Child Benefit for people earning £60,000+

If you and your partner each earn less than £60,000 a year, you’ll receive the full amount of Child Benefit without having to pay any of it back. 

But if you or your partner earn more than £60,000 a year, you need to pay some of the benefit back. This is why some people might choose not to apply for Child Benefit. However, it could still be a good idea to apply for it, especially if either you or your partner aren't working or earn below the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions.

By making sure you still put in your claim for Child Benefit – even if you’ve decided not to take the payments — you make sure you don’t miss out on:

• National Insurance credits to protect your entitlement to State Pension

• your child being automatically issued with a National Insurance number before their 16th birthday

• other benefits – for example, Guardian’s Allowance.

Your salary could be over £60,000, but what HMRC pays attention to is your ‘adjusted net incomeOpens in a new window’ This is the pay you’re taxed on and doesn’t include things you pay for through salary sacrifice.  

You can reduce your take-home pay by increasing your workplace pension contributions. You can also do this by paying into a personal pension.  

If you can afford to do this, it could limit how much Child Benefit you’ll need to pay back. You might want to talk to an accountant about this for more information.

If you or your partner earns between £60,000 and £80,000 a year before tax, you’ll have to pay a portion of your Child Benefit back in extra income tax.

Or you can ask HMRC online to take your Child Benefit tax charge from your wages each month, instead of paying it all at once.

You can do this if:

• you don't need to fill in a tax return for any other reason

• you ask before 31 January after the tax year ends.

If you can't pay through your wages, you'll need to complete a tax return instead.

You can ask to pay through your wagesOpens in a new window on GOV.UK or through the HMRC app.

You'll have to pay back 1% of your family’s Child Benefit for every extra £200 you earn over £60,000 each year.

This is known as the High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge. You can either pay through Self Assessment or through PAYE via a change to your tax code. 

You can pay via PAYE if you don’t need to complete a Self Assessment tax return for any other reason and it’s before 31 January in the year after the tax year you need to pay for. 

If either of those don’t apply you’ll have to register for Self Assessment and complete a Self Assessment tax return each year. If you don’t normally send a tax return to HMRC, you’ll need to register by 5 October following the tax year you need to pay the charge.

For more information on paying the High Income Child Benefit Tax ChargeOpens in a new window and to register for Self Assessment go to GOV.UK.

If either you or your partner has an income of more than £80,000 a year before tax, you'll have to repay all your Child Benefit as Income Tax.

You’ll still get paid the full amount of Child Benefit each month – or each week, if you’re paid weekly.

But whichever one of you has the higher income will have to pay back the full amount in the form of Income Tax either via PAYE or by completing a Self Assessment tax return.

You can choose not to stop receiving Child Benefit payments.

• This avoids the hassle of paying extra tax.
• You won’t have to complete a tax return.
• If your annual income is between £60,000 and £80,000, you’ll end up out of pocket as you’ll be giving up the proportion of Child Benefit you still qualify for.

Let HMRC know that you want to stop your payments. You can stop your Child Benefit paymentsOpens in a new window on GOV.UK.