HMRC sends Valentine’s message to couples
HMRC is urging married couples/civil partners to check whether they are entitled to claim the marriage allowance. What is it, are you eligible and how do you claim it?
HMRC has a special message to couples - “give the gift of the marriage allowance this Valentine’s Day”. The marriage allowance is not as generous as it sounds. It isn’t actually an additional allowance, but merely the transfer of £1,260 of unused personal allowance from one partner to the other. It isn’t available to all married couples. In order to benefit, one spouse must have income below the personal allowance so there is an unused amount to transfer to their partner. The other partner can’t benefit if they are a higher or additional rate taxpayer, which generally means they have income in excess of £50,270 (or just £43,662 for Scottish taxpayers), the allowance can’t be claimed.
Despite this, it's well worth checking if you are eligible, especially as the claim can be backdated by up to four years, which could mean a rebate of over £1,000. Use HMRC’s tool to check if you can make a claim.
Related Topics
-
Alternative education providers can protect VAT refund claims
HMRC has confirmed that some alternative providers of higher and further education can submit VAT refund claims following a Court of Appeal ruling, despite HMRC appealing the decision to the Supreme Court. What do you need to know?
-
Old IHT forms will be rejected
HMRC has stopped processing old versions of the Inheritance Tax IHT100 forms from 31 August 2026. Anyone reporting an IHT chargeable event involving a gift or trust will need to make sure they are using the correct forms. What do you need to know?
-
The tax incentive to do a thorough stock-take
The annual stock-take isn’t exactly your favourite thing to do. You know resources could be better spent elsewhere so you try to get through it as quickly as possible. Why might it be worth a little more of your time?



This website uses both its own and third-party cookies to analyze our services and navigation on our website in order to improve its contents (analytical purposes: measure visits and sources of web traffic). The legal basis is the consent of the user, except in the case of basic cookies, which are essential to navigate this website.