The Marriage Tax Allowance

Published: 22/04/2019

Written by Curwens Solicitors

For those who are married or in a civil partnership, it might be possible to claim up to £1,150 via a tax break called Marriage Tax Allowance (MTA). According to MoneySavingExpert.com up to 700,000 people are not claiming this allowance.

It is worth noting that applicants might still be eligible to make claims even if their partner has sadly passed away.

So, what is MTA?

MTA is a scheme whereby couples can transfer between them a proportion of their tax free personal allowance, which is the amount of money you can earn each year before you are taxed.

How does this work?

One party transfers up to £1,250 of their allowance to the other, which represents 10% of their overall allowance.

What is the criteria for applying?

Generally speaking the criteria is as follows:

This scheme is only available for married couples and those in civil partnerships. It is not available presently for cohabiting couples.
One party must be a non-tax payer, i.e. they must have earned less than £12,500 between 6 April 2019 and 5 April 2020.
- The other party must be a basic rate (20%) tax payer. This scheme is not available to higher rate tax payers. Therefore the parties need to earn under £50,000 per annum to qualify.
- Both parties must have been born on or after 6 April 1935.
- Parties can only claim for the years in which they are eligible.
- Once accepted this will be repeated automatically, further applications will not have to be made every year.

So how much will I actually receive?

The MTA for tax year 19/20 is £250 but you can backdate your claim by up to an additional 4 years. Therefore if you are a successful claimant now, this year’s allowance plus the previous 4 years would equate to £1,150.

So how do I apply?

Applications are made directly to HMRC and the non-tax payer must be the one to apply or the application may be rejected.

Please note that we are not authorised to give financial or tax advice on this subject. Should applicants have any questions these should be directed to HMRC directly or to a specialist tax advisor.

Date: 17 April 2019

Please note that our briefings are for informational purposes only, and do not constitute legal advice.

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