High Income Child Benefit charge

[gricehead]

Hi all,

I've been paying High Income Child Benefit charge for five or six years now, with my income sitting firmly in the lower half of the £50k to £60k bracket. No problem with this (beyond the fact the threshold hasn't moved with inflation etc). I also am the recipient of the child benefit payments, as I was the one that did the paperwork whilst my wife was recovering from the premature birth of our now teenage first child.

My wife has now found herself in the fortunate position of getting a new job, which not only pays more than mine, but also takes her over the upper threshold whereby we would be paying all child benefit back through HICBC.

Our tax situations are simple - we're both fully PAYE and I only complete a self assessment because of the HICBC.

When we discussed impact of her new job on HICBC and that she'd need to start self assessing, probably from next FY, she said "bugger that, let's just stop the child benefit" which has it's merits. But some people have suggested caution.

So questions:
a) is it advisable to stop a child benefit claim in this scenario? What possible reasons could there be to keep cycling the CB money through our accounts to just pay it back later?
b) How does one actually go about transferring the HICBC? Do I have to face up to phoning the HMRC? Will there be a box to tick on the tax return to say "no, stop charging me, charge my wife instead"? Have to say I can't remember seeing one.

Thanks Colin aka gricehead. It's been a while.

[mc2fool]

b) How does one actually go about transferring the HICBC? Do I have to face up to phoning the HMRC? Will there be a box to tick on the tax return to say "no, stop charging me, charge my wife instead"?

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/make-a-change-to-your-claim says:

"Change who gets Child Benefit

Contact the Child Benefit Office if you want someone else to claim Child Benefit, for example, your spouse or partner.

After you’ve done this, tell the other person to make a new claim."

The contact the CBO page linked to includes a postal address, so you could just write to them.

[dealtn]

Hi all,

I've been paying High Income Child Benefit charge for five or six years now, with my income sitting firmly in the lower half of the £50k to £60k bracket. No problem with this (beyond the fact the threshold hasn't moved with inflation etc). I also am the recipient of the child benefit payments, as I was the one that did the paperwork whilst my wife was recovering from the premature birth of our now teenage first child.

My wife has now found herself in the fortunate position of getting a new job, which not only pays more than mine, but also takes her over the upper threshold whereby we would be paying all child benefit back through HICBC.

Our tax situations are simple - we're both fully PAYE and I only complete a self assessment because of the HICBC.

When we discussed impact of her new job on HICBC and that she'd need to start self assessing, probably from next FY, she said "bugger that, let's just stop the child benefit" which has it's merits. But some people have suggested caution.

So questions:
a) is it advisable to stop a child benefit claim in this scenario? What possible reasons could there be to keep cycling the CB money through our accounts to just pay it back later?
b) How does one actually go about transferring the HICBC? Do I have to face up to phoning the HMRC? Will there be a box to tick on the tax return to say "no, stop charging me, charge my wife instead"? Have to say I can't remember seeing one.

Thanks Colin aka gricehead. It's been a while.

You might be in a position to receive it again in the future. When I looked at it it was easier to still receive it and pay it back through self-assessment, than stop it and potentially restart it again.

It's also the case you can't transfer it directly between partners/parents. The one receiving it has to request it to end, and then the other has to make a claim. It's possible to do this without missing out because of backdating, but again not administratively as "simple" as a transfer declaration.

[FoolishFilFive]

Up to you if you think it's morally right, but if both of you make additional voluntary payments into your pension to bring each income down to £50k, then you can keep the child benefit.