HMRC sends Valentine’s message to couples
HMRC is urging married couples/civil partners to check whether they are entitled to claim the marriage allowance. What is it, are you eligible and how do you claim it?
HMRC has a special message to couples - “give the gift of the marriage allowance this Valentine’s Day”. The marriage allowance is not as generous as it sounds. It isn’t actually an additional allowance, but merely the transfer of £1,260 of unused personal allowance from one partner to the other. It isn’t available to all married couples. In order to benefit, one spouse must have income below the personal allowance so there is an unused amount to transfer to their partner. The other partner can’t benefit if they are a higher or additional rate taxpayer, which generally means they have income in excess of £50,270 (or just £43,662 for Scottish taxpayers), the allowance can’t be claimed.
Despite this, it's well worth checking if you are eligible, especially as the claim can be backdated by up to four years, which could mean a rebate of over £1,000. Use HMRC’s tool to check if you can make a claim.
Related Topics
-
Could refinancing your property put mortgage interest relief at risk?
HMRC has changed its guidance on claiming tax relief for interest on loans used to replace capital withdrawn from a business. The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has now challenged the revised guidance, warning that it creates uncertainty for landlords, sole traders and partnerships. Could your borrowing arrangements be affected?
-
HMRC text or scam? Check before you act
HMRC is contacting some taxpayers by text this week about overdue Self Assessment liabilities and is also sending updates about VAT registration applications. At the same time, it has expanded its guidance on spotting fake HMRC messages on social media. How can you tell whether a message is genuine?
-
Received a P800? Check how HMRC has used your allowances
Some HMRC P800 tax calculations can produce too much tax where a taxpayer has several different types of income and allowances are not allocated in the most favourable way. People with employment or pension income alongside savings, dividends or other income are particularly at risk here. Could HMRC be charging you too much?

This website uses both its own and third-party cookies to analyze our services and navigation on our website in order to improve its contents (analytical purposes: measure visits and sources of web traffic). The legal basis is the consent of the user, except in the case of basic cookies, which are essential to navigate this website.