Free Guide – Marriage Tax Rebate

About this guide

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and have been at any point during the past four years, you may be entitled to claim a tax break called the Marriage Tax Allowance. If eligible, you can claim back up to £1,256 as a Marriage Tax rebate.


There may be millions of couples missing out on this form of financial relief. We’ve made this free guide to help you work out whether you are or have been eligible and take advantage of this tax break by claiming back any money you may have missed out on.

Claiming for a Marriage Tax rebate requires you to fill in an HMRC form and wait up to a few weeks or months for an outcome. It is free to apply but working out whether you qualify and submitting your claim can be a complex process for some people.

If you don’t want to do it on your own, or want to save time and hassle, you can use our trusted partner who will do all of this work for you. All you’ll need to do is provide them with some basic information and they’ll take care of the rest. They will charge a fee, but only after they secure your rebate, so you’ll have nothing to pay upfront.

To get started with our trusted partner, you can claim a Marriage Tax rebate now.

What is a Marriage Tax Rebate?

The Marriage Tax Allowance is a special tax benefit specifically for married couples or civil partners. It lets couples share some tax benefits by transferring 10% of the lowest earners personal income allowance to the highest earning spouse or partner.


If you’re not already familiar, your personal income allowance is the amount you can earn tax-free each tax year. It includes all taxable income, from your salary, pension or any other forms of income.

The partner who has an unused amount of personal income allowance may transfer £1,260 of this allowance to their partner. As a result, the partner with the highest income would end up with a lower tax bill.

What is a Marriage Tax Rebate?

If you’re eligible, HMRC regulations also allow you to backdate your claim to include any tax year since 5 April, 2019. So depending on you and your partner’s income over the last four years, you may be due a refund of some of the tax you’ve paid in the form of a Marriage Tax rebate.

How do I know if I qualify for a Marriage Tax Rebate?

To qualify for the Marriage Tax Allowance you must meet all of the following criteria:

• You must be married or in a civil partnership. (Unfortunately cohabiting or having children together doesn’t count).
• You both must be under 88 years old. (If one of you was born before April 6, 1935 there is a different tax break you’re entitled to – the Married Couples Allowance).
• Either you or your partner should be a non-taxpayer – this means earning less than your personal allowance (usually around £12,570). To get the full benefit, the non-taxpayer would earn £11,310 or less.
• The other partner should be a basic 20% taxpayer – this means bringing in between £12,571 and £50,270 (or £43,662 if you live in Scotland). (So higher or additional rate taxpayers wouldn’t qualify.)
  Personal income allowance includes income from a pension, so you would still qualify for the Marriage Tax Allowance if you’re a pensioner.
• HMRC gives people four years from the end of the tax year in which they made an overpayment to claim it back as a refund.

So, if you’ve been married or in a civil partnership and met these criteria at any point since the tax year 2019/20 you’re able to make a claim for a Marriage Tax rebate until 5th April 2024.

Complex circumstances

Some personal circumstances may be more complex, such as living overseas or if your partner is deceased. In these instances, you may well be able to claim but will need to get some further guidance from HMRC. To do this, you should get in touch with them via the Income Tax helpline.

To call, the number is 0300 200 3300 or, for those outside the UK, +44 135 535 9022. If you cannot hear or speak on the phone you can use Relay UK by dialling 18001 then 0300 200 3300.

The HMRC helpline uses speech recognition software. If you cannot use speech recognition software, find out how to get help from HMRC if you need extra support.

How much can I claim back?

The amount you can reclaim as a rebate depends on your income and the years you are claiming for.
The marriage tax allowance for the 2023/24 tax year is worth up to £252.

As well as this year’s allowance, you can backdate claims up to four years if you were eligible. The amounts for each year are as follows:

With this in mind, the maximum you could be entitled to is £1,256.

Important caveats

In a nutshell, to qualify for the Marriage Tax Allowance one of you must be a non-tax payer and the other a basic-rate taxpayer. However, there are some additional complexities that you should bear in mind when considering whether to submit a claim for a Marriage Tax rebate.

First, be careful if both the lower and higher earner are very close to the income limit of £12,570. There may be some specific instances where a couple are technically eligible but will incur a financial loss, rather than gain, due to the way the tax is calculated. So if the lower earning, non-taxpayer partner earns more than £11,310, make sure you do some careful calculations to confirm whether you will definitely benefit from the tax break before you submit a claim.

Second, in some cases the amount you can earn tax-free may be different from the standard personal allowance of £12,570 due to circumstances such as having a company car, owing tax, or having a savings interest which takes you over the threshold. Your tax code letter will tell you what your personal allowance is, so if you are unsure if either you or your partner are non-taxpayers make sure you double check this. Either you or your partner should be a non-taxpayer – this means earning less than your personal allowance (usually around £12,570). To get the full benefit, the non-taxpayer would earn £11,310 or less.

Third, while the Marriage Tax Allowance may reduce the amount of tax the highest earning partner needs to pay, this shouldn’t affect their tax-rate bracket. This means that if one of you earns slightly over the basic-tax threshold of £50,270 (£43,662 if you live in Scotland) you cannot qualify for the Marriage Tax Allowance because it would bring them down to the band of basic-rate.

If the taxpaying partner is earning just over the basic-rate tax bracket, it may be worth looking into increasing their pension contributions so that they do qualify for the Marriage Tax Allowance.

And remember, you can only apply for a Marriage Tax rebate for the years in which you and your partner met all of the criteria for the Marriage Tax Allowance.

How to make a claim yourself

If you think you’re entitled to the Marriage Tax Allowance and want to claim a rebate for previous years that you have missed out on then you should submit an application to HMRC as soon as possible.

This claim is a joint claim. If you decide to claim yourself, it is the partner who earns the least, the non-taxpayer, who makes the claim. Although the higher earner will have to sign off some of the paperwork.

If claiming yourself there are four ways to apply:

First, by filling in this online form on the gov.uk website. HMRC states that claims submitted in this way should take two weeks to process.

Second, you can make a claim by post. To do so, follow this link and download the Marriage Allowance transfer form as a PDF.

Where to send it

Once you’ve completed the form you can send it by post to:

Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment

HM Revenues and Customs

BX9 1AS

UK

(This may take slightly longer to process, between 24 and 29 working days)

Third, you can apply over the phone by calling 0300 200 3300.

Fourth, if you are already an experienced tax-return aficionado or self-employed you can claim through self-assessment.


With all of these options, you will need to provide some basic personal details, you and your partner’s National Insurance numbers and two valid forms of ID, such as a UK passport, driving license, payslip or P60.

Some tips for submitting your application

If applying online, you’ll need to sign in using your Government Gateway user ID and password. If you have not used it before, then you’ll have to prove your identity to register.

To get a rebate of the Marriage Tax Allowance you were eligible for in previous tax years, make sure that you have definitely selected this option as part of the application process.

Once you’ve submitted the claim, you should be immediately notified via email that HMRC have received your application.

While it is up to you to check you’re eligible before you apply, if you do get it wrong HMRC will write to inform you of this within a few weeks.

If you’re eligible and make a successful application, you’ll automatically get the tax break each year going forward – so no need to keep reapplying.

If you are unsure of your eligibility, struggle with the form or run into other problems, you can give HMRC a call on 0300 200 3300 to ask for their help or advice.

How will you receive the tax relief

If you are applying for Marriage Tax Allowance for this current tax year, then the higher earner will have their personal tax code adjusted and simply pay less tax on their take-home pay each month for the rest of the year.

If you are making a claim for a rebate, you will get a payout via bank transfer or cheque.

Is there an easier, faster way to claim?

We hope this guide has helped you understand how to figure out if you are eligible and the process for making a Marriage Tax rebate claim on your own.

However, we know that the complex criteria may make this process difficult and confusing.

If, after reading this guide, you still feel that working out your eligibility and claiming a rebate on your own is too much hassle, you can always use our trusted partner who will do all the work for you.

Our trusted partner is a recommended tax agent and can help you find out if you’re eligible and submit a claim hassle-free. All you need is to provide them with some basic information, and they will do the rest – it will take less than 2 minutes to submit your claim.

Our trusted partner

They are experts in tax claims and know how to deal with HMRC.

While it is up to you to check you’re eligible before you apply, if you do get it wrong HMRC will write to inform you of this within a few weeks.

They will ensure that you get the maximum refund possible.

They will charge a fee only after they secure your refund, so you have nothing to pay upfront.

They will do the hard work for you, making the process of reclaiming much easier and faster – and only for a small fee on any successful claim. To check out the service they offer, click below – and get the ball rolling on reclaiming back what you’re owed by HMRC!

Claim back your Marriage Tax rebate now