Unpaid Carers

There are millions of unpaid carers in the UK and many millions who work and are also carers. From a tax and tax credit point of view there are a few things to watch out for:

You may be employed or self-employed as well as being a carer

 If you are employed or self-employed in other work, and also a carer, then the normal employment and self-employment rules apply to you. This means registration, records and completing tax returns if you are self-employed, or checking your tax code if you are an employee.  

For working tax credits, you cannot count time spent as a carer as ‘work’ if you are unpaid or receiving carer’s allowance.

See also http://taxaid.org.uk/situations/self-employed and http://taxaid.org.uk/situations/employee

Some benefits are taxable

The importance of this is that it can affect you tax liability and your credit entitlement. There are more details on this area in the section Carers and taxable benefits.

a) There is a full list of taxable and non taxable benefits on the HMRC website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM76100.htm list of non-taxable benefits

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM76101.htm list of taxable benefits