As of 6th April, couples can register for the Conservative’s new marriage tax allowance, potentially saving each couple £212.00 per tax year.
But this seems to be less about the amount you can claim and more about reinforcing conservative values, with David Cameron saying the new allowance is, “…about more than pounds and pence. It’s about valuing commitment.”
However you feel about the underlying political philosophy, if you are one of 4 million married couples or the 15,000 civil partnerships that are entitled to claim the marriage tax allowance you should know the facts.
Who is the married tax allowance for?
Rather obviously, the marriage tax allowance is for anyone born after 6th April 1935 and in a marriage or civil partnership.
What are the other married tax allowance rules?
Within the “committed couple” there must be one person who pays the basic rate of tax and one person who does not pay any tax at all.
The purpose of the allowance is to allow some of the unused income tax personal allowance of the non-taxpayer to be transferred to the taxpaying member of the couple.
This can be up to the amount of £1,060. The current Personal Allowance is £10,600. So if the non-taxpaying spouse earns £6,500, they have £3,500 of allowance left and can transfer the full £1,060 to their basic rate taxpaying spouse/civil partner. This takes their tax free allowance to £11,600, with 20% of that (£212) being the saving made. Even having £600 left over translates into a £120 saving each year.
The money is given in the form of a tax code change for the taxpayer for the couple, so less money is deducted from your salary before you are paid.
Anything else we need to know?
It is possible to register now at gov.uk/marriage-allowance and HMRC will inform you about how and when to make the official claim.
This new allowance does only benefit those couple who are married or in civil partnerships. Co-habiting couples miss out entirely, regardless of their earnings or showing their “commitment” over time spent together.
Whilst it’s never going to become part of a persuasive marriage proposal, if you’re entitled to the money it’s a waste not to claim!
