Minty Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Are you married or in a civil partnership? If so you may be entitled to a £212 tax break called the marriage tax allowance. Yet 3.6 million of the 4.1 million eligible couples are still missing out. It's free money, so worth checking, but GO QUICK to get the cash for this year before your employer's March payroll cut-off. The marriage tax allowance is a new way for couples to transfer a proportion of their personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free each tax year) between them. Here's our quick Q&A on how to get it, plus some key information. Q. Who can get it? This is the most important factor as only people with these specific circumstances will be able to apply: You're married or in a civil partnership (just living together doesn't count). One of you needs to be a non-taxpayer, which usually just means earning less than the £10,600 personal allowance. The other one of you needs to be a basic 20% rate taxpayer (couples with a higher- or additional-rate taxpayer aren't eligible for this allowance). Both of you must have been born after 6 April 1935 (if not there's another tax perk). So in a nutshell one of you must be a non-taxpayer and one of you must be a basic-rate taxpayer. Get Martin's Free Money Tips Email! Q. Sounds promising – so how does it work? The partner who has an unused amount of personal allowance can transfer £1,060 of their allowance to the other (so basically 10% of the full allowance). It doesn't matter if they have £5,000 of their allowance left unused or £500; they can only transfer £1,060. This is how it works: Part-time Peter works just enough and earns £5,000 at his local fish and chip shop. His full personal allowance for the year is £10,600, so he has plenty of spare allowance to transfer £1,060 to his wife. Peter's wife, full-time Fiona, is a software developer. She earns £35,000 and is a basic-rate taxpayer (higher-rate tax starts at £42,385 for most). Her personal allowance increases by £1,060 to £11,660 when Peter chooses to make his transfer. So she has an extra £1,060 which she would've paid tax on at 20% but is now tax-free, so she's £212 up (20% of £1,060). Q. OK, so how do we actually apply? It really is very simple, and only takes a few minutes, just use the application at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). To do it you'll need both your National Insurance numbers, and one of a range of different acceptable forms of ID for the non-taxpayer. If there's a problem doing it via the web just call 0300 200 3300 and do it by phone. There is one very important point to make though... It's the non-taxpayer who must apply to transfer their allowance. If the taxpayer applies you're doing it the wrong way round and it won't work. After going through the application process you'll be notified immediately if you're eligible for the allowance via email (you can apply over the phone too). Here are just a few of the tweets we've got on it: Corinne: "Just contacted HMRC and transferred my marriage allowance to my husband. Easy! £212/year better off. Thanks." Maureen: "Did it this morning, took a couple of minutes. Easy peasy..." Michael: "Did this last month, easy and already received a tax rebate." In most cases, the allowance will be given by adjusting the recipient partner's personal tax code. The partner who transferred their personal allowance will also receive a new tax code, if employed. If the recipient partner is in self-assessment, it will reduce their self-assessment bill. Get Martin's Free Money Tips Email! Q. How do I know if I'm a non-taxpayer? In general it is simply if your taxable income between 6 April 2015 and 5 April 2016 totals £10,600 or less, then for the purposes of the marriage tax allowance, you're a non-taxpayer. You might be on maternity leave, self-employed, a volunteer, working part-time, unemployed, working full-time, not working because of health issues, or retired – it doesn't matter. If you earn under £10,600 in the year you almost certainly qualify. Now there are exceptions – but these are niche, so don't get bogged down by them. In rare circumstances, your personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free) is different – your tax code letter would tell you – such as because you have a company car. Or you may have savings interest which takes you over the threshold (see savings interest explained). Q. Ah, but what if I have less than £1,060 of unused personal allowance – can I still take advantage? Yes, you can, but it's a bit more complicated. This is because you have to transfer £1,060 to take advantage – nothing more, nothing less. This means that if you've less than £1,060 left of your allowance, you could see yourself exceeding your personal allowance. If that happens, you'd end up paying tax on the amount you've gone over. There will still be a net gain for the two of you, just not that much. More at: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/marriage-tax-allowance Hope this can help you all [emoji6] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob6600 Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 I did mine just over a month ago online here https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance Took a few minutes and received a letter through the post to confirm wife's tax code change. Last month's wage slip also confirmed the new code. I am not sure if there is any rebate for this year but will see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suke Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 I also did this some time ago and now receiving the extra in my pay packet. Probably only good thing this government has done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aftabkhan1 Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 just done mine using bobs link cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssammm Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 My old woman has no national ins number, been trying for 10 years for them to find it, guess what, they say she was never issued with one, I thought we all got one when we left school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snuffs99 Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 My old woman has no national ins number, been trying for 10 years for them to find it, guess what, they say she was never issued with one, I thought we all got one when we left school? Should have got one @ 16 like everyone else, i always thought it was an automatic thing tbh.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigout Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Unfortunately I don't qualify for this, I think it's a great start but should be open to everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob6600 Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 My old woman has no national ins number, been trying for 10 years for them to find it, guess what, they say she was never issued with one, I thought we all got one when we left school? Should have got one @ 16 like everyone else, i always thought it was an automatic thing tbh.. Same here. If you was born here it was automatic afaik. sssammm can they not just issue one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigout Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Seems strange that, surely she would of paid contributions in to the system so would need some way to identified her. ; If she goes to the DSS and says she's from anywhere but the UK they're dishing them out like candy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssammm Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 She's been using a temp one working for my company for the last 10 years, only worried about her pension, still cant get my head round why they reckon she has never had one, she is human, british and went to school...... I have to take her to JobCentre Plus, which aint the best place to take an agoraphobic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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