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Can you get tax credits?

Whether or not you can get tax credits depends on:

• your circumstances, for example how many hours you work each week or if you have children
• how much money you've got coming in - your income

What tax credits can you get?

You could get Working Tax Credit if either of the following applies:

• you live in another country and travel to work in the UK - you actually have to do your work in the UK, not just work for an employer based in the UK
• you live in the UK, but travel abroad to work - but you'll need to return to the UK regularly, for example every day or weekly

If you are away in the other country for more than eight weeks at a time, your Working Tax Credit will stop.

You won’t be able to get Working Tax Credit if you're working in the UK illegally.

• Going abroad temporarily and claiming tax credits

If you have a partner - and you qualify for Working Tax Credit

If you both live in another country, and one of you travels to work in the UK, you'll normally get Working Tax Credit as a single person. But if you and your partner both work in the UK, you will get Working Tax Credit as a couple.

If you both normally live in the UK and one or both of you regularly travels abroad to work, you'll get Working Tax Credit as a couple.

• What counts as work for Working Tax Credit?

• When to make a joint or single tax credits claim

If you have children

You and your partner - if you have one - can usually get Child Tax Credit for your children if:

• you work in the UK
• you pay National Insurance contributions as a worker here
• your child lives in an EEA country or in Switzerland and is living with you, your partner or someone else - and they depend on you to support them

You can't normally claim Child Tax Credit for a child who lives outside the EEA or Switzerland. An exception to this is if you or your partner are a Crown servant posted abroad.

You can usually claim help for your childcare costs through Working Tax Credit (the ‘childcare element’), as long as one of the following applies:

• your children are in registered or approved childcare in the UK
• your children are in childcare approved by a Ministry of Defence accreditation scheme abroad - if you're a Crown servant posted abroad

• Your family doesn’t live in the UK - can you get tax credits?

• Help with childcare costs - do you qualify for extra tax credits?

Countries that are in the EEA

The countries in the EEA along with the UK are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

How much could you get?

How much you could get depends on your income and circumstances. Your income could include other benefits you get, perhaps from other countries. The lower your income, the more tax credits you can get.

• How your tax credits entitlement is worked out

• Tax credits calculator - find out how much you can get Opens new window

More useful links

• How to claim tax credits

• How non-UK benefits affect tax credits

• Changes that affect your tax credits

• Permission to work in the UK

• European workers in the UK