Marriage Allowance: who can claim and how much

Marriage Allowance is a way for married couples and civil partners to pay less tax between them when one partner earns less than their tax-free Personal Allowance. It’s simple to claim, but many eligible couples never do. This guide explains who can claim, how much it’s worth and how to apply.

How Marriage Allowance works

Everyone gets a Personal Allowance, which is £12,570 for most people. If one partner doesn’t use all of theirs, Marriage Allowance lets them transfer £1,260 of it to the other partner.

The partner receiving the allowance doesn’t get a bigger Personal Allowance. Instead, they get a tax reduction worth 20% of the transferred amount. That’s £252 a year, taken off their tax bill. The lower earner’s own allowance falls by the transferred amount.

GOV.UK’s Marriage Allowance guide sets out the rules.

Who can claim

You can benefit from Marriage Allowance if all of these apply:

• you’re married or in a civil partnership;
• the lower earner doesn’t pay income tax, or their income is below their Personal Allowance;
• the higher earner pays income tax at the basic rate. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland that usually means income up to £50,270. In Scotland, the higher earner must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate, which usually means income up to £43,662.

You can’t claim if you live together but aren’t married or in a civil partnership. If either of you was born before 6 April 1935, Married Couple’s Allowance may be worth more, and you can’t have both.

How much you save

The higher earner’s tax falls by up to £252 a year. For example, if they earn £30,000, their income tax drops from £3,486 to £3,234.

Whether the couple saves the full amount depends on the lower earner’s income:

• If the lower earner’s income is below their reduced allowance, they still pay no tax, so the couple saves the full £252. For example, someone earning £10,000 who transfers part of their allowance pays £0 of tax.
• If their income is between the reduced allowance and the full Personal Allowance, they start paying some tax on the difference, so the couple saves less. Someone earning £12,000 who transfers would pay £138 of tax, reducing the couple’s saving to £114.

Marriage Allowance isn’t worth claiming if the lower earner’s income is above their Personal Allowance.

How to apply

The lower earner applies, because they’re the one transferring part of their allowance. You can apply for Marriage Allowance online on GOV.UK, which takes a few minutes. You’ll need both of your National Insurance numbers and proof of identity.

If you fill in a Self Assessment tax return, you can claim through the return instead. The person transferring the allowance completes the Marriage Allowance section.

Once the claim is accepted, HMRC changes your tax codes:

• the person receiving the allowance gets a code ending in M;
• the person transferring it gets a code ending in N, with a lower number.

The change is backdated to the start of the current tax year, so the higher earner gets a refund of any extra tax already paid this year, usually through their pay. Our guide to tax codes explains M and N codes.

Backdating your claim

You can backdate a claim for earlier tax years if you were eligible in those years. The allowance and its value for each year depend on the Personal Allowance for that year. Backdated amounts are usually paid as a cheque or bank transfer, rather than through your pay. Check GOV.UK for the earliest year you can currently claim for.

If your partner has died, you can still claim for years when you were both eligible by contacting the Income Tax helpline.

Scottish couples

Marriage Allowance works the same way in Scotland, with one difference: the partner receiving the allowance must pay tax at no more than the Scottish intermediate rate. Because the Scottish higher rate starts below the higher-rate threshold in the rest of the UK, some Scottish taxpayers who would qualify elsewhere don’t qualify. The tax reduction is still worth £252 a year at most. Our guide to Scottish income tax has the current bands.

When to cancel

Marriage Allowance carries on automatically each year until you cancel it. You must cancel if:

• your relationship ends through divorce, dissolution or legal separation;
• the lower earner’s income rises above the Personal Allowance, or the higher earner starts paying tax above the basic rate;
• you no longer want to claim.

If the lower earner’s income goes up, the couple might start saving less than before, or even pay more tax overall, so it’s worth checking each year.

Marriage Allowance in our calculator

Our take-home pay calculator includes Marriage Allowance in its advanced options. Choose “Receiving” to see the higher earner’s take-home pay with the tax reduction, or “Transferring” to see the effect on the lower earner. If the lower earner works part-time, the pro-rata salary calculator can help work out their annual income first. To find the salary needed for a target monthly take-home, use the reverse salary calculator.

Other allowances for couples

Marriage Allowance only covers income tax. It doesn’t change National Insurance or student loan repayments. Couples with children may also want to check whether the High Income Child Benefit Charge applies to either of them, which is based on each partner’s own income rather than household income. If you think you’ve been overtaxed in a year when you were eligible, see our guide to claiming a tax refund.