Over four million married couples, including civil partnerships are eligible for the Marriage Allowance. The allowance allows up to 10 percent of a tax-free allowance to be transferred to a partner.
As long as the person making the transfer is earning less than the personal allowance (£11,850 in the current 2018/2019 tax year), up to 10 percent of their personal tax-free allowance can be transferred or the remaining tax-free amount, whichever is lower. In addition, their partner must be a basic rate taxpayer so must be earning less than £46,350 (this is the threshold for the current 2018/2019 tax year).
If the full amount is transferred, the receiving partner can benefit from a tax bill reduction of £238 this year. If a claim hasn't been made for the up to the last four tax years these can be made now too in order to receive a refund.
Considering the amount available it is surprising to see that over a million people are eligible but have not made a claim. Since March this year 300,000 claims have been made online at gov.uk/marriageallowance.
There are many other tax reliefs and deductions that can be utilised to reduce your tax bill or receive a refund - especially with claims able to be backdated four years. We have developed an online tax refund check to allow people to quickly get an overview of what they are eligible for and how much they potentially could save.
For example using the tax refund check, a person earning £25,000 this year and last year, with a partner earning £6,000 part-time could be missing out on a tax savings of £854. This figure includes £467 in Marriage Allowances and common expenses for work that usually go unclaimed.
In just a few moments the calculator will run through many allowances and reliefs including pensions tax reliefs, gift aid reliefs, common expenses, over taxation due to income from multiple sources and more.