1. Overview

You may have to pay a tax charge if you have an individual income over £50,000 and either:

you or your partner get Child Benefit
someone else gets Child Benefit for a child living with you and they contribute at least an equal amount towards the child’s upkeep

It doesn’t matter if the child living with you is not your own child.

Use the Child Benefit tax calculator to work out if you’re affected by the tax charge.

The tax charge applies to Child Benefit received from 7 January 2013 and is known as the ‘High Income Child Benefit Charge’.

If you’re affected by the tax charge

You can do one of the following:

stop getting Child Benefit - sometimes known as ‘opting out’
carry on getting Child Benefit and pay any tax charge at the end of each tax year

To work out if your income is over the threshold, you’ll need to work out your ‘adjusted net income’.

Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances and less things like Gift Aid.

Use the Child Benefit tax calculator to get help with your adjusted net income.