If you are liable to the High Income Child Benefit charge, the charge could be affected if there are changes in your individual income. Find out how this could affect you and what you need to do.
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You may be liable to a tax charge - called the High Income Child Benefit charge - if both of the following apply:
A tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year.
If you are liable to the tax charge and your income increases or drops, this can affect whether you continue to be liable or how much tax charge you have to pay.
The High Income Child Benefit charge - the basics
If your individual income drops to £50,000 or less for a tax year you will not have to pay the tax charge.
What you need to do depends on whether you:
If you registered for Self Assessment and filled in a tax return just to pay the tax charge, contact HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
You must still fill in a tax return if you need to for other reasons.
Contact the Self Assessment Helpline
Do you need to complete a tax return?
If you or your partner previously decided not to receive Child Benefit payments because you didn't want to pay the tax charge, you can start them again. You can do this by:
Only the person who is entitled to Child Benefit can restart the payments.
Your payments will usually start again on the first Monday after the Child Benefit Office get your request, or a later date if you prefer.
Apply online to restart your Child Benefit payments
Contact details for Child Benefit
You or your partner may have previously decided not to receive Child Benefit payments because your individual income was over £60,000 and the tax charge was the same as the full Child Benefit amount. If your individual income has now dropped to £60,000 or less, you need to decide if you would like to restart your payments. As long as your income is over £50,000 and not more than £60,000 for a tax year, the tax charge will always be less than the amount of Child Benefit you are entitled to receive.
You can use an online calculator to see how much the tax charge might be and the difference between it and your Child Benefit amount.
Estimate your High Income Child Benefit charge on GOV.UK (Opens new window)
You can use an online form to ask to start your Child Benefit payments again. But only the person who is entitled to Child Benefit can start the payments again.
You will also need to register for Self Assessment and declare payments on your tax return.
As long as your income drops to below £60,000 for a full tax year, you can apply to restart your Child Benefit payments for up to two years after the end of that tax year.
Apply online to restart your Child Benefit payments
Registering for Self Assessment and getting a tax return
Introduction to Self Assessment
If you fill in a tax return already, you don't need to tell HMRC about income changes between these limits. The tax charge will be worked out based on your income at the end of the year.
If you make 'payments on account' (advance payments of tax) and your income drops, you may want to tell HMRC, so that they can reduce your payments.
Whoever is entitled to Child Benefit still needs to ask to restart the Child Benefit payments. See the section 'Restart Child Benefit payments' above.
If your individual income is more than £60,000 for a tax year the tax charge will be equal to the full amount of Child Benefit. But some income adjustments may apply, such as pension contributions, which could bring your income level down to below £60,000. This could reduce your tax charge.
You can check the likely tax charge by using an online calculator.
Estimate your High Income Child Benefit charge on GOV.UK (Opens new window)
If you had previously decided to continue getting Child Benefit payments because the tax charge was less than the Child Benefit amount, you'll need to decide whether you would now like to stop receiving Child Benefit payments.
You can use an online form to stop receiving your Child Benefit payments. But only the person who is entitled to Child Benefit can stop the payments.
High Income charge: stop your Child Benefit payments
If you registered for Self Assessment and filled in a tax return just to pay the tax charge and you or your partner stop receiving Child Benefit payments, contact HMRC.
You must still fill in a tax return if you need to for other reasons.
Contact the Self Assessment Helpline
Do you need to complete a tax return?
Declaring Child Benefit for the High Income charge - the basics
High Income: how to stop or restart your Child Benefit payments
High Income charge: changes in your Child Benefit entitlement
