High income child benefit - advice

[Gio G]

Unfortunately I was one of those thousands that did not get off their backside and register for self assessment by Friday with respect to the high income child benefit.(I completely forgot)

I have now registered to stop any child benefit payments as clearly not entitled and will apply for self assessment. However my question is around who should apply for the self assessment, I believe my wife claimed the child benefit, therefore should she register? or can I apply for the self assessment, as I probably have items that can offset any payments that have been made. Any advice would be great.

Thanks G

[LivingTheDream]

I believe the rules state that the higher earner should declare the child benefit on their self assessment

[Gio G]

LivingTheDream said:

I believe the rules state that the higher earner should declare the child benefit on their self assessment

Thanks!

[sumo69]

Correct - if you are not self-employed you can register online using form SA1.

David

[sunoco69]

Am i right in thinking you have to earn over 50k for this to be a concern?

[Eric Mc]

Yes, £50,000 (for either partner) is the threshold.

[Gio G]

Is it worth paying a good accountant to do my SA? as every time I try to introduce new ways of offsetting my tax, the taxman shoots me down. Is it money well spent?

Thanks G

[Eric Mc]

What "new ways" have you tried so far?

[Gio G]

Eric Mc said:

What "new ways" have you tried so far?

I posted on here some time ago about tax relief on working from home. Many of my co-employees have suggested that were able to get more than the £18 a month HMRC allows. They were using accountants for their SA. When I enquired directly, they (HMRC) suggested I could not do it. It seems by using an accountant, they were able to claim an apportionment of costs, like water, untilities etc. They are employees like me, working from home 4/5 days a week.

Edited by Gio G on Tuesday 8th October 19:49

[FarmyardPants]

I earn over the threshold and didn't do anything re child benefit, planned to just pay it back when I do my tax return (have done self assessment since it started).

I heard something on the radio this morning about the deadline and a fine. Will I be fined? I thought I could just elect to treat it as a taxable benefit and provided I declare it on my SA and pay up there would be no fines(?)

edit: should I have the child benefit payments stopped? Thanks

[5avvy]

The deadline was to register for self-assessment if you were not previously registered, but were a high earner still claiming the child benefit. As you are already registered for self-assessment you shouldn't be affected.

Edited by 5avvy on Tuesday 8th October 22:30

[5avvy]

The deadline was to register for self-assessment if you were not previously registered, but were a high earner still claiming the child benefit. As you are already registered for self-assessment you shouldn't be affected.

Edited by 5avvy on Tuesday 8th October 22:51

[5avvy]

The deadline was to register for self-assessment if you were not previously registered, but were a high earner still claiming the child benefit. As you are already registered for self-assessment you shouldn't be affected.

Edited by 5avvy on Tuesday 8th October 22:51

[Jonny_]

I was not amused at having to sign up for the rigmarole of self assessment, just because HMRC and the child benefit lot "are on different systems" (according to an HMRC phone-answerer).

I'm on PAYE, so the fkers already have detailed records of what I've earned and conmon sense would suggest they can work out how much to knock off the poxy twenty quid a week my other half claims, without me having to duplicate their data via self assessment...

[Eric Mc]

Jonny_ said:

I was not amused at having to sign up for the rigmarole of self assessment, just because HMRC and the child benefit lot "are on different systems" (according to an HMRC phone-answerer).

I'm on PAYE, so the fkers already have detailed records of what I've earned and conmon sense would suggest they can work out how much to knock off the poxy twenty quid a week my other half claims, without me having to duplicate their data via self assessment...

Now you can see why previous governments were reluctant to try and means test Child Benefit.
Most people would agree that paying Child Benefit to people who don't really need it is nonsense. However, the mechanisms that need to be put in place to work out who needs it and who doesn't were always going to be messy - no matter what system they put in place to achieve this.

[sumo69]

Jonny_ said:

I was not amused at having to sign up for the rigmarole of self assessment, just because HMRC and the child benefit lot "are on different systems" (according to an HMRC phone-answerer).

I'm on PAYE, so the fkers already have detailed records of what I've earned and conmon sense would suggest they can work out how much to knock off the poxy twenty quid a week my other half claims, without me having to duplicate their data via self assessment...

You wouldn't have had to if you would have cancelled your CB at the time - it wasn't a great secret!

David

[Gio G]

Back to my original point, will an accountant be more useful in filling out my SA form than me? What is the going rate for this service roughly?

[Eric Mc]

sumo69 said:

Jonny_ said:

I was not amused at having to sign up for the rigmarole of self assessment, just because HMRC and the child benefit lot "are on different systems" (according to an HMRC phone-answerer).

I'm on PAYE, so the fkers already have detailed records of what I've earned and conmon sense would suggest they can work out how much to knock off the poxy twenty quid a week my other half claims, without me having to duplicate their data via self assessment...

You wouldn't have had to if you would have cancelled your CB at the time - it wasn't a great secret!

David

That really only works when the household income stops CB completely. If you are entitled to some CB - but not the full amount - then SA is the only way to provide HMRC with the information they need to provide the correct CB.

HMRC can't rely on PAYE information because, especially for unmarried couples, they will have no information on the individual's domestic arrangements. SA gives them that.

[Agent Orange]

FarmyardPants said:

I earn over the threshold and didn't do anything re child benefit, planned to just pay it back when I do my tax return (have done self assessment since it started).

I heard something on the radio this morning about the deadline and a fine. Will I be fined? I thought I could just elect to treat it as a taxable benefit and provided I declare it on my SA and pay up there would be no fines(?)

edit: should I have the child benefit payments stopped? Thanks

5avvy said:

The deadline was to register for self-assessment if you were not previously registered, but were a high earner still claiming the child benefit. As you are already registered for self-assessment you shouldn't be affected.

As already doing SA due to our rental properties this is exactly what we are doing.

[Revisitph]

Gio G said:

I posted on here some time ago about tax relief on working from home. Many of my co-employees have suggested that were able to get more than the £18 a month HMRC allows. They were using accountants for their SA. When I enquired directly, they (HMRC) suggested I could not do it. It seems by using an accountant, they were able to claim an apportionment of costs, like water, untilities etc. They are employees like me, working from home 4/5 days a week.

Edited by Gio G on Tuesday 8th October 19:49

I understand that one issue if you claim for a home office is that that portion of your house is then potentially subject to CGT when you sell it. A former colleague of mine and her husband used to claim a significant chunk (I think 10% or more) of their expenses (heating, lighting, insurance, redecoration...) against income tax as they had a couple of rooms devoted to offices at home and although they were employed full-time at their places of work used to work at home regularly, albeit doing separately paid work. The house is large and now worth well in excess of £1M. If they decided to downsize I think they could potentially be liable to a sizeable CGT bill. That, the risk / hassle of being investigated for what might be viewed as creative claims and potential issues with insurance has put me off. Eric will have expert opinion on this.