HMRC have completed their review of cases where a failure to notify penalty was issued to taxpayers who did not register for the High Income Child Benefit Charge, repaying £1.8m in penalties.
The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC):
Applies when an individual or their partner receives Child Benefit, and one of them has net income of over £50,000 per year. It is dealt with under self-assessment.
The HMRC review applied to the tax years 2013-2014 to 2015-2016 and followed a change of view of when some taxpayers might have a reasonable excuse for failing to notify liability to HICBC.
HMRC say, in this context, “a reasonable excuse is something that stopped someone from meeting a tax obligation that they took appropriate care to meet.”
- They reviewed 35,000 cases.
- They cancelled 6,000 penalties issuing refunds to 4,885 parents on the basis that they had a reasonable excuse.
HMRC have stated that all customers entitled to a refund will now have received one so do not need to contact them.
Links to our guides:
High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC)
