What is Marriage Allowance?​

The Marriage Allowance scheme is pretty simple:

That counts for civil partnerships as well as marriages. As long as your partner isn’t earning more than the upper threshold for Basic Rate tax of £50,270, you can qualify.

That’s assuming you had £1,260 of unused Personal allowance to transfer, of course. If not, claiming Marriage Allowance might suddenly see you paying some tax you weren’t before – although it could still work out better overall. The tax thresholds and Personal Allowance obviously change over time, but you can still claim back your tax for the last 4 years. The idea of Marriage Allowance is to make sure people get the full benefit of their Personal Allowance, even if they can’t use all of it themselves. Pensioners can apply, too - as can people living abroad, as long as they've got a Personal Allowance to transfer. Remember that you don't even need to have an income to have a Personal Allowance - so don't think you'll be left out because you aren't earning. Your partner will get a new tax code, while yours will sprout an M at the end of it. Those changes are nothing to worry about and we have everything you need to know on our tax codes explained pages.

You can see if you are receiving the Marriage Allowance as your tax code will be 1383M for receiving it and your partner will be on tax code N for granting it to you.

If you’ve already chosen RIFT to tackle HMRC for you, then you won’t have to lift a finger or pay a penny to claim your Marriage Allowance. We’ll do it automatically when we handle your tax refunds or returns, with no extra charge!

If you’re going it alone, you can get it all done online at the government website, as long as you’ve got both of your National Insurance numbers handy. Some proof of your identities will also be needed, as usual when you’re dealing with HMRC.

Once you're using the Marriage Allowance you'll see your tax code has been updated to 1383M to show that you have the additional 10% of your partner's allowance added to yours. They will now have a tax code N for granting it to you.

Marriage Allowance is a great way to lighten your financial load a little each year, and it shouldn’t be a real strain to claim it. When it comes to the heavy lifting of Self Assessment and tax refunds, though, that’s where the real experts get to work. Specialist help from RIFT means more money in your pocket and no hassles from HMRC. Get in touch with all your tax questions, problems and concerns, and let us show you why you’re always better off with RIFT.

Once you've set your Marriage Allowance up, you don't need to apply again unless your situation changes. Obviously, getting divorced means you can no longer make a Marriage Allowance claim, for example. The death of either partner will do the same, naturally enough. You can even cancel it yourself if you need to for any reason.

Since there are income thresholds involved, a change in either your earnings or your partner’s can also affect your Marriage Allowance claim. For example, if you suddenly start making more than your Personal Allowance, you won’t have any extra to transfer to your spouse or partner. In the same way, if you find yourself bumped into a higher tax bracket, you no longer qualify to receive Marriage Allowance at all. When something changes in your circumstances and you’re not sure if you still qualify for (or benefit from) the Marriage Allowance scheme, talk to RIFT tax refunds to keep yourself on the right track.

More on Personal Allowances