Child benefit threshold / increasing pension contributions

Drp8713

Thanks, I was going to call HMRC in March and claim the £160 of 40% tax back.

I use Premium Bonds for my £10k emergency fund and all other wealth is in investments via a S&S ISA/LISA/SIPP and DB work pension and AVC. I only have an extra £1k easy access emergency fund unwrapped gaining minimal interest.

zagfles

Drp8713 wrote: »

Thanks, I was going to call HMRC in March and claim the £160 of 40% tax back.

I use Premium Bonds for my £10k emergency fund and all other wealth is in investments via a S&S ISA/LISA/SIPP and DB work pension and AVC. I only have an extra £1k easy access emergency fund unwrapped gaining minimal interest.

What is "minimal"? Even if just £1 you need to declare it on your tax return, and it would count towards your "adjusted net income" which is used for the child ben tax calculation.

Drp8713

Its in a FD bonus saver getting 0.5% so £5 a year. It would not push me over £50099.

I just spoke to HMRC via their web chat, after much fun educating them on adjusted net income, they spoke to somebody on the child benefit team, who confirmed that you do need to fill in a tax return if your adjusted net income is over £50k, regardless of whether it is under £50100 so no tax charge is applicable.

If your adjusted net income is £49999 or under, no return is required.

So i either need to put another net £50 into my SIPP or fill out a return.

zagfles

What about gift aid? As well as normal charitable donations there's loads of places where you can gift aid admission eg zoos, English Heritage/National Trust places etc. These reduce your ANI plus you can claim extra tax relief as a higher rate taxpayer. You could take the kids to the zoo instead of putting the extra £50 into your SIPP!

wacky75

Thanks again, my contributing my bonus all to the pension, I have calculated that I am contributing enough to take my net income down to under the 50k threshold and can continue to claim CB