need help/advice on salary, child benefit, self assessment and tax implications

pete1975

Afternoon all, I’m getting myself all mixed up here and just need some advice because i could be overthinking this.

I get paid a decent wage , wife doesn’t work but gets a carers allowance to look after ill family member so its just my wage as we give the carers allowance to that person to boost there income. Wife also receives child benefit (3 children 18, 16, 14) which I have to complete a self-assessment and then pay most of it back.

I’m 46 and our company also entertains salary sacrifice so my p60 states my wage as £58,333 but since July2020 I reduced my wage to just over 50k + taxable benefits and putting the difference in a work place pension with the company also contributing

I receive taxable benefits of £6158 medical, £200 AA membership and I now have a petrol card which haven’t used much in 2020 but my understanding is any petrol I buy I will be taxed at 40% so I was putting £100 into a another account for that part of my self-assessment (monthly petrol cost was about £200 before covid)

I’m again looking at different scenarios regarding wages and taxable benefits to get the most out of it and boost my pension.

Ione anyone have time to just go over my sums to see if I have missed anything or I’m overthinking what I’m doing.

My optimal wage would be

£43,500 which based on my tax code 348L would be £3541 gross and £2536 net

£49858 salary inc taxable benefits so I’m under 50k 40% tax bracket with a nice chunk going to my pension (current value of pension is £242,770 which Aviva app shows could be £652,000 at my retirement age of 57)

So as I’m under the 50k bracket, would all the taxable benefits be dealt with in my PAYE tax code and not on my self-assessment as I wouldn’t have to do one anymore?

or even with the above would I still have to set money aside for the petrol card?

Also if I’m under 50K, all the taxable benefits are at 20% so my tax code should once this tax year has passed start to be better and increase slightly?

I suppose anything over 50k and claiming child benefit I have to do the self-assessment

As I say I’m sorry for such a long winded post, I’ve created a spreadsheet and done different wage options, of 42.5k, 43k, 45k, to see what the benefits are. 

[Deleted User]

I haven’t gone into all the figures but, if your income is below £50000 and your wife does not use her personal allowance, 1250 could be transferred to you. 

pete1975

[Deleted User] said:

I haven’t gone into all the figures but, if your income is below £50000 and your wife does not use her personal allowance, 1250 could be transferred to you. 

yes actually i did read about this and I was waiting for the new tax year to see what my tax code would be. she doesnt use up anywhere near her personal allowance

Jeremy535897

You should be familiar with this:
https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/disabled-people-and-carers/caring-someone/tax-and-benefits-carers