Following the announcement of an income limit on Child Benefit claims, more has been revealed about how the Government plans to administrate the changes.
Married couples or partnerships, where one member is on an income of over £50,000 will have a 1% Child Benefit charge added to their tax bill for every £100 of income over the £50,000 limit.
Households not accustomed to submitting a Self Assessment Tax Return will now have to complete one to calculate their charge and make a payment to HMRC.
For example, consider a married couple with a single dependent receiving Child Benefit of £1055.60 per annum:
- Parent A earns £10,000, however Parent B earns £52,000. As Parent B has breached the £50,000 limit, they will need to declare on their tax return the amount of Child Benefit to repay.
- In this example, with £2,000 over the limit, the charge will be equivalent to 20 percent of the £1055.60 received.
- Parent B will have to make a Child Benefit charge payment of £211.12 when completing a tax return.
Failure to notify, or complete a tax return in a scenario such as the above could result in fines of up to £9,000.
Letters will be sent to families this Autumn 2012 and the Child Benefit Charge is valid from 7 January 2013. The first returns to include a payment for the Child Benefit Charge will be due October 2013, however collection via tax codes can be made from April 6th 2013.