A married couple’s allowance is more generous as compared to the marriage allowance in the UK. You can reduce your tax bills if you are married or in a civil partnership through a married couple allowance. Your tax bill can be cut between £351 to £907.50 per year following the 20/21 tax year.
Who can get the benefits?
You are eligible for claiming and benefiting from the married couple allowance if you have a civil partnership or if you are in a marriage. Further, you can apply for the allowance if your partner or spouse’s income is between £12,501 and £50,000 before receiving the marriage allowance.
This means that you are eligible for the marriage allowance if the income tax paid by your partner is at the basic rate. A married couple allowance can also be claimed if one of the partners was born on or before April 6, 1935.
What are the benefits of a married couple’s allowance?
A married couple’s allowance gets you a reduction in your yearly tax bills. A pro-rata basis allowance is provided to you for the tax year if you are married or are in a civil relationship. It is important to know that the allowance is continued until the end of the tax year in case of divorce or separation or even if one of you dies. The marriage couple allowance is also transferable between your civil partner or your spouse. It can be claimed even if there is a circumstantial separation between you and your spouse without a formal decision of separation.
Couples who are unable to live together
You are eligible for married couple allowance even if your spouse or civil partner is unable to live with you due to the partner’s imprisonment, educational purpose, training, posting due to being in armed forces, old age, disease or works away from home.
How can you claim the married couples’ allowance?
There are two different ways to claim for the married couples’ allowance. If the self-assessment of tax return is filed by you each year, you can claim the allowance through the completion of the section of married couple allowance in a tax return. However, if there is no filling of self-assessment of tax return each year, then you may provide your details of the civil partnership or marriage to HMRC. The details must also include the details of your spouse or partner with their dates of birth.
The unused married couple allowance after the end of the tax year
The unused married couple allowance can be transferred if your spouse or civil partner pays the tax. It can be done because you do not have high tax bills or you do not pay the tax. Minimum allowance can be shared or transferred between you and your spouse or your civil partner before the start of the tax year.
Tax Relief
Usually, the tax relief provided through married couples allowance is 10%. Ten percent of the tax paid will be given to you or the higher-earning partner who pays the tax.
