Children's tax allowances

​​​​​​​​Child allowance

​You can claim child allowance if you have a child who is:

• under the age of 16
  
• over the age of 16 and receiving full-time education at any school
  

​There is one allowance for each child.

What you'll get (per child)

• £3,700 in 2024
  
• £3,850 in 2025
  

Children who leave school in the year

As long as your child was in full-time education at some point in the year you can still claim the child allowance, even if they went to higher education during the year.

Children in higher education

You can't claim child allowance for children in higher education​, for example, a degree or equivalent course. Student finance provide financial assistance for children in higher education.

Student finance: financing higher education course

​Additional allowance

You can claim an additional allowance if you are a single or unmarried parent and you have a child living with ​you who is ​​under the age of 25 on 31 August in the year of assessment. If they are over 16, the child must also be in full time education, for example at school, college or university.​

​​​If you're married or in a civil partnership, you have a dependent child and your spouse or partner is physically or mentally incapacitated during the whole year, you can also claim additional allowance. 

What you'll get

The claim for this allowance is made for t​he youngest eligible child in the household.

​​We will be sent the details when you register the birth, so you do​n't need to send us copy of the birth certificate.

​Adoption and surrogacy

If you adopt and it's a locally registered adoption, we will be sent the details, so you don't need to send us a copy of the paperwork.

If you are a surrogate, you will be registered as the child's mother on the birth certificate. Any available child allowances will be applied to you, as we will not be aware of the surrogacy​. You should always contact us to discuss how the child allowances will be claimed. 

​​Children born outside of Jersey 

​If the children are not born in Jersey, any birth and marriage certificates should be provided when you arrive and register with customer and local services.

Moving to Jersey: Register as a Jersey resident

Children living overseas

​​If the children live overseas, you will need to let us have evidence that you can claim the child allowance.

Mothers will need to provide the child’s birth certificate to claim child allowance.

Fathers will need to provide the birth certificate and a marriage certificate, showing they are or were married to the child’s mother.​

If the child is not living with you in Jersey, you can't claim the additional allowance or child care relief.

How to claim child allowances

​​​When you complete your personal tax return you'll need to include the details of the children to have the allowances included on your tax bill.

File your personal tax return​

​If more than one person claims the child allowance

The child allowance is available:

• equally between each parent named on the birth certificate
• in full, if you are the only named parent on the certificate
• in accordance with the child sharing agreement that you have provided

You may want to share the allowances differently, for example:

If you can't agree how to share the allowance, a statement of any direct expenditure in respect of the living costs and education of the child must be provided by both parties. 

We'll then review the claim in accordance with this information and give consideration to each person's entitlement under the Income Tax Law.

No entitlement to claim the child allowance

Your claim will only be considered if you're entitled to make a claim for a child under the Income Tax Law.

If more than one person claims for additional allowance

If more than one person can claim additional allowance for the same child, the following rules apply.

Child lives with both of you for more than 90 nights in the year

The additional allowance can be divided between you with an agreement.

If you can't agree, the allowance is split in accordance with the length of time the child is resident with each person making the claim.​​​​​

Child lives with you for less than 90 nights but more than 30 nights in the year

You can claim for part of the allowance based on the number of nights that the child stays with you if:

• the other person who has the child living with them for the majority of the time, agrees that you can claim
  
• it does not affect their tax bill

You may also be asked to provide evidence that your home is also the child's home.

Child lives with you for less than 30 nights in the year

You can't make a claim for the additional allowance.​

​Children and paying tax

If you are employed you will be paying tax as a regular deduction from your wages that pays your final bill.

If you have had a child, the extra allowance and any reductions in your income will reduce the tax you need to pay for that year.

If you don't want to wait until you file your tax return you can ask for the amount of tax you are paying to be reviewed by using the personal tax enquiry form.

Personal tax enquiry form

Any overpayments after you have filed your tax return can be repaid or included in your tax rate calculation. 

Tell us about sharing child allowances or changes in your circumstances

​​If you need to change how any child allowances are shared or your circumstances​ change that affects the amount of tax you pay, for example:

• your child leaves school so you can't claim the allowance anymore
• one parent has a reduction in pay and the allowance is not being shared in the most tax efficient way
• you separate and the way the allowance is shared needs to change
• there is a change in living arrangements and the child allowance needs to change to reflect this

Tell us ​about any changes of circumstances o​n the personal tax enquiry form.

Personal tax enquiry form

You get the child allowance for the whole tax year. If you change a sharing agreement this will affect the tax and the ITIS rate and may lead to one parent not having paid enough tax.

You can use the tax calculator to see how changing the allowances for children affects your tax.

Tax calculator

Reductions to the child allowance

Child has investment income in their own right​

If the child you're claiming for has any investment income of their own and that income is more than the child allowance in the​ tax year, the allowance you can claim will be reduced for every £1 of income over the allowance. For example: