Parental tax credit

I have only just been told about parental tax credit, a $1200 payment from IRD for just having a baby! They don't really advertise it so I thought I'd mention it on here in case you haven't heard of it. I didn't know about it when I had Chloe and the extra cash would have been nice if I had known about it.

There is some criteria of course such as your not entitled if you are recieving a benefit and you might not get the full amount if your familys income is over a certain amount. This isn't just for your first baby either. After talking to IRD I found you can be earning over $45000 and stil be entitled! so it might be worth giving them a call. I feel we pay so much in taxes as it is so we deserve to get something back.

Just to let you know too that the parental tax credit is being replace after 31st of March next year with the In-Work payment through Working for Families. Don't have any idea what the criteria is for that, the website is hopeless!!!

Don't even get me started on 'working for families'... I hate it!! We are too rich also, even tho we spend almost 65% of our income on rent we get ALMOST seventeen dollars a fornight!!

And the income was too high for parental tax credit also, ALTHOUGH on the bright side, by phoning up the IRD and asking why we didn't qualify, I did get told about a taxreturns that I hadn't collected seven years ago!! Yay!!

I can't complain about the IRD really. Being self-employed seems to work out quite well tax-wise as I can write off a percentage of my rent, phone, power etc. as business expenses. And the Working for Families has increased my childcare subsidy for Maya to around $3 per hour which helps a little.