High Income Child Benefit Charge
Overview
You may have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge if you or your partner have an individual income that’s over the threshold and either:
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you or your partner get Child Benefit
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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 does not matter if the child living with you is not your own child.
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
The threshold
An individual income is over the threshold if it’s:
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over £60,000 for tax years starting from 2024 to 2025
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over £50,000 for tax years up to and including the tax year 2023 to 2024
What counts as income
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 allowances and not including things like Gift Aid. Your total taxable income includes interest from savings and dividends.
Use the Child Benefit tax calculator to get an estimate of your adjusted net income.
Who pays the tax charge
If your adjusted net income is over the threshold and so is your partner’s, then whoever has the higher income is responsible for paying the tax charge.
‘Partner’ means someone you’re not permanently separated from who you’re married to, in a civil partnership with or living with as if you were.
If your income is over the threshold
You can choose to either:
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get Child Benefit payments and pay the tax charge
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opt out of getting payments and not pay the tax charge
Find out what Child Benefit you’ll get.
Getting Child Benefit payments and paying the tax charge
You must pay the tax charge through Self Assessment if any of the following apply:
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you need to send a tax return for another reason, for example to report income from savings
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it’s later than 31 January in the year after the tax year you need to pay for
Otherwise you can choose whether to pay the tax charge through PAYE or through Self Assessment.
Opting out of Child Benefit payments
You should still fill in the Child Benefit claim form. You need to state on the form that you do not want to get payments.
You need to fill in the claim form if you want to:
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get National Insurance credits, which count towards your State Pension
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get your child a National Insurance number without them having to apply for one - they’ll usually get the number before they turn 16 years old
If you’re already getting Child Benefit payments
You can choose to either:
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carry on getting Child Benefit payments and pay any tax charge