Could you claim the marriage allowance?

If you are entitled to the marriage allowance and have not yet applied, you could receive a payment of up to £1,150 from HMRC. HMRC used the occasion of Valentine’s Day to remind couples to make a claim. It is estimated that whilst 1.78 million couples have already claimed the Marriage Allowance, there are still more than 2 million eligible couples that have not made a claim.

The marriage allowance is available to qualifying married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner is a non-taxpayer i.e. has an income below their personal allowance (currently £12,500). The marriage allowance facilitates the lower-earning partner to transfer up to £1,250 of their personal tax-free allowance to their spouse or civil partner. The marriage allowance can only be used when the recipient of the transfer (the higher-earning partner) doesn’t pay more than the basic 20% rate of Income Tax. This would usually mean that the higher earner’s income is between £12,500 to £50,000 in 2019-20. The limits are slightly different if you live in Scotland.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and have not yet claimed the allowance, then you can backdate your claim to 6 April 2015. This could result in a total tax break of up to £1,150.

Please note, that back-dating claims for the tax year 2015-16 is 5 April 2020.

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