Child benefit - high income tax charge

Leylochris

I’m after some advice as I can’t get an answer from HMRC. My taxable income is in excess of £50k and I’m therefore liable for the tax charge. I did a self assessment for last tax year as they asked me to even though my taxable income was below the threshold last tax year. They adjusted my tax code for this year to 1115LX. When I questioned this and said it was too low as we only received child benefit from 6th April (1st day of new tax year) to 31st August 2023 as my son turned 18 they said they would readjust the tax code if I told how how much child benefit we received in the current tax year. We actually received a payment ion 6th April itself and I asked them for clarity on whether this counted in this tax year’s total or last year given that whilst it was paid into the bank on 6th April(the 1st day of 23/4 tax year), child benefit is paid in arrears and it was therefore a payment for a 4 week period in the 22/3 tax year. HMRC said that they don’t know! It matters because I have to give them the total amount of child benefit received this tax year in order for them to adjust my tax code but I can’t give them this figure until they provide clarity as to which year the 6th April payment falls into. Anyone got any suggestions on how to resolve this? Should I just include it in this year’s and pay a little extra on the high income charge for the sake of getting my tax code corrected so I’m not paying too much tax? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Leylochris said:

I’m after some advice as I can’t get an answer from HMRC. My taxable income is in excess of £50k and I’m therefore liable for the tax charge. I did a self assessment for last tax year as they asked me to even though my taxable income was below the threshold last tax year. They adjusted my tax code for this year to 1115LX. When I questioned this and said it was too low as we only received child benefit from 6th April (1st day of new tax year) to 31st August 2023 as my son turned 18 they said they would readjust the tax code if I told how how much child benefit we received in the current tax year. We actually received a payment ion 6th April itself and I asked them for clarity on whether this counted in this tax year’s total or last year given that whilst it was paid into the bank on 6th April(the 1st day of 23/4 tax year), child benefit is paid in arrears and it was therefore a payment for a 4 week period in the 22/3 tax year. HMRC said that they don’t know! It matters because I have to give them the total amount of child benefit received this tax year in order for them to adjust my tax code but I can’t give them this figure until they provide clarity as to which year the 6th April payment falls into. Anyone got any suggestions on how to resolve this? Should I just include it in this year’s and pay a little extra on the high income charge for the sake of getting my tax code corrected so I’m not paying too much tax? 

Your tax code is only ever provisional so you really are wasting your time on this.

The final position will be resolved by your 2023-24 Self Assessment return so just give what you think is likely to be the correct amount and you then have a year or more to work out what the actual amount will be for your tax return.