Owed a Marriage Allowance rebate? You may lose out if you don’t claim by April

A while back we created a quick guide to Marriage Tax Allowance.

As we told you at the time, a million people or more have failed to claim this cash from the taxman. If you are married or in a civil partnership, and you’ve qualified for this money over the last four years, you could be owed up to £1,008.

If you want to pocket all of it, though, you’ll have to act fast. This is because the allowance was first introduced in 2015 and you can only backdate your claims for four years.

This means that, if you are owed the £252 rebate for year to 5th April 2021, you’ll need to claim it before April 2025. If you claim after then, you’ll only be able to get a refund for 2022 and subsequent years.

Lots of people are missing out on this money because they don’t realise that they are entitled to it. So it’s worth recapping what the Marriage Tax Allowance is and explaining how you can get your hands on it.

What is the Marriage Allowance?

The Marriage Tax Allowance is a way for spouses to transfer a portion of their tax-free personal allowance between them.

To qualify, you need to be married or in a civil partnership. One of you will be a basic-rate taxpayer, while the other will be a non-taxpayer (i.e. someone who earns less than the annual tax-free allowance).

The non-taxpayer can transfer up to 10% (£1,257) of their tax-free allowance to their spouse. By doing so, their spouse can cut their tax bill by up to £252 per year.

It’s particularly useful for couples where one partner is taking time out of work, bringing up children or freelancing part-time. Say that person is earning less than £10k per year, it’s a no-brainer to pass on the unused tax-free allowance to their spouse.

I didn’t claim. How much can I get as a rebate?

If you’ve been eligible for Marriage Tax Allowance for any time since 2016, you can claim a rebate if you haven’t already used it. This is still the case even if your spouse has sadly passed away. The amounts you can claim are, by year:

As you can see, it all adds up to a tidy sum. But if you are eligible for that £252 for year to 5th April 2021, you need to get your skates on and make your claim before next April. There’s no point letting the taxman hang on to your cash when it could be sitting in your bank account!

Get tax advice from THP Chartered Accountants

For further advice on tax related matters, contact us here at THP Chartered Accountants today, with offices in Chelmsford, Sutton, Wanstead and Saffron Walden  – just give us a call on 020 8989 5147 to see how we can help.