Child tax credits etc etc

You'll get 907pa child benefit (this is not means tested).

You'll also get some Child Tax Credit - but only the 'family' elements. This will be

1090 in the first year then 545 - but these amounts will be reduced if your income (tax-year) is over 50k, at the rate of 6.67% on income over 50k. I think SMP doesn't count as income for tax credits purposes.

You may be able to get some tax relief on childcare costs when she goes back to work, if your employer operates a scheme where they pay the childminder direct or via some voucher scheme. Most do as it saves them NI. IIRC it's 55pw each, so 110pw in total.

Thanks for the reply - the numbers seem better than I thought they would. Are the forms fairly obvious, or will I need to hunt around for them ??

As for child care - I work for a large Telco and they do run a vouchers scheme, but I'm unsure of the details at the moment other than the fact that I prefered nursery is part ofthe scheme.

IIRC the child benefit forms are handed out at the hospital - they probably hand out tax credit forms too now. Otherwise have a look at the IR site

- they deal with both child benefit and tax credits now.

They usually pay the nursery direct and deduct the money from your wages, saving you tax and NI (and them NI) on the first 55.

It's really important that you submit a claim promptly (it can always be amended later) because they will not entertain backdating more than 3 months.

So ideally claim now, but in any event no later than 5/7/06.

Claim now ?! Surely I have to have a birth certificate.. or at least an actual child ?! I was intending to get the forms sorted and then put them in as soon as the big day comes...

Well - that's my advice. Remember you are applying for WTC as well as CTC. Just enter number of kids as zero, and then amend when you have the birth certificate. (Or certificates - twins by any chance...?!)

Life will be hectic when you have the new arrival(s) - so if you forget to claim promptly, at least you should be able to back-date it.

So long as you don't forget...!!

You _can't_ claim before the birth. First register the birth. Also don't forget to claim for child benefit. We got a form from the hospital as part of the general "free gifts package".

They can back-date the claim a few weeks so don't panic in the first fortnight! I found the Child Tax Credit helpline very helpful and the advisors very friendly (it was only the first year CTCs came in that they were overloaded).

If you earn 33K you probably won't get WTC (but the helpline will go through everything with you).

Childcare vouchers will be administered by your employer (or they'll pay someone to run the scheme) so chat to them about it.

Thom

In message of Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Thom writes

If you're talking about tax Credits, then, YES you can claim before the birth. Anyone can make a claim - you don't need children - and you could be earning £100K. You wouldn't get anything but your claim would stand. This is a good stance to take for Self Employed with fluctuating profits, because if there is a bad year with a sudden drop in profits they will get WTC from the beginning of the relevant tax year (payments backdated). If there was no claim in place then the claim can only be backdated 3 months, and often Self-employed don't know how bad a bad year is until sometime later when the accountant draws the accounts up.

13 to be precise.

DF

To the OP....

DF is quite right - hence my earlier suggestion you apply now.

These were / are known (informally) as protective claims - cos it gets you into the system, whereupon backdating isn't limited. Remember that, after year -end, your circumstances are re-assessed on current rather than preceding year basis, and any TC award applies to the full year, if you had already registered.

And it can be equally useful for employed, as well as self employed, since income can drop substantially (eg redundancy etc), but any benefit would at best only be back-dated 3 months if you hadn't previously filed a protective claim.

I was referring CTC (which was the subject of the OP's query). You can't claim before the birth. You'll need the date of birth and other details such as the name of the child. You can claim WTC - though the OP is unlikely to get any. If you claim before the birth you'd still have to make a revised claim after.

Thom

In message of Mon, 3 Apr 2006, Thom writes

No you don't - you just have to notify a change in circumstances.