Child benefit high tax charge - how much to pay?

EH75

In the 2022-2023 tax year I earned in the region of £53k. My partner was claiming child benifit for our daughter, we then had a son mid way through the year. I am not sure if she claimed for him or not and if she did when the claim started from. We have since separated and finding out any of this information from her is very difficult. I suspect she doesn't know the answer or have any documentation which would tell her. I have asked multiple times for her to contact HMRC herself to try and find out but am getting no where. 

Is there any way I can find out how much she claimed so I can pay the correct high income child benefit charge? I have no issues with paying it but I don't know the figures and can't get them from her.

Obviously it is creeping up for self assessment deadlines so I would like to sort this out. 

jlfrs01

You can write to HMRC as per these guidelines:

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/pay-the-charge

r6mile

Remember that what is relevant for child benefit purposes is not your "gross" salary, but your Adjusted Net Income (ANI) which excludes pension contributions. So if you contributed a gross 3k into your pension, then your ANI would fall below 50k so you would not have to pay back any of the Child Benefit.

Have you calculated your ANI for 2022-23?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

EH75 said:

In the 2022-2023 tax year I earned in the region of £53k. My partner was claiming child benifit for our daughter, we then had a son mid way through the year. I am not sure if she claimed for him or not and if she did when the claim started from. We have since separated and finding out any of this information from her is very difficult. I suspect she doesn't know the answer or have any documentation which would tell her. I have asked multiple times for her to contact HMRC herself to try and find out but am getting no where. 

Is there any way I can find out how much she claimed so I can pay the correct high income child benefit charge? I have no issues with paying it but I don't know the figures and can't get them from her.

Obviously it is creeping up for self assessment deadlines so I would like to sort this out. 

You need to establish your "adjusted net income" first.

This includes all taxable income, inclusive of interest even if that's taxed at 0%, but then some pension contributions can be deducted which means your ANI is often less than your earnings.

EH75

The figure on my P60 is just undsr £53k. I pay into my pension before tax. I don't have any other income really. I thought since I pay into my pension before tax then the £53k figure be what I would use? 

EH75

jlfrs01 said:

You can write to HMRC as per these guidelines:

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/pay-the-charge

That says

 "You can write to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to ask whether your partner or ex-partner gets Child Benefit or has a higher income than you. HMRC will reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ - they will not give you any financial information."

I don't see how that helps me. I need a figure of how much she got to put on the tax return. I already know she claimed it so a yes or no answer is not much use. 

The fact we had a second child mid way though the year complicates matters as I am not sure when she started this claim. 

Letsgetmoving

She could check her bank account and add up the transactions

EH75

Yeah that would be fine - if I could get the information from her. That is where the problem lies!

There must be some other way to find this out. How can I pay a charge if there is no way to find out how much I owe? 

sheramber

You could estimate the amount and note on your return that it contains estimated figures.

Child benefit is a fixed amount for each child   https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit

You would need to assume payment for the second child was from birth.

HMRC  cannot give you information relating to your wife without her authority to do so. Any chance of her authorising you to apply for the information?