Around £250,000 families who are receiving child benefit face a penalty fine for failing to register with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by 5 October. This affects parents earning more than £50,000 who received the benefit between 5 January and 6 April 2013.
It has been suggested that there are around a quarter of million families yet to register and if they miss the deadline they will potentially receive a fine equivalent to the amount of benefit they have received.
It would seem obvious that HMRC have not made this requirement known widely enough but this will be no excuse as ‘ignorance’ is not an acceptable reason in the eyes of HMRC.
Anyone who thinks they may be affected would be advised to contact a tax adviser without delay.
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