Changes to the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) came into effect on 6 April 2024. The income threshold at which HICBC starts to be charged increased to £60,000 (from £50,000).

The charge is calculated at 1% of the full Child Benefit award for every £200 (2023-24: £100) of income between £60,000 and £80,000. (2023-24: between £50,000 and £60,000). For taxpayers with income above £80,000 (2023-24: £60,000) the amount of the charge is the same as the amount of Child Benefit received. The HICBC therefore either reduces or removes the financial benefit of receiving Child Benefit.

For new Child Benefit claims made after 6 April 2024, any backdated payment will be treated for HICBC purposes as if the entitlement fell in the 2024-25 tax year if backdating would otherwise create a HICBC liability in the 2023-24 tax year.

Even if HICBC applies to you or your partner, it’s generally still beneficial to claim Child Benefit as doing so can safeguard certain benefits and ensure your child receives a National Insurance number. Claims can be made by using the HMRC app or online resources. New claims are automatically backdated for up to 3 months or to the child’s birth date if later.

Taxpayers can choose to continue receiving Child Benefit – and pay the tax charge – or opt to stop receiving benefits and avoid the charge.

HMRC’s Personal Tax Accounts (PTAs) serve as an online tool that enables taxpayers to view and update their information in real time. The PTA can be used for many routine requests and services and help you bypass the need to call or write to HMRC.

Every individual in the UK that pays tax has a PTA, but taxpayers must sign up in order to access and use the service. This can be achieved by using the Government Gateway. You may need to verify your identify when using the service.

The following services are currently available on your PTA:

• check your Income Tax estimate and tax code
• fill in, send and view a personal tax return
• claim a tax refund
• check your Child Benefit
• check your income from work in the previous 5 years
• check how much Income Tax you paid in the previous 5 years
• check and manage your tax credits
• check your State Pension
• check if you’ll benefit from paying voluntary National Insurance contributions and if you can pay online
• track tax forms that you’ve submitted online
• check or update your Marriage Allowance
• tell HMRC about a change of name or address
• check or update benefits you get from work, for example company car details and medical insurance
• find your National Insurance number
• find your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number
• check your Simple Assessment tax bill

The PTA is a key component of HMRC’s broader strategy to transition to a fully digital tax service.

You may be able to have tax underpayments collected via your tax code when you are in employment or in receipt of a company pension. Instead of paying off debts in a lump sum, money is collected in equal monthly instalments over the tax year.

You can pay your self-assessment bill through your PAYE tax code as long as these conditions apply:

• You owe less than £3,000 on your tax bill (you cannot make a part payment to meet this threshold).
• You already pay tax through PAYE, for example you are an employee, or you receive a company pension.
• You submitted your paper tax return by 31 October or your online tax return online by 30 December. This means that that for the 2023-24 tax year you have until 30 December 2024 to file your online self-assessment returns in order to have the monies collected in the 2025-26 tax year starting on 6 April 2025.

HMRC will automatically collect what you owe through your tax code if you meet the three conditions set out above unless you have specifically asked them not to (on your tax return).

You will not be able to pay your tax bill through your PAYE tax code if:

• You do not have enough PAYE income for HMRC to collect it.
• You had paid more than 50% of your PAYE income in tax.
• You had ended up paying more than twice as much tax as you normally do.
• You owed £3,000 or more but made a part payment to reduce the amount you owe to less than £3,000.

It was announced as part of the Spring Budget measures that the present favourable tax benefits presently allowed for the letting of properties as short-term holiday lets – known as the furnished holiday lettings (FHL) tax regime – is to be abolished from April 2025. The Labour government has confirmed that these changes will take effect as planned.

HMRC has now published a policy paper providing further details of how these changes will work in practice.

The policy paper states that the changes will remove the tax advantages that current furnished holiday let landlords have received over other property businesses in four key areas by:

• applying the finance cost restriction rules so that loan interest will be restricted to basic rate for Income Tax;
• removing capital allowances rules for new expenditure and allowing replacement of domestic items relief;
• withdrawing access to reliefs from taxes on chargeable gains for trading business assets; and
• no longer including this income within relevant UK earnings when calculating maximum pension relief.

After repeal, former FHL properties will form part of the person’s UK or overseas property business and be subject to the same rules as non-furnished holiday let property businesses.

There is also an anti-forestalling rule that prevents the obtaining of a tax advantage through the use of unconditional contracts to obtain capital gains relief under the current FHL rules. This rule applies from 6 March 2024.

The loss of the special tax regime for holiday lets is expected to have a significant effect on many of those involved with the short-term holiday rental business in the UK.

The letters in your tax code signify your entitlement (or not) to the annual tax free personal allowance. The tax codes are updated annually and help employers work out how much tax to deduct from an employee’s pay packet. 

The basic personal allowance for the current (and next) tax year is £12,570. The corresponding tax code for an employee entitled to the standard tax-free Personal Allowance 1257L. This is the most common tax code and is used for most people with one job and no untaxed income, unpaid tax or taxable benefits (for example the use of a company car).

There are a range of numbers and letters that can appear in your tax code. For example, there are letters that show when an employee is claiming the marriage allowance (M) or where their income or pension is taxed using the Scottish rates (S). If your tax code numbers are changed this usually means your personal allowance has been reduced.

There are also emergency tax codes (W1 or M1) which can be used if a new employee does not have a P45. These codes mean that an employee’s tax calculation is based on what they are paid in the current pay period.

If your tax code has a 'K' at the beginning this means that deductions due for company benefits, state pension or tax owed from previous years are greater than your personal allowance. However, the tax deduction for each pay period cannot be more than half your pre-tax pay or pension.

It is important to check your tax code to ensure the correct information is being used. If you have any queries we can help, or you can check with your employer or HMRC.

The Scottish rate of income tax (SRIT) is payable on the non-savings and non-dividend income of those defined as Scottish taxpayers.

The definition of a Scottish taxpayer is based on whether the taxpayer has a 'close connection' with Scotland or elsewhere in the UK. The liability to SRIT is not based on nationalist identity, location of work or the source of a person’s income e.g., receiving a salary from a Scottish business.

HMRC’s guidance states that for the vast majority of individuals, the question of whether or not they are a Scottish taxpayer will be a simple one – they will either live in Scotland and thus be a Scottish taxpayer or live elsewhere in the UK and not be a Scottish taxpayer. 

If a taxpayer moves to or from Scotland from elsewhere in the UK, then their tax liability for the tax year in question will be based on where they spent the most time in the relevant tax year. Scottish taxpayer status applies for a whole tax year. It is not possible to be a Scottish taxpayer for part of a tax year.

Residents may also need to pay Scottish Income Tax if they live in a home in Scotland and also have a home elsewhere in the UK. In this case, residents will need to identify which is their main home based on published guidance and the facts on the ground. Taxpayers may also be liable to SRIT if they do not have a home and stay in Scotland regularly, for example stay offshore or in hotels.

The marriage allowance can be claimed by married couples and those in a civil partnership and where a spouse or civil partner does not pay tax or does not pay tax above the basic rate threshold for Income Tax (i.e., one of the couples must currently earn less than the £12,570 personal allowance for 2024-25).

The allowance works by permitting the lower earning partner to transfer up to £1,260 of their personal tax-free allowance to their spouse or civil partner. The marriage allowance can only be used when the recipient of the transfer (the higher earning partner) does not pay more than the basic 20% rate of income tax. This would usually mean that their income is between £12,571 and £50,270 during 2024-25. For those living in Scotland this would usually mean income between £12,571 and £43,662.

Using the allowance the lower earning partner can transfer up to £1,260 of their unused personal tax-free allowance to a spouse or civil partner. This could result in a saving of up to £252 for the recipient (20% of £1,260), or £21 a month for the current tax year.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and have not yet claimed the allowance you can backdate your claim as far back as 6 April 2020. This could result in a total tax break of up to £1,260 if you can claim for 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 as well as the current 2024-25 tax year.

HMRC’s online Marriage Allowance calculator can be used by couples to find out if they are eligible for the relief. An application can then be made online at GOV.UK.

If you earn over £100,000 in any tax year your personal allowance is gradually reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000 irrespective of age. This means that any taxable receipt that takes your income over £100,000 will result in a reduction in personal tax allowances that would reduce the allowance to zero if your adjusted net income is £125,140 or above.

Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances, less certain tax reliefs such as trading losses, certain charitable donations and pension contributions.

For the current tax year, if your adjusted net income is likely to fall between £100,000 and £125,140 you would pay an effective marginal rate of tax of 60% as your £12,570 tax-free personal allowance is gradually withdrawn.

If your income sits within this band you should consider if there are any planning opportunities to avoid this personal allowance trap by reducing your income below to £100,000. This can include giving gifts to charity, increasing pension contributions and participating in certain investment schemes.

A higher rate or additional rate taxpayer who wanted to reduce their tax bill could make a gift to charity in the current tax year and then elect to carry back the contribution to 2023-24. A request to carry back the donation must be made before or at the same time as the 2023-24 self-assessment return is completed i.e., by 31 January 2025.

All children in the UK have their own personal allowance, currently £12,570. There are special rules if a parent gifts significant amounts of money to their children which results in them receiving bank interest of more than £100 (before tax) annually. If this is the case, the parent is liable to pay tax on all the interest if it is above their own Personal Savings Allowance (PSA). These anti-avoidance laws are designed to prevent a child’s personal allowance being used by parents of children aged under 18, with some minimal exceptions.

The PSA allows basic-rate taxpayers to receive interest of up to £1,000 on savings income tax-free. For higher-rate taxpayers the tax-free PSA is £500. Taxpayers paying the additional rate of tax do not benefit from the PSA.

The £100 limit does not apply to money given by grandparents, relatives or friends. In addition, any income from Junior ISA’s or CTF’s is exempt from Income Tax and CGT on the child or the parent even when the invested funds came from the child’s parents. The 2024-25 subscription limit for both CTFs and Junior ISAs is £9,000.

If older children are employed by a parent they can receive income paid as wages subject to the usual employment rules.

Self-assessment taxpayers are usually required to pay their income tax liabilities in three instalments each year. The first two payments on account are due on 31 January during the tax year and 31 July following the tax year end date.

These payments on account are based on 50% each of the previous year’s net income tax liability. In addition, the third (or only) payment of tax will be due on 31 January following the end of the tax year. If you think that your income for the next tax year will be lower than the previous tax year, you can apply to have your payment on account reduced. This can be done using HMRC’s online service or by completing form SA303.

Please note that you do not need to make any payments on account where your net Income Tax liability for the previous tax year is less than £1,000 or if more than 80% of that year’s tax liability has been collected at source.

There are no restrictions on the number of claims to adjust payments on account a taxpayer or agent can make. The payments are based on 50% of your previous year’s net income tax liability. If your liability for 2024-25 is lower than 2023-24 you can ask HMRC to reduce your payment on account. The deadline for making a claim to reduce your payments on account for 2024-25 is 31 January 2026.

If taxable profits have increased there is no requirement to notify HMRC although the final balancing payment will be higher.