Are you married or in a civil partnership?

Like many Accountants, Golding & Associates often only work for one person who may be married or in a civil partnership. This means we have very little or no knowledge about the other person’s income details. For this reason, it can be very difficult to identify clients who could qualify for the marriage allowance.

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and one of you has income of less than £11,850 (the Personal Allowance for 2018/19) and the other has income of between £11,851 and £46,350 (the basic rate band for 2018/19), then the higher paid person will be able to claim back up to £238 from the taxman for 2018/19.

If a claim is made, the lower paid person has to transfer £1,190 of their annual tax free allowance to the higher paid person. That way the higher paid person will have a higher tax free allowance and will pay less tax.

If the same situation existed in previous years you may be able to claim back up the previous 4 tax years If this is the case you could be owed up to £952 for the last 4 tax years to 2018/19

The person with the lower income has to make the claim and this can be done on HMRC’s website at https://www.gov.uk/apply-marriage-allowance, unless you are intending to backdate your claim, and then it will need to be done by telephone, or by applying through your personal tax account.

Golding & Associates can help with making a claim, just get in contact and let us know that you could qualify.