Staying under £100K to keep 15/30 hours free childcare

AMO

Hi there,

I've just taken on a London job to take on a higher paid job to support the family. It's a good job paying £80K plus £5500 car allowance plus private medical plus up to 30% bonus plus pension.

The company does not do childcare vouchers.

What are my options if I want to keep my gross salary under £100K so that I can still apply for 30 hours free childcare. Is it mainly trying to increase pension contributions either ongoing (e.g. 10-15%) or try and get some mechanism so that when the bonus pays out, it will divert everything that would make my gross wage go above £100K go into my pension?

Is it worth taking the company car? I do only private miles to get to work (about 120 miles per day - the rest by train). Not sure if this will pay off.

Essentially, my travel costs and accommodation out of my net wage is likely to be about £1000-£1200 per month (knocking out the top £15-20K gross or so of my wage).

If I lose free childcare due to a high gross wage, I'll probably have to consider giving up the job as its all going in taxes, losing benefits and paying with net wages on transport and accommodation costs.

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.

Darksparkle

Pension is usually the best option.

Whether the company car is a better idea would depend on the value of the benefit, who would pay for fuel, cost of insurance repairs etc compared to the £5,500 you currently receive in a car allowance.

You cannot deduct the cost of your commute from your income.

dippy3103

You describe a situation no different to anyone else..

huckster

https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-and-education-for-2-to-4-year-olds

Stick to the rules, not worth trying to manipulate your position, otherwise the risk is that you end up subject to investigations and consequences that flow from that.

As with all of these government schemes, they will conduct checks on those applying or receiving any such help/benefits.

Alice_Holt

Charitable donations will also reduce your taxable income.

I'm not sure you are asking the right question?
Surely it's your taxable income you wish to reduce - not your gross salary?
Do you understand the difference between the two terms?
Have you any taxable investment / savings / other income?

An easy way to reduce your gross salary would be to ask your employer to pay you less.

TELLIT01

Additional pension contributions is probably the one truly 'safe' way of adjusting your income to continue to qualify. I'm assuming entitlement is based on net rather than gross salary.

Darksparkle

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Additional pension contributions is probably the one truly 'safe' way of adjusting your income to continue to qualify. I'm assuming entitlement is based on net rather than gross salary.

It would be based on taxable income.

danielanthony

Does your company offer a pension salary sacrifice scheme? I use this to keep my salary below 100k - therefore keeping my tax free allowance and not requiring to complete an annual self-assessment.

t0rt0ise

Now why is it that nobody says you should be pleased to be paying your own childcare, just like on the previous thread I read where everyone to a person said that the OP should be pleased to pay her own rent. What's the difference? It's all the tax payer you're attempting to cheat.

But no, it's somehow okay for you to put money into a pension that you will benefit from in the future while at the same getting something free from the rest of us. It's all twisted. It seems to be that if you have money it's okay to bludge off everyone else, if you have none it's not.

TELLIT01

t0rt0ise wrote: »

Now why is it that nobody says you should be pleased to be paying your own childcare, just like on the previous thread I read where everyone to a person said that the OP should be pleased to pay her own rent. What's the difference? It's all the tax payer you're attempting to cheat.

The OP here isn't trying to cheat anybody. They are looking for ways which the government says are acceptable to remain below the upper limit for claiming child care.
In the other topic to which you prefer they were looking for ways to dispose of savings in order to continue claiming Income Related benefits.
Whether we like it or not, the replies provided in both cases are intended to stay within the rules.

t0rt0ise

TELLIT01 wrote: »

The OP here isn't trying to cheat anybody. They are looking for ways which the government says are acceptable to remain below the upper limit for claiming child care.
In the other topic to which you prefer they were looking for ways to dispose of savings in order to continue claiming Income Related benefits.
Whether we like it or not, the replies provided in both cases are intended to stay within the rules.

Rubbish! She was asking what she could do to stay within the rules but still get housing benefit. It's exactly the same as here. What can he do to stay within the rules but still get free child care. It's exactly the same. The OP earns enough and doesn't need free child care so why not tell him so?