Posted 18 January 2024

Is the High Income Child Benefit charge fair

I've just reviewed the rules behind the HICBC and it looks like not very fair. The family where both parents earns up to £50k can enjoy full scale child benefit for their children (£100k total family income), whereas when a single working parent within a family is earning above £50k, the family starts to loose a percentage of their child benefit and when the £60k threshold is reached the the full CB need to be paide back to the tax man. This can results significant family budget loss for some and potential fines too.
Doesn't seems fair under current financial stress...
There is a pet-ition going on about it...
https-://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/642887
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  1. mutley1's avatar
    I think child benefit should be paid to those on low income and the income should be joint income like other means tested benefits.

    Child benefit is a bit of a strange one as unlike other benefits, it was never means tested. I was told it was because it is an incentive to people to have children, so it is paid to everyone.
    aLV426's avatar
    I believe the difference between joint tax and single parent tax is an incentive to have 2 parents. This is quite a political discussion and I'm not sure it's allowed on here.
  2. Helpful567's avatar
    What about the tax that you pay overall

    thesalarycalculator.co.uk/sal…php



    £50,000 income = £ 38,771.00 take home

    So two people earning £50,000 each (2 x £50,000 = £100,000) take home £77,542 and they get child benfit as well


    One parent earning £100,000 takes home £ 67,803.40 and does not get child benefit.




    To see how the tax system works, lets look at another hypothetical couple

    2 parents earning £100,000 each, - each takes home £ 67,803.40
    So total household income £ 67,803.40 x 2 = £135,606.8

    1 parent earning £200,00 takes home £117,032.40




    The more you earn, the more tax you pay.
    mutley1's avatar
    The tax system doesn't work on a fair basis.
  3. bozo007's avatar
    The tax system is rarely based on what is the right thing to do but more on what voters think is right. So a 2x £50k household is fine, but 1x £100k is filthy rich and needs to contribute its "fair share" or, in other words, tax them more. This is also easy to do because there are far fewer voters who make £100k.

    Voters aren't always wrong but with weapons like social media, it is quite easy to manipulate them. (edited)
    mutley1's avatar
    capital gains tax is one of the most unfair tax there is as it does not take into account the inflationary value of the asset that you hold, so you pay gain on the asset value at purchase, which could be 30 years ago. technically speaking you haven't made any real gain as the value of the asset have increased due to the value of money, namely inflation, and not actually real gain on the asset. in fact you could be making losses if you trade the asset for a similar asset as the new similar asset costs just as much, so you pay tax on notional gain that doesn't exist.
  4. Voj_Jam's avatar
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    These are all fair comments but the pay disparity for the high income charge is quite significant. We're comparing here families where one parent earns let say £60k, the other parent had to sometimes sacrifice his' or her's own career so that the other half can make a success but their children will loose out because of this. Fully understand why government is not doing much about it atm as their treasury benefits quite a lot from more and more ppl falling into the higher tax bands and high income charge due to increase in pay caused by current really high inflation. But it need to be pointed out that it's not fair and the government's job is to make the law fair. When these taxes were introduced back in 2013, we could debate that families with budgets above £50k where well off, but now surely it's not the case any more. Just more financial stress which the middle class need to face... (edited)
  5. Uridium's avatar
    This change came in a few years ago, people argued then that it wasn't fair and have done ever since. it's not fair I agree. Numerous petitions have been opened, didn't change then and doubt it ever will. (edited)
    bozo007's avatar
    It is about voter numbers. Far more who make under £50k than those who are closer to £100k. Secondly, my observation is that as a country, we want the underdogs to succeed but start hating them once they do. Instead of celebrating their success, we start demanding they need to be taxed even more.
  6. harrythefish's avatar
    Someone approaching £60k with kids will need to use every dodge possible. Use schemes like salary sacrifice, expensed EV (has a hig tax exemption) and especially sock as much as possible into a pension, to stay below the cliff edge level. If approaching the magic £50k and had kids I'd seriously propose doing a 4 day week to the boss, or insist on working from home to be without that risky pay rise.
  7. rimalpatel007's avatar
    Is there any benefit if one is under £60k but decides not to claim CB?
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