Childcare plus vouchers and Working Tax Credits.

[Spedley]

I need to know for certain how to complete the working tax credits form with respect to the childcareplus vouchers.

My wife earns more than I do as a full time OPG but not enough for us to be in the higher tax bracket.
We pay on average £147 per week in child care and we both claim the maximum vouchers (£55p/w i.e. they take £55 out of my wages before tax and give it to me in childcare vouchers tax free.)

There is a part on the form a where you have to declare your childcare costs excluding 'salary sacrifice' for childcare vouchers. Doing research it seems that salary sacrifice is where you take a pay-cut and receive childcare in return. I discussed it over the phone last week and he said that I had to deduct the vouchers from my childcare costs but he didn't sound that certain. He then said that I had to state all the costs that came out of my pocket and I explained it all came out of my pocket but £110 p/w was tax free.

Pages like this https://www.gov.uk/childcare-vouchers-b ... calculator seem to contradict this

You can’t use the calculator if you pay higher or additional rate tax.

You also can’t use the calculator if:
you’ve been offered more than £55 a week or £243 a month of childcare vouchers (or your employer pays this amount directly to a childcare provider for you)

imply that I can claim the full £147 per week.

I need to know because it is worth thousands of pounds to me or if I get it wrong it could be a massive liability in the future.
The tax helpline seems to be people reading descriptions off a screen and 'vouchers' is on that list so I can't get any further.

Help please!

[Everitt]

This is what it states on website at the bottom of the page

"You may still be entitled to some tax credits payments. When you claim don’t include the childcare vouchers as income. When you work out your childcare costs don’t include the amount covered by the vouchers."

That implies to me that you have to deduct the vouchers from the cost of your child care.


https://www.gov.uk/childcare-vouchers-b ... calculator" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Hope this helps

[Spedley]

Does that mean I should deduct £5720 from our income when I declare it on the form? It doesn't seem right to me, there should be a section on the form where you specify your vouchers and then deduct them from your gross if that is the case.

[Spedley]

Ah, I think I may have found it in the old kiddivouchers scheme details.

Tax credits

Using childcare vouchers can affect tax credits. If you receive more than £545 of tax
credits each year, you should contact KiddiVouchers to check whether childcare
vouchers will save you money.

If your childcare costs exceed £175 per week (or £300 per week if you have more than
one child in childcare), then you can always use childcare vouchers to pay for any care
above these limits without affecting your tax credits.

It appears that no, I can't count the vouchers. But I will check to see if I am better off not claiming the vouchers.