I expect someone can set me straight on this, but is there any reason why seperated couples who have an established pattern of care for their children (e.g. 3 days and 4 days a week) cannot enter claims for each period that the child comes to live with them?

My understanding is that an award is made from the date of claim to the end of the tax year unless a new relevant period starts. Each time a different parent put in a new claim, would a new relevant period start? I accept that administratively it might be difficult but if the parents co-operated, could it work in theory?

Hi Ian,

The system seeks to prevent this possibility. This is illustarted by the way that regulation 3 of the CTC Regs 2002 SI 2007 is constructed. It is reg 3 that defines who is responsible for a child etc, and refers to both competing claims, and to cases where there is joint care (as in the case you refer to). This is what reg 3 (rule 3) says about joint care. Persons...

"may jointly elect as to which of them satisfies the main responsibility test for the child or qualifying young person, and in default of agreement the Board may determine that question on the information available to them at the time of their determination."

So, decide who the main carer is, or we will!

The way the IR decides this can be found in thier guidance, by going to http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/manuals/tctmanual/index.htm. Here is a clip from section TCTMO2201...

"Facts that can be considered as indicating whether a claimant has the main responsibility for a child when the claimants are trying to decide who has main responsibility include:

Who the child normally lives with and where they keep the majority of their belongings such as clothes, toys

Who is responsible for the day to day spending for the child such as buying clothes, food and providing pocket money

Who the main contact is for school/nursery/childcare

Who is responsible for the health care and hygiene of the child such as making appointments with the doctor/dentist, doing the child's laundry

What is the registered address for contact for the school/nursery/child care, healthcare

Who has legal custody of the child

This list is not exhaustive."

Pardon me if you already have all this stuff at your fingertips!

You refer to relevant periods, and this I think is key to the rationale. Sharing CTC elements would result in a constantly changing maximum TC figure, which would mean huge numbers of relevant periods for the IR computer to contend with. This in turn might then lead to delays and errors in the administration of the system, which is something that the IR would clearly seek to avoid (!?)

Happy Christmas,

Steve