You may have heard in the media that there are changes coming with regards to child benefit. For people who have taxable income of £50,000 a year or more, your household will lose out on child benefit for all children.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates 1.2 million families will be affected!

There are a couple of ways to avoid losing the benefit if you are an employee earning a little over the threshold – pension contributions or childcare vouchers made via a salary sacrifice can be used to reduce the taxable income which shows on your P60. You will need to speak to your employer directly about this.

If you are self employed or work for an employer not offering salary sacrifice schemes, the only option is to fill in a personal tax return to show the pension or gift aid contributions that bring you under the £50,000 threshold.

Find out more information about the proposed changes.

If you or anyone you know needs advice about planning a way to keep the child benefit, Astons are here to help. Planning will need to be done BEFORE 5 April 2013.