Help with the tax credits renewal pack

Each year you will get a tax credits renewal pack. You need to check your renewal forms and make sure you report the right information to the Tax Credit Office. This will help them check if you were paid the right amount of money in the year just ended - and that your payments are right for the coming year.

On this page:

The Annual Review Notice
The Annual Declaration
Deadlines for renewing
Contact the Tax Credit Office
More useful links

The Annual Review Notice

As well as telling you how to renew your tax credits, the Annual Review notice gives details of the tax credits you received during the year. It lists:

what you told the Tax Credit Office about your personal circumstances and your income when you claimed
any changes you reported about your personal circumstances or income during the year

You need to:

check the information carefully
tell the Tax Credit Office immediately if anything has changed, or if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete

You need to report any changes straightaway. If you don't, you might get:

less money than you are entitled to
too much money (an overpayment) which you may have to pay back.

Which changes in circumstance you need to report and when

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The Annual Declaration

What it is and who gets one

You may get an Annual Declaration form in your renewal pack as well as the Annual Review notice. The Declaration asks for your income in the past year.

You may not get an Annual Declaration if you:

only get the family element of Child Tax Credit
claimed tax credits but didn't get them because your income is too high (a nil award)

If either of these applies to you, you'll usually just get an Annual Review notice as part of your pack.

Working out your income if you’re employed

If you're employed, you should get a P60 from your employer at the end of the tax year, showing what you earned.

You'll also need to report any taxable benefits you got from the job, and about any other money you got for example from stocks and shares or from bank interest.

If you didn't get a P60, your March payslip will show how much you earned in the past tax year. If you don't have either, you'll need to make an estimate of what you earned. If it was more or less the same each week or month, multiply this by:

52 - if you're paid weekly
12 - if you're paid monthly
13 - if you're paid every four weeks

If you didn't get the same wages each time you were paid, you'll need to add up all the money you received during the year.

You're employed - find out how to work out your income

Working out your income if you’re self-employed

If you're self-employed, your income is the profit you made, and you should use the amount from your tax return.

If you haven't sent in your tax return, you'll need to give an estimate of your profit. This is the difference between all the money you made from doing work or selling goods and the cost of doing that business.

You're self-employed - find out how to work out your income

Working out other income

You’ll also need to work out your other income. This includes:

taxable state benefits for example contributions-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
other income, such as pensions, income from property, income that you receive from abroad and savings

Which state benefits to report when making a tax credits claim

Other income – how to work it out for your tax credits claim

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Deadlines for renewing

The deadline for returning the Annual Declaration form - or giving the Helpline the information asked for – is usually 31 July. Your renewal pack will tell you if you have a different deadline.

Renew as quickly as possible – don’t wait for the deadline. If you delay you might not be getting all the money you're entitled to or if you've been paid too much, you may have to pay back any overpayment from the previous year as well as any money paid to you since 6 April

Deadlines for renewing your tax credits claim

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Contact the Tax Credit Office

If you need more help you can call the Tax Credit Helpline which is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. The numbers you can ring are:

Tel 0845 300 3900
Textphone 0845 300 3909 - if you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment

If you're calling from overseas you can also contact the Tax Credit Office on Tel + 44 289 053 8192.

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