2 days left to make £1,144 extra every year for nothing

Working parents expecting to earn £42, 476+ have until the end of Tuesday 5 April to pay less tax, every year, for free.

Even as an expecting father I find family finance dull, but when there's an opportunity to save hundreds of pounds in taxes every year, I don't much care if it's about children, weddings or even shopping at Ikea. At least, not when taxpayers are about to wave goodbye forever to one of their easiest opportunities to reduce their tax bills if they don't act extremely quickly.

Tax-efficiency through childcare

We can use childcare vouchers to pay for many childcare services, such as nurseries, nannies, crèches, childminders and out-of-school clubs. You can pay for those services with vouchers up to the first September following your child's 15th birthday, or the first September following your child's 16th birthday for children with disabilities.

Many employers use childcare voucher schemes such as those provided by Computershare Voucher Services to offer childcare vouchers as a tax-efficient benefit to their staff. If you sacrifice £100 of your salary to get £100-worth of vouchers, you don't have to pay income tax on the £100 you would have earned. A higher-rate taxpayer would normally receive just £60 from that £100, but with the vouchers you get all £100 to spend on essential childcare. Furthermore, you reduce your National Insurance contributions as well.

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Those offering childcare services who accept payment by voucher can be confident that the parents won't spend the childcare money on shopping or holidays, and that it will turn into real cash – which is rather more reassuring than a modern Briton (or Northern Irish) paying by credit card! What's more it's easy to sign up to receive vouchers.

Employers benefit, because they also get to pay less in tax. Voucher scheme providers such as Computershare Voucher Services and sodexo profit by taking a portion of the employer's tax savings (not yours), so everyone's a winner.

How much you can save

The maximum you can claim in vouchers as a tax-efficient benefit is £55 per week or £243 per month. That is around £2,900 of your salary that you'll effectively be paid in full each year, with no income tax or National Insurance contributions deducted.

At present, that works out as a maximum tax saving of £904 for basic-rate taxpayers and £1,196 for higher-rate taxpayers, according to Computershare Voucher Services. The savings are even greater for those paying the 50% additional tax rate.

Those savings are per parent. Both parents can claim these vouchers from their employers, so the maximum benefit is actually a double tax saving of £2,392 every year if both parents are higher-rate taxpayers.

Your tax savings will be smaller if you join the scheme after 5 April

Currently, the amount of tax-efficient vouchers you can claim is the same regardless of your income. However, anyone who is going to be a higher- or additional-rate taxpayer who signs up to the scheme on or after Wednesday 6 April – in two days' time – will be allowed to claim fewer vouchers. Those who sign up before then will continue to get the same benefits as I have just outlined for as long as they remain in the scheme, regardless of their tax rate.

From 6 April, those just entering the scheme who pay the higher rate of tax will be able to claim just £28 of vouchers per week, down from £55. This reduces your maximum tax saving from £1,196 to £624, a loss of £572 every year.

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Let's put that into context. If the government said you could have another £50 in child benefit payments each month if you sign up in the next two days, you would do so. That is the same level of benefit you're giving up if you don't sign up to this scheme before the end of 5 April.

For two parents on higher-rate tax the potential loss doubles to £1,144 in taxes every year. Additional-rate taxpayers will get even less, because the total amount of vouchers you can claim will be reduced to £22 per week.

Even more higher-rate payers next year

You might think you won't be affected, but the threshold for higher-rate payers was lowered in the Budget to include those earning £42,476 or more. Mike Warburton of accountants Grant Thornton said: “This is the last chance saloon for existing higher rate taxpayers to benefit in full from this valuable relief, together with potentially 750,000 others about to be pulled into the higher rate club by the Chancellor’s measures.”

Before these tax savings disappear get in touch with your HR department immediately to join the scheme and lock in the benefit for future years.

More: Compare tax-free savings accounts | Get ready for tougher taxes! | How to legally avoid tax