High Income Child Benefit Charge from £60,000
Last updated: 18 October 2026
The High Income Child Benefit Charge from 2024/25: 1% for every £200 between £60,000 and £80,000, with 2026/27 worked examples for one and two children.
What changed in 2024/25
Until 2023/24 the High Income Child Benefit Charge clawed the award back between £50,000 and £60,000 of adjusted net income, at 1% for every £100. From the 2024/25 tax year the charge starts once adjusted net income is over £60,000 and it reaches the whole award at £80,000, at 1% for every £200. GOV.UK’s Child Benefit tax charge page describes that later shape. The 2026/27 year uses it. The £50,000 threshold has not been restored.
The charge is income tax. It is not a cut in the weekly Child Benefit rate. The weekly rates still arrive in full unless you opt out. The charge is then collected through Self Assessment. If you are the higher earner and you are over the threshold, failing to tell HMRC does not make the charge disappear.
How it's calculated
ITEPA 2003 section 681C sets the percentage as the lesser of 100% and the whole number of £200 steps by which adjusted net income exceeds £60,000. A percentage that is not a whole number is rounded down. £60,000 itself is not over the threshold, so the charge is nil. £60,199 is still nil. £60,200 is 1%. At £80,000 the percentage is 100%.
The percentage is applied to the Child Benefit award for the year. If that award is not a whole number of pounds, it is rounded down first. The charge, if it is not a whole number of pounds, is rounded down as well. From 6 April 2026 the weekly rates are £27.05 for the eldest or only child and £17.90 for each other child. Over 52 weeks that is £1,406.60 and £930.80 before the rounding. Some years have 53 paydays. The calculator lets you change the weeks or type the year’s actual award.
Adjusted net income starts from taxable income before Personal Allowances. A relief-at-source pension comes off at the gross contribution. Gift Aid comes off at the grossed-up amount, the cash you handed over times 100/80. Salary sacrifice and net-pay contributions are already missing from taxable pay, so they are not deducted again. GOV.UK’s adjusted net income guidance is the source for that order.
Worked examples
One child for 52 weeks is an award of £1406.60. At adjusted net income of £60,000 the percentage is 0% and the charge is £0. The household keeps the payments and there is nothing to put on a return for this charge.
The same one-child award at £70,000 is 50%, because £10,000 is fifty steps of £200. The award is rounded down to £1406. The charge is £703. Half of the rounded award is the natural reading of 50%, and the legislation’s rounding is what produces the pound figure.
Two children for 52 weeks come to £2337.40. At £80,000 the percentage is 100% and the charge is £2337 after the award is rounded down to £2337. Above £80,000 the percentage stays at 100%. It does not exceed the award.
What the other calculators leave out
The take-home calculator does not deduct this charge. A salary that looks comfortable after income tax and National Insurance can still owe a Child Benefit charge if someone in the household claimed the benefit and your adjusted net income is the higher one. The income tax calculator does not add it either. Use the Child Benefit charge page for the percentage and the pounds.
If you and a partner both have adjusted net income over £60,000, the person with the higher figure pays. Opting out of the payments stops the charge and the National Insurance credits for the claimant can continue. That choice is on GOV.UK, not a button here. I review the weekly rates when HMRC publishes them and the threshold when the legislation changes. The date on the calculator is that review. Nothing you type is stored or uploaded.
Adjusted net income is not always the P60
Gift Aid and a relief-at-source pension are the two deductions people miss when they type a P60 figure straight into the charge. Adjusted net income is not always the taxable pay on the P60. A Gift Aid donation is grossed up. Give £80 and the amount that comes off adjusted net income is £100, because £80 times 100/80 is £100. Give £160 and £200 comes off. A person on £70,200 who made that £160 donation has adjusted net income of £70,000 for this test, before any other deduction. The percentage then uses £70,000, not the P60 total. A relief-at-source pension comes off at the gross contribution, the amount you paid plus the basic-rate relief the provider claims.
The charge is collected through Self Assessment. The take-home page will not put it on a payslip, and a tax code will not usually collect it during the year. If you are the partner with the higher adjusted net income and that income is over £60,000, the declaration is described on GOV.UK’s Child Benefit tax charge page. This site does not file it. Opting out of the payments is a different choice: the weekly money stops, the charge has nothing to claw back, and GOV.UK says the National Insurance credits can continue. I do not opt you out. The calculator applies section 681C to the income and the award you type, and it stops there.
The weekly rates used above are the rates from 6 April 2026, £27.05 and £17.90. I update them when HMRC publishes a new year. The pounds in the examples come from the same function as the calculator, including the rounding down of an award that is not a whole number of pounds and the rounding down of the charge.
Questions
When did the £60,000 threshold start?
For 2024/25 onwards. The older charge ran between £50,000 and £60,000. The 2026/27 year still uses £60,000 to £80,000.
Who pays if both partners are over £60,000?
The partner with the higher adjusted net income pays the charge. The calculator does not decide which of you that is.
Does opting out of payments stop the charge?
Yes. You can opt out of the payments and keep the National Insurance credits. There is then no award for the charge to claw back.
Why is the charge on £1,406 and not £1,406.60?
Section 681C rounds a Child Benefit total that is not a whole number of pounds down before the percentage is applied, and it rounds the charge down to a pound.