LITRG calls for changes to high income child benefit charge

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) is calling on the government to review the high income child benefit charge as part of its planned review of how families are taxed. It is concerned that following the Chancellor’s raft of announcements the £50 000 income threshold for the charge remains unchanged after nearly ten years bringing hundreds of thousands more families into scope.

Concerned that the charge is operating beyond its original policy objective to only affect higher-rate taxpayers LITRG urges the government should consider both an uprating of the £50 000 threshold to at least £60 000 and address the exceptional complexity of the policy which makes it hard both for HMRC to administer and for taxpayers to understand.

Taxpayers liable to the charge must file a self assessment tax return when they may mistakenly assume a return is not required. A further concern of LITRG’s is that...