Child benefit tax - high earner bill

Legacy_user

Hi all,

I've just got a surprise letter from HMRC saying that I owe them money from 2013 for child benefit that my partner has been claiming for our daughter. She set this up when our daughter was born and back then I was on a much lower salary. My daughter is 8 by the way.

On the letter it says child benefit changed in 2013?

I've never had any letter from HMRC at any point during this time to say that we weren't entitled to the money & now they've sent be a bill for over 4k and a 600 penalty on top of that?!

I work PAYE and have never even heard of a self assessment let a lone sent one in until now that they're setting me up an account.

Has anyone on here had anything similar? or can offer any advice at all.

I've got 30 days to pay the money but I simply do not have that kind of money laying around. My partner is in her 4th year of uni and all our money goes into that.

Thanks in advance for help.

OhWow

T1ffy wrote: »

Hi all,

I've just got a surprise letter from HMRC saying that I owe them money from 2013 for child benefit that my partner has been claiming for our daughter. She set this up when our daughter was born and back then I was on a much lower salary. My daughter is 8 by the way.

On the letter it says child benefit changed in 2013?

I've never had any letter from HMRC at any point during this time to say that we weren't entitled to the money & now they've sent be a bill for over 4k and a 600 penalty on top of that?!

I work PAYE and have never even heard of a self assessment let a lone sent one in until now that they're setting me up an account.

Has anyone on here had anything similar? or can offer any advice at all.

I've got 30 days to pay the money but I simply do not have that kind of money laying around. My partner is in her 4th year of uni and all our money goes into that.

Thanks in advance for help.

These are the rules for Child Benefit claimants -

You must report any change of circumstances to the Child Benefit Office.

You may have to pay a tax charge if your or your partner’s individual income is over £50,000.

You can choose not to get Child Benefit payments, but you should still fill in the claim form because:

• it will help you get National Insurance credits which count towards your State Pension
• it will ensure your child is registered to get a National Insurance number when they’re 16 years old

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/overview

Darksparkle

The child benefit high income charge was very well publicised when it came out.

You can read more about it here - https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/overview