bill for them. Grow a set

I was on HMRC's side until I heard they'd legalised mambo jumbo.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, person-who-totally-hasn't-been-drinking!

unkle

xylophone wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/pay-the-charge

If you can’t get information from your partner or ex-partner


You can write to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to ask whether your partner or ex-partner gets Child Benefit or has a higher adjusted net income than you. HMRC will reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ - they won’t give you any financial information.

You can only ask for this information if you and your partner either live together, or separated within the tax year you want information for.

Thats interesting as a few years ago they were unable to tell me if my wife actually did or didn't receive the benefit only if she was entitled to receive it, nor could they say who was the higher earner.

unkle

jimmo wrote: »

I(we) must be terribly old fashioned. When we married my wife and I made some vows and took them seriously. With a little bit of common sense, I already know exactly when she was entitled to receive child benefits and we both know roughly how much we each earn. If either of us wants or needs more accurate information we can ask each other. We don't need the government to be a middleman in our relationship.

You don't have to be married or have taken vows to receive child benefit

I was somewhat playing devils advocate, in that more often than not the higher earner isn't the one who receives the benefit or has any say if the benefit is claimed or not. When I last enquired (granted was 18+ months ago) HMRC could not tell me if I needed to pay it as they couldn't tell me if my wife received child benefit or not, only that she was entitled to.......

mdearlove

There must be a lot of us ignorant people around being caught out by this. I got a letter out of the blue this morning for what will ultimately mean repaying £5k plus a 20% penalty for year 1, 10% for year 2. Year 3 will need a self assessment form doing.

The penalties are the minimum required due to them assessing that it was not intentional.

Now on the phone to see if I can offset it with tax relief based on personal pension contributions which I am due apparently. Who knew!

xylophone

Now on the phone to see if I can offset it with tax relief based on personal pension contributions which I am due apparently.

Do you mean that you had no idea that as a higher rate tax payer you could claim additional relief on pension contributions?

Surely your pension provider had given some information on this point?

Had you thought of increasing your pension contributions?

http://www.pruadviser.co.uk/content/knowledge/technical-centre/child_benefit_trap/

Dazed_and_confused

It's possible the pension has already been taken into account i.e. your P60 pay amount is less than your actual salary because the pension (to an occupational pension) has reduced your taxable pay amount?

Or are you referring to a personal pension/SIPP?

martinsurrey

Tony_p wrote: »

Same thing here. HMRC are an absolute disgrace. All you get is legalise, mambo jumbo, subversion and threats in letters. It's impossible to get through to them on the phone line. They have flat out refused to acknowledge my queries and concern or any culpability for confusing, convoluted lop-sided system. I for one refuse to be bullied. They're not getting a penny out of me until they ackowledge and address the issues. And for those saying your responsibility etc etc, you are nothing but brainwashed indoctrinated idiots, the wet dream of the elite who actively avoid tax because your spineless and fearful parts who'll pick up the bill for them. Grow a set

Good luck in court, I'm sure you'll do fine.

(and by the way, a higher income tax paying house IS the elite, average UK post tax household income is £20k, but whatever makes you feel good about yourself)

Swifty75

I have been caught out also. They wrote to me at the end of October. I owe virtually all of it back until 12/13 when this started. I was unaware that we were receiving child benefit as I am not the recipient. I am not allowed to cancel it either. I am however allowed to receive the tax bill! I spoke to various people at hmrc, the last person I spoke to admitted that it is far from ideal that it has taken over 4 years to inform me that I have done something incorrect. His reasoning was that the department was only set up a year ago, and they are still not up to a team capable of investigating this thoroughly. He did say that ideally, with the new legislation, should have come the resource to be able to chase people in year one. He said there were millions outstanding, which means that the media campaign did not work, and the treasury are out of pocket. The excuse for not telling us me in year one was that the child benefit office do not talk to hmrc, much the same excuse as I used about my wife being the recipient and I having no visibility of her finances.
I have told them that I will pay the tax back and have even written them a cheque (which they appear to have lost), but I will appeal the penalties. To impose penalties when they admit that the system is flawed is shambolic.

MEM62

keepthelinguini wrote: »

It's totally unfair.

There are many things about taxation that are not fair. For what it is worth, your MP is you first port of call for any complaints on Government policy.