UK Marriage Tax Allowance: £252 Per Year Just for Being Married

The Tax Break Most Couples Forget Exists

There's a little-known HMRC perk called the Marriage Allowance that lets one spouse or civil partner transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to the other. That saves the higher earner £252 per year in income tax.

It takes about 10 minutes to apply. And you can backdate it up to 4 years, meaning you could get a lump sum of over £1,000 just for filling out a form.

Who Qualifies?

You're eligible if all of these apply:

• You're married or in a civil partnership
• One of you earns less than £12,570 (the Personal Allowance)
• The other earns between £12,571 and £50,270 (basic-rate taxpayer)

The lower earner transfers £1,260 of their unused allowance to the higher earner. Since they weren't using it anyway (their income is below the threshold), nobody loses anything — the higher earner just pays £252 less tax.

Common situations where this works:

• One partner is a stay-at-home parent
• One partner works part-time
• One partner is a student
• One partner is retired with a small pension

How to Backdate It

You can claim for the current tax year plus up to 4 previous years. For the 2024-25 tax year, you can backdate to 2020-21.

Each year is worth £252 (it was slightly less in earlier years due to different rates), so a full backdated claim is worth approximately £1,048.

HMRC sends the backdated amount as a cheque or bank transfer — it's not applied to future tax. The current year's allowance is applied automatically through a tax code adjustment.

How to Apply (10 Minutes)

1. Go to gov.uk/marriage-allowance
2. The lower earner applies (they're the one transferring the allowance)
3. You'll need both National Insurance numbers
4. HMRC verifies eligibility and applies it

The higher earner's tax code changes automatically. You don't need to do anything at your employer's end.

One important thing: once you've applied, it renews automatically each year until you cancel. If your circumstances change (divorce, income change), you need to notify HMRC.

What It Doesn't Cover

This doesn't apply if:

• The higher earner is a higher-rate taxpayer (earning over £50,270) — they get the Married Couple's Allowance instead if born before 6 April 1935
• Neither partner earns below the Personal Allowance
• You're not married or in a civil partnership (cohabiting doesn't count)

Also, if the lower earner has income from savings interest that uses up their Personal Allowance, the transfer amount may be reduced.

Stack It With Other Tax Savings

Marriage Allowance is separate from and stacks with:

• ISA allowances (£20,000 each per year)
• Pension tax relief (the higher earner can get 20% relief on contributions)
• Savings interest allowance (£1,000 tax-free for basic-rate taxpayers)

None of these interact with each other, so there's no reason not to claim them all. The Marriage Allowance alone probably covers a month of streaming subscriptions — for zero effort after the initial setup.