Marriage Allowance – what does it mean for you?

There are mamy married and civil partnered couples who are still eligible for the Marriage Allowance tax break that have not yet claimed their entitlement for the current tax year.

The marriage allowance allows you to give up some of your personal allowance and transfer it to your spouse or civil partner to reduce the amount of income tax that your spouse or civil partner pays.

What is the marriage allowance?

The marriage allowance works by reducing the personal allowance of your spouse or civil partner and reduces their tax. It is known as a transferable tax allowance. It allows you to transfer some of your own personal allowance to your spouse or civil partners.

Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner.

This reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year (6 April to 5 April the next year).

Who can apply for marriage allowance?

To benefit from the marriage allowance the following criteria must apply: 

• Couples must be married or in a civil partnership
• You do not pay income tax at a rate higher than the basic rate 
• Your partner does not pay income tax at a rate higher than the basic rate 
• Entitlement can be backdated to 2015 when it took effect as long as the conditions were met.
• If your partner has died since 5 April 2015 you can still claim.

If both of you have no income other than your wages, then the person who earns the least should make the claim.

If either of you gets other income, such as dividends or savings, you may need to work out who should claim.

You cannot claim Marriage Allowance if you’re living together but you’re not married or in a civil partnership.

Backdating your marriage allowance claim

You can backdate your claim to include any tax year since 5 April 2020 that you were eligible for Marriage Allowance.

Your partner’s tax bill will be reduced depending on the Personal Allowance rate for the years you’re backdating.

Stopping Marriage Allowance

Your Personal Allowance will transfer automatically to your partner every year until you cancel Marriage Allowance - for example if your income changes or your relationship ends.

To apply online at Gov.UK, click here.