Children: tax return help

​Claiming tax relief for your children

You can claim an increase in your tax exemption threshold if you have dependent children who were:

• under the age of 16
• over the age of 16 and at school full time

Children who leave school in the year

As long as your child was in full time school education at some point in the year (even if they have gone on to higher education in that year) you can still claim the deduction.

Children in higher education

You can no longer claim this relief for children in higher education (for example a degree or equivalent course).

When you can't make a claim

You can't claim if your child was over 16 and wasn't in school during the year or was in higher education, which includes:

• a course for the further training of teachers or youth and community workers
  
• a post-graduate course (including a degree course)
  
• a first degree course
  
• a course for the Diploma of Higher Education
  
• a course for the Higher National Diploma or Higher National Certificate or the Diploma in Management Studies
  
• a course for Certificate in Education
• a course in preparation for a professional examination at a higher level
• a course providing education at a higher level, whether or not in preparation for an examination
  

Completing the return

To claim, you'll need to enter the following details on your tax return:

• child’s social security number
• name of child
• child’s date of birth
  

If your child has investment income in their own right during the year, enter the amount (don’t include income from earnings, this isn’t taken into account to calculate the tax deduction).

More than one claim for child tax relief 

If there's someone else claiming child the tax allowance for your child, tick the box that someone else is claiming the allowance and include details of that person in the box provided.

Claiming an increase in your exemption threshold for child day care

If your child is 12 or under and you're making payments to a registered child care provider to look after your child, you can claim child care tax relief.

Child care providers include:

• family child carers
• day nurseries, including states-provided nursery schools
• accredited nannies

Enter the total amount you have paid to registered child care provider(s). 

Don’t include any amount which has been paid to you as a child care component of income support.

Additional allowance in respect of children

If you're not married or in a civil partnership and have a dependant child resident with you then you may also be able to claim an additional allowance. Your child must be:

• under the age of 25 on 31 August in the year of assessment
• if 16 years or over at the start of the year, was in full time education

If your child was in further education they must also be a dependent student as defined by the student finance legislation.

An explanation of how student finance is calculated

If you're married or in a civil partnership, you normally can't claim this allowance, but if you also support your spouse or civil partner because they were physically or mentally incapacitated during the whole of the year you can make a claim.

Completing the return 

The claim for additional allowance is for the youngest child in your household. To make the claim:

• tick the box on the return to claim the additional allowance

You also need to provide the child's:

• social security number
• date of birth
  
• name
  
• educational establishment attended if they were in full time education   

More than one claim for additional allowance

If there is another person who is claiming this allowance for the same child enter their details in the box provided.

Maintenance paid

If you’re paying maintenance under a legally binding written agreement or court order, enter the year that the agreement was made and the amount you paid during the year.

More help

Claiming tax relief for a child