Updated on 6 April 2026

High income child benefit charge

Our guidance is aimed primarily at those unable to afford to pay for advice. However, you might be on a low income but have a partner on a higher income. If your partner is affected by the high income child benefit charge (often referred to as HICBC), there are some things which you need to be aware of.

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Overview

The high income child benefit charge is a tax charge designed to claw back child benefit where you or your partner has adjusted net income over a certain threshold in the tax year. If you do not have a partner, the charge can apply based on your own adjusted net income.

The threshold has been £60,000 since 6 April 2024. For tax years up to and including 2023/24, the threshold was £50,000.

The high income child benefit charge is calculated based solely on the adjusted net income of the higher-income partner in a couple – regardless of who claims or receives the benefit, the other partner’s income level or whose child the benefit payments are for. This can lead to potential difficulties for couples who prefer to keep their financial affairs separate and confidential. It can also present problems when a couple separates. You can read more about these issues on our page High income child benefit charge: issues on separation.

A ‘couple’ for this purpose includes two people who are living together as if they are married or in a civil partnership, as well as those who are married or in a civil partnership (unless separated).

Current thresholds (for tax years from 2024/25 onwards)

Child benefit is effectively withdrawn at a rate of 1% for each full amount of £200 earned over £60,000 a year by the higher-income partner. Therefore, the benefit is fully withdrawn where the adjusted net income of the higher-income partner reaches £80,000 a year.

Under these rules, it is possible for the charge to apply where your household income is just £60,200 (in the case where only one partner has any income) whereas it is also possible for your household adjusted net income to be as high as £120,398 and for the charge not to apply (if, for example, each partner had adjusted net income of £60,199).

Thresholds for tax years up to 2023/24

For tax years up to and including the year ended 5 April 2024, child benefit was effectively withdrawn at a rate of 1% for each full amount of £100 earned over £50,000 a year by the partner with the higher adjusted net income. Therefore, the benefit was fully withdrawn where income of the higher-income partner reached £60,000 a year.

Under these rules, it was possible for the charge to apply where your household income was just £50,100 (in the case where only one partner has any income) whereas it was also possible for your household income to be as high as £100,198 and for the charge not to apply (if, for example, each partner had income of £50,099).

Calculating the charge

For tax years 2024/25 onwards, withdrawal of the child benefit starts when the adjusted net income of one of the partners exceeds the threshold of £60,000. If the adjusted net income exceeds £80,000, the amount of the high income child benefit charge will be the full amount of the child benefit for the year.

Child benefit is a weekly benefit, but is usually paid every 4 weeks. However, the high income child benefit charge is calculated based on your total weekly entitlement for the tax year. This might differ to the actual payments received in the tax year where these are being received on a 4-weekly basis.

HMRC have produced a tool to help you calculate the amount of child benefit you received for the tax year (based on the weekly entitlement) and any high income child benefit charge arising. See GOV.UK.

Below is a worked example of the steps to calculate the high income child benefit charge.

Example – calculating the 2025/26 high income child benefit charge

Chris and Paul are married and have 3 children. Chris, who is self-employed, had adjusted net income of £22,000. Paul is employed and had adjusted net income of £65,000. Chris claims child benefit for their 3 children and received £3,148.60 for the 2025/26 tax year. The high income child benefit charge for the 2025/26 tax year must be paid by Paul, who had the highest income of the couple, even though the benefit was claimed by and paid to Chris.

Paul’s 2025/26 high income child benefit charge is calculated by following these steps:

STEP 1 – Add up the total amount of child benefit received for the tax year, and round the total down to the nearest pound. Chris received £3,148.60 for the 2025/26 tax year, so this is rounded down to £3,148.00.

STEP 2 – Work out 1% of the child benefit received by dividing the total from Step 1 by 100: £3,148.00 divided by 100 = £31.48

STEP 3 – Deduct the threshold from Paul’s adjusted net income: £65,000 minus £60,000 = £5,000

STEP 4 – Divide the amount calculated at step 3 by £200: £5,000 divided by £200 = 25

STEP 5 – Multiply the figure calculated at step 2 (1% of the child benefit) by the figure calculated at step 4: £31.48 multiplied by 25 = £787

Paul’s high income child benefit charge is £787 for the 2025/26 tax year. Paul doesn’t complete a Self Assessment tax return so he contacts HMRC to ask them to collect the charge by adjusting his PAYE tax code (see our section below: How to pay the charge).

How to pay the charge

Paying the high income child benefit charge through Pay As You Earn

With effect from October 2025, it is possible to notify HMRC online that you wish to pay the tax charge for tax years from 2024/25 through Pay As You Earn (known as PAYE) if you have income that is taxed under PAYE such as from an employment or a private pension.

You can use the online service to pay the high income child benefit charge through PAYE if:

You do not need to complete a Self Assessment tax return for any other reason and
It is before 31 January in the year after the tax year for which the high income child benefit charge is due.

If you cannot pay through PAYE, then you must complete a tax return and pay the high income child benefit charge through Self Assessment.

You can access the online service to ask to pay the high income child benefit charge through PAYE on the GOV.UK website or through the HMRC app.

Paying the high income child benefit charge through Self Assessment

Individuals affected by the high income child benefit charge are only required to register to file a Self Assessment tax return if:

They need to complete a tax return for another reason, for example to report rental income or
It is later than 31 January in the year after the tax year for which the high income child benefit charge is due, for example it is later than 31 January 2026 for the high income child benefit charge for the 2024/25 tax year.

In other cases, with effect from October 2025, individuals liable to pay the high income child benefit charge can choose to pay it through PAYE or through Self Assessment.

If you owe the charge as part of your Self Assessment balancing payment for a tax return, in certain circumstances you can have this collected via PAYE in the tax year after the one in which you file that return. Note that the return must be filed on or before 30 December for this to be possible. Importantly, it is the partner with the highest adjusted net income in a couple who has the obligation to file a Self Assessment tax return to report the high income child benefit charge, not the lower-income partner, even if the latter is the one who receives the child benefit.

Changing from Self Assessment to PAYE

If you are eligible to pay the high income child benefit charge for a tax year from 2024/25 through PAYE but are currently registered for Self Assessment, you can change to paying through PAYE by calling HMRC’s Self Assessment helpline. You should be able to ask to be removed from Self Assessment and registered to pay the high income child benefit charge via PAYE on the same telephone call.

If you want to register online for the PAYE payment route you will first need to call HMRC to ask to be removed from Self Assessment.

If you have already filed your tax return and therefore arranged for the high income child benefit charge for the previous tax year to be paid via Self Assessment, it would be safest to only ask for the charge for the current tax year and later years to be collected through PAYE. This is because there are sometimes delays and complications linking the information from PAYE and Self Assessment records.

If no tax returns have been filed for prior years

If you were liable to the high income child benefit charge in prior years and have not already paid it, you should contact HMRC straightaway to bring your tax affairs for previous years up to date. Where tax (including the high income child benefit charge) is unpaid, penalties may be charged for the failure to notify.

If you receive a penalty for failure to notify, it may be possible to appeal. In general, HMRC are unlikely to accept ignorance of the charge as a reasonable excuse. However, there have been a number of cases in which the taxpayer has successfully argued that their lack of knowledge was a reasonable excuse.

If you are in this situation, we suggest you seek professional advice.

New child benefit claims

If you make a new claim to child benefit, your entitlement is automatically backdated by three months (provided you were eligible for child benefit in that period).

For new claims made from 6 April 2024 up to and including 7 July 2024, some of the backdated entitlement may have fallen in the 2023/24 tax year. Where that was the case, the amount of the child benefit entitlement which would have fallen in the 2023/24 tax year is treated as an entitlement for 2024/25 instead. This aims to prevent a high income child benefit charge arising for 2023/24. HMRC say that where it is more beneficial to report the backdated child benefit in the 2023/24 tax year rather than 2024/25 tax year then you can include it on your 2023/24 return instead.

Note that the same does not apply in the case where you revoked an election not to receive child benefit payments (see below). In this case, if you chose to backdate that revocation to before 6 April 2024, then a high income child benefit charge may arise for 2023/24 on the backdated payment to the extent that it relates to the 2023/24 tax year (even though it may have been paid after 6 April 2024).

Other considerations

The high income child benefit charge applies to the higher-income partner in a couple, irrespective of the income of the other partner and who receives it. Therefore, if you are a low-income or non-earning partner you can find yourself being a member of a household where the charge applies, even though it is your partner who has the legal obligation to pay it.

In some cases you might decide, as a household, not to claim child benefit where the charge would apply because there would appear to be no point in doing so. This may be the case where your partner has adjusted net income at a level where the whole amount of child benefit is clawed back through PAYE or completing a Self Assessment tax return as a direct result of the charge. Some people decide it is not worth this additional administration burden for no financial return.

Deciding not to claim child benefit can lead to knock-on consequences. Instead, it is possible to claim child benefit, but ‘opt out’ of receiving the payments. There are several reasons why this may be a better alternative to simply not claiming child benefit at all, as set out below.

National Insurance credits for the lower earning partner

National Insurance (NI) credits are given to child benefit claimants until the child is 12 years old. These can be critical to build entitlement towards a state pension and other benefits, if you do not work or you are not entitled to National Insurance credits on some other basis.

Only the partner who claims the child benefit will receive the National Insurance credits, so it is important to consider which of the partners should make the claim. It may be possible to transfer the credits if you are the partner of, and live with, a child benefit recipient. You can read more about this in our separate guidance.

However, not claiming child benefit means that the lower or non-earning partner, could miss out on the National Insurance credits. Child benefit can only be backdated for three months – so if you do not claim child benefit and miss out on National Insurance credits as a result, at present there is no way to claim National Insurance credits retrospectively beyond the three-month period.

HMRC have confirmed that they plan to launch a new service from April 2027, which will enable people to claim replacement National Insurance credits in situations where they chose not to claim child benefit. You can read about this here. We will publish more details on this service in due course.

National Insurance number for your child

Choosing not to claim child benefit will have a consequence for your child, as they will not be automatically issued with a National Insurance number when they reach 16. This will mean your child will need to actively obtain one and they may need to have a face-to-face interview to do so.

How to opt out of receiving child benefit

While you are encouraged to claim child benefit for the reasons set out above, you can opt not to receive child benefit payments in order to prevent the high income child benefit charge arising. You can do this when claiming child benefit for the first time using HMRC’s online child benefit service. If you cannot claim online, then you can also opt out of payments on the paper child benefit claim form (Question 62, Section 4). If child benefit is already in payment, you can opt to stop the payments.

If you have stopped your child benefit payments because of a liability to the high income child benefit charge but your circumstances change (for example, you have an unexpected reduction in income such that the child benefit is not fully clawed back via the charge) then you can restart child benefit payments. You can also request to reinstate payments for the two previous tax years, if applicable, by contacting the child benefit office via telephone. You should make a note of the information provided.

More information

You can find government information about the high income child benefit charge on GOV.UK.

You can also find a calculator on GOV.UK to estimate the child benefit you will get for a tax year and your (or your partner’s) liability to the high income child benefit charge.