You or your partner may have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge if either of you receives Child Benefit and at least one of you earns more than the threshold. This means you will have to pay some or all of your Child Benefit back.

The charge may also apply if someone else gets Child Benefit for a child living with you and they contribute at least an equal amount towards the childs upkeep.

It does not matter if the child living with you is not your own child.

The threshold

An individual income is over the threshold if its:

• over 60,000 for tax years starting from 2024 to 2025

• 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, youll need to work out your adjusted net income.

Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income, which includes savings interest and dividends. Its calculated before any Personal Allowances and less certain tax reliefs, such as pension contributions and Gift Aid.

Working out the tax charge

You can use the Child Benefit tax calculator to get an estimate of how much of your Child Benefit you will have to pay back.

From tax year 2024 to 2025 onwards

If you or your partner earn more than 60,000 a year, youll have to pay some of your Child Benefit back. If you or your partner earn 80,000 or more, youll have to pay all of it back.

Youll pay back 1% of your Child Benefit for every 200 you earn over the threshold.

For tax years up to and including the tax year 2023 to 2024

If you or your partner earned more than 50,000 a year, youll have to pay some of your Child Benefit back. If you or your partner earned 60,000 or more, youll have to pay all of it back.

Youll pay back 1% of your Child Benefit for every 100 you earn over the threshold.

Who pays the tax charge

If your adjusted net income is over the threshold and so is your partners, then whoever has the higher income is responsible for paying the tax charge.

Partner means someone youre not permanently separated from who youre 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:

• get Child Benefit payments and pay the tax charge

• opt out of getting payments and not pay the tax charge

Ways to pay the tax charge

There are two ways to pay the tax charge, you can either:

• pay the tax charge through PAYE
• pay the tax charge through Self Assessment

However, you must pay the tax charge through Self Assessment if:

• you need to send a tax return for another reason, for example because youre self-employed or earn interest on savings or investments
• its later than 31 January in the year after the tax year you need to pay for, you must pay the tax charge through Self Assessment.

If youve previously completed a Self Assessment tax return to pay the tax charge and not for any other reason, you can choose to pay it through PAYE instead. To do this, you will need to contact HMRC by phone to:

• leave Self Assessment
• register to pay the tax charge through PAYE

Opting out of Child Benefit payments

If you opt out of receiving payments, you are still registered for Child Benefit but you do not receive the payment.

You would not have to pay the tax charge and you would still get:

• National Insurance credits, which count towards your State Pension

• a National Insurance number for your child, without them having to apply shortly before they turn 16 years old

Find out more about opting out of getting Child Benefit payments.