The High Income Child Benefit Charge, in official figures
The High Income Child Benefit Charge is a tax charge that can claw back Child Benefit when a person or their partner has income above an official threshold. It is not the same as the Personal Allowance taper, and it is not built into our main Self Assessment tax calculator — just as HMRC’s own Self Assessment calculator also leaves this charge out. This guide only uses thresholds and percentages published on the official High Income Child Benefit Charge page. It does not pretend to compute your charge.
The official threshold, and how the charge is described
The official overview says you or your partner may have to pay the charge if either of you receives Child Benefit and at least one of you earns more than the threshold, which 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 child’s upkeep. It does not matter if the child living with you is not your own child.
An individual income is over the threshold if it is over £60,000 for tax years starting from 2024 to 2025, or over £50,000 for tax years up to and including 2023/24. Both 2025/26 and 2026/27 therefore sit under the £60,000 test on that wording. To work out if your income is over the threshold you need your adjusted net income: total taxable income, including savings interest and dividends, calculated before any Personal Allowances and less certain tax reliefs such as pension contributions and Gift Aid. That official definition is already more detailed than a simple salary, which is one reason a casual estimate can be wrong.
The charge itself, for years from 2024/25, is described as follows: you will pay back 1% of your Child Benefit for every £200 you earn over £60,000. If you earn over £80,000 you will pay it all back. For 2023/24 or earlier, the official page says you pay back 1% for every £100 you earned over £50,000. HMRC also publishes a Child Benefit tax calculator to estimate how much you will have to pay back; that official tool, not AssessTally, is the place for a numerical estimate of the charge.
Who pays, and how the charge is collected
If your adjusted net income is over the threshold and so is your partner’s, then whoever has the higher income is responsible for paying the tax charge. “Partner” on that page means someone you are not permanently separated from who you are married to, in a civil partnership with, or living with as if you were. The charge is not split down the middle, and it is not automatically assigned to the person who receives the Child Benefit payments.
If your income is over the threshold you can choose to get Child Benefit payments and pay the tax charge, or opt out of getting payments and not pay the tax charge. There are two official ways to pay the charge: through PAYE, or through Self Assessment. You must pay it through Self Assessment if you need to send a tax return for another reason — the page’s examples are that you are self-employed, or you earn interest on savings or investments — or if it is later than 31 January in the year after the tax year you need to pay for. The official example is: you need to pay the charge for the tax year starting on 6 April 2025; if it is after 31 January 2027, you must make the payment through Self Assessment.
If you have previously completed a Self Assessment return only to pay this charge, and not for any other reason, official guidance says you can choose to pay it through PAYE instead, by contacting HMRC to leave Self Assessment and to register to pay the charge through PAYE. That is an official process, not something a third-party website can do for you.
Opting out, and why it is still worth being on the record
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 official guidance says you would still get National Insurance credits that count towards your State Pension, and a National Insurance number for your child without them having to apply shortly before they turn 16. Those credits are a reason the official page gives for remaining registered even when payments are stopped. The decision to opt out or to receive the payments and pay the charge is personal; this guide will not recommend one or the other.
How this sits next to our tools
Our main Income Tax calculator excludes the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and says so. HMRC’s own Self Assessment tax calculator also will not take the charge into account. If the charge applies, use the official Child Benefit tax calculator and, if you must file, include it on the return you send for free on GOV.UK. The who needs to file guide repeats the official list, which includes paying this charge when you do not pay it through PAYE as a reason you must send a return. The Personal Allowance taper above £100,000 is a different rule; you can meet one, both, or neither. If the official HICBC page is later updated, that page wins over this guide.
Adjusted net income, and how this differs from the Personal Allowance taper
Because the official test uses adjusted net income, a bonus, a taxable gain that counts as income, dividends, or savings interest can push someone over £60,000 even if their regular salary does not. Equally, official reliefs that reduce adjusted net income can pull the same person back under the line. That is why the page tells you to work out adjusted net income rather than to look only at a March payslip. HMRC’s own materials on adjusted net income are the detailed official source for what is included and what is deducted.
The Personal Allowance taper, by contrast, starts at £100,000 and removes £1 of allowance for every £2 of income above that limit. It changes the Income Tax on your other income. The Child Benefit charge instead claws back Child Benefit, starting at £60,000 and finishing at £80,000 under the current official description. A household can meet the Child Benefit charge and still have a full Personal Allowance, or meet the taper and have already lost all Child Benefit, or meet both. Treating them as one official rule will produce the wrong planning figure.
If you need a numerical estimate of the charge, use HMRC’s Child Benefit tax calculator. If you need to report it, use the official payment route that applies to you — PAYE or a Self Assessment return filed for free on GOV.UK. AssessTally will not ask you for the number of children or the amount of Child Benefit, and it will not invent a clawback percentage beyond the official 1% per £200 description already quoted.