Claiming child benefit guide discussion area

edgeman123

can anyone help with a query about the high earners child benefit charge. On martins email this week he says that you can have your pension payments deducted from your overall salary. It states ALL pensions count for this including pensions deducted from your gross salary. However on the gov.uk page when doing a tax return for this, it states "DO NOT INCLUDE contributions deducted before tax".  Can anyone advise, as this seems a contradiction to me. Basically this makes a huge difference for me. For the last 6 years or so I have gone over 50k and so had to pay back a chunk of my child benefit. I didn't know about this for the first couple of years and so I was hit with big charge and penalties as well. Since then I submit a tax return and now pay most of child benefit back. However I have never included my pension payments on the return, because of the note on there saying do not include pension payments deducted before tax. I have quite a large pension payment and I also make extra contributions so this would probably take my salary below 50k if I was allowed to deduct it. 
Sorry if this is a stupid question but I am having a hard time getting my head around it. Hope maybe someone else was in a similar situation and can advise. 
Many Thanks, Colin.

Ohmyday

It's not a stupid question Colin. In fact you've just saved me asking, as I am in the exact same position. Has Martin and his team got this one wrong?

sheramber

If pension payments are deducted before tax then they are already deducted to arrive at your taxable income figure on your P60.
Salary £58,000
Pension deducted before tax £7000 
taxable pay £51,000 - the figure on P60
If you were to deduct them again you would be deducting them twice.

If they are paid out of your income after tax has been deducted then they have not been deducted to arrive at your taxable figure so can be deducted to arrive at your net adjusted income.
salary £58.000 - taxable income £58.000 - figure on p60
pension paid after tax deducted £7000
adjusted net income £51.000

Debbie1980

spacemonkeyb3 said:

Hi I think I already know the answer, but I think it's worth asking if anyone has experienced similar. My wife and I have recently been contacted by HMRC to do self assessments around paying back some or all of the Child Support. My gripe is that I get a company car, and the accepted method to calculate the BIK tax owed is to calculate a notional amount that when added to the gross salary with generate the correct BIK tax. This is not money earned, just used to make the calculation, and of course artificially inflates your P60 gross income. This not only takes my wage above the repayment threshold of 50k, but above the upper limit for full repayment Is anyone aware of a way legitimately to get the notional amount deducted from the gross pay? The old system would adjust your tax code to calculate the tax, not affecting your gross pay

Hi

We are facing this issue now too and it seems quite unfair - we hadn’t realised this had happened, and now going back to 18/19 we have been over the threshold.  As spacemomkeyb3 says, this is not money earned and has artificially inflated our p60 taxable pay.  What can we do, if anything, about this?

thank you

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Debbie1980 said:

spacemonkeyb3 said:

Hi I think I already know the answer, but I think it's worth asking if anyone has experienced similar. My wife and I have recently been contacted by HMRC to do self assessments around paying back some or all of the Child Support. My gripe is that I get a company car, and the accepted method to calculate the BIK tax owed is to calculate a notional amount that when added to the gross salary with generate the correct BIK tax. This is not money earned, just used to make the calculation, and of course artificially inflates your P60 gross income. This not only takes my wage above the repayment threshold of 50k, but above the upper limit for full repayment Is anyone aware of a way legitimately to get the notional amount deducted from the gross pay? The old system would adjust your tax code to calculate the tax, not affecting your gross pay

Hi

We are facing this issue now too and it seems quite unfair - we hadn’t realised this had happened, and now going back to 18/19 we have been over the threshold.  As spacemomkeyb3 says, this is not money earned and has artificially inflated our p60 taxable pay.  What can we do, if anything, about this?

thank you

Nothing retrospectively.

The previous poster has totally misunderstood how tax and the High Income Child Benefit Charge works.

If company benefits are included in payroll you could have say taxable salary £52,000 + payrolled benefits £7,000 = P60 £59,000 and no P11D benefits.

If the benefits aren't payrolled you have taxable salary of £52,000 and a P11D benefit in kind of £7,000.  Taxable income of £59,000

So your adjusted net income, which HICBC is based on, will start from £59,000 irrespective of which method your employer uses for the company benefits.

Going forward simply opt out of having a company car and that will negate that part of your income.

samwardill

Can I backdate a CH2 Child Benefit Claim for NI credits? Missing years are 2013 to 2014 & 2019 to 2020. We used to claim child benefit before the rule change but stopped when the rule changed in 2013. My wife was actually on Mat leave from Jan 2013 so I'm surprised she got so few credits.

h31

I am currently claiming child benefit for my son he is 17 and going to repeat year 12 meaning he won’t finish full time education until he is 19. How do I claim for the extra year of education?

Vic268

My little ones dad earns in excess of £100k so we never claimed child benefit. We split last year and he gives me child maintenance but I'm wondering whether I am eligible to claim child benefit now or whether the high tax rate still applies? My full time salary is over the £50k make but I work part time which puts me back under so from my point of view I am eligible but I don't know where I stand with my ex's salary and child maintenance?

sheramber

You have nothing to lose by applying. 

vixter74

We used to receive CB until the rules changed and my husband earned over £60K so it stopped.
I stopped work when my eldest was 10 but looking at my national insurance credit I’ve still been receiving them annually ever since.
I don’t understand why when I’ve not been employed. Could it be that even though I opted out of receiving the CB I still get the NI credits? Does anyone know how long I will receive them for (assume linked to my children’s ages?)
thsnks!