Marriage Allowance Calculator

How Marriage Allowance works

Marriage Allowance, sometimes called the marriage tax allowance, lets one partner who does not use all of their personal allowance pass £1,260 of it to their husband, wife or civil partner. It only helps when one of you earns at or below the £12,570 personal allowance and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer. The receiving partner's tax bill then falls by 20% of £1,260, which is £252 a year.

Marriage tax allowance explained

Marriage tax allowance is the everyday name for the same relief. It is not a separate scheme, just the more common way people search for Marriage Allowance. The mechanics are identical: the lower earner hands £1,260 of their personal allowance to a basic-rate partner, and the household saves up to £252 a year, plus up to four backdated years. If you have seen it called the marriage tax allowance elsewhere, this calculator works out the same figure from both of your incomes.

Who can claim

You need to be married or in a civil partnership. The lower earner must be a non-taxpayer, with income at or below £12,570, and the higher earner must pay the basic rate, usually meaning income between £12,571 and £50,270. You cannot claim if both of you are taxpayers above the personal allowance, if the higher earner pays tax above the basic rate, or if you receive Married Couple's Allowance. In Scotland the higher earner needs to be a starter, basic or intermediate-rate taxpayer, with income up to £43,662.

Backdating and how you get the money

You can backdate a claim by up to 4 tax years for any year you were eligible, so a first claim can be worth over £1,000 once the backdated years are added to the current one. HMRC pays backdated amounts as a refund or a tax-code change, and the allowance then renews automatically every year until you cancel it. Tell HMRC if your income moves out of the eligible range so your codes stay right.

Frequently asked questions