HMRC has published a press release to remind qualifying couples to claim the Marriage Allowance. The Marriage Allowance allows lower earning couples to share part of their personal tax-free allowance.

The Marriage Allowance is available to married couples and those in a civil partnership where one partner doesn’t pay more than the basic 20% rate of Income Tax and the other party does not fully utilise their tax-free Personal Tax Allowance. The lower earning partner can currently transfer up to £1,190 of their personal tax-free allowance to a spouse or civil partner.

Whilst more than 3.5 million couples have already applied for the allowance, it is estimated that there are still a further 700,000 married and civil partnered couples, who are eligible for the allowance, but have not applied. If you are eligible and have not yet claimed the allowance you can backdate your claim as far back as 6 April 2015. This could result in a total tax refund of some £900. Qualifying couples have up to four years to claim backdated annual allowances.   

Planning note

An application for the marriage allowance can be made online or by telephone. The application must be made by the non-taxpayer who is transferring their allowance. And to recap, to benefit as a couple, the non-taxpayer needs to earn less than their partner and have an income of £11,850 or less in 2018-19.