Parents must file with HMRC. (Image: Getty)
People who earn as little as £50,000 could need to submit a tax return to – and have just hours left to do so or face a fine.
tweeted: “File your Self Assessment tax return today!!”.
The deadline to submit and pay tax returns is midnight tonight, January 31. Anyone liable to submit a return and fails to do so, even if they didn’t owe anything, could be made to pay a £100 fine.
However, many parents do not realise that they need to submit a return if they claim Child Benefit and exceed the self-assessment threshold.
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The threshold for repaying was raised last year to £60,000 instead of £50,000, but the current January 31 tax deadline is for the previous tax year, which was still £50,000.
It means those who claimed between April 2023 and March 2024 must file a self-assessment tax return to if they earned £50,000 or more and also claimed Child Benefit in that timeframe.
Those who fail to submit a tax return and pay what they owe by the end of January could face a £100 fine and a 7.25% on the outstanding debt until it’s paid to HM Revenue and Customs in full.
Speaking on the ‘debt buster’ special of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1 and ITVX, Martin Lewis explained: “I spoke to today, there were 5.4M people who hadn’t done it at the beginning of the month, there are still 3.8 million people who need to do it who haven’t done it, that is a lot of people, people.
Martin continued: “If you’ve got over £10,000 in savings interest, that’s a lot of interest, you need to do one.
“If you earn over £150,000, you need to do one, and if you earned over £50,000 in that tax year, remember the threshold is higher now but this is for the 23-24 tax year, and you got Child Benefit, you need to do a self-assessment.
“So for millions of people who don’t need to do one, don’t panic, but if you’ve been told to do one, [or] you’re in those categories, you need to get one in and you need to get it soon. If you miss the deadline, the fine’s £100 and there’s possible penalties later on and interest of 7.25% if you don’t pay.”
Those claiming receive £102 per month for the first child, and an extra £68 per each additional child, with no cap other than the overall ‘benefits cap’ per household.
But if you earned over £50,000 in the last tax year, or £60,000 in this current tax year, you are liable to start repaying the benefit back to the taxman. You will be made to pay back some of the money once you hit the threshold, and eventually, when you reach the maximum amount, you’ll have to repay all of it.
says: “If either you or your partner’s ‘adjusted net income’ is over the threshold, you may have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
“Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances and less things like Gift Aid. Your total taxable income includes interest from savings and dividends.
“If you have to pay the charge, you can still get the other advantages of Child Benefit like National Insurance credits. The charge will not be more than the amount you get from Child Benefit payments.”