Marriage really isn’t a hard sell. It brings two people together for a lifetime commitment of love and companionship, but did you know that it also offers tax allowances?
Many couples don’t realise that they may be entitled to Married Couples’ and Marriage Allowances from HM Revenue and Customs. This potentially gives couples the opportunity to protect more of their earnings and work together to claim tax reductions at the end of each tax year.
So, with the 2026/27 tax year now underway, there’s a full year to enjoy these entitlements. Now’s the time to get yourself familiar with the requirements and criteria for the Married Couples’ and Marriage Allowances by reading our article below, and find out for yourself if you are eligible for this potential tax rebate.
How do you qualify for married couples’ allowances?
The Married Couples’ Allowance is only for relationships where one or both partners are born before April 6 1935, and those born after that date are instead eligible for general Marriage Allowance. The former is more generous than Marriage Allowance, offering tax relief of 10% and potential tax rebates of up to £1,037 a year, depending on your tax bracket. For marriages before December 2005, the husband’s income is used to measure your allowance, but this can be transferred to the wife, and marriages and civil partnerships after this date will see the income of the highest earner used.
Marriage Allowance enables you to transfer up to £1,260 of your tax-free personal allowance to your spouse, which reduces your tax bill by up to £252 for the overall tax year. In order to qualify for this benefit, the lower earner within the couple must have an income below your personal allowance of £12,570, and one partner should pay basic income tax rates, meaning their income is between £12,571 and £50,270 before they receive Marriage Allowance. Last but certainly not least, this is only for MARRIED couples, and just living together in a relationship will not qualify you for the allowance.
Crucially, your eligibility will also not be affected if you currently pay into a pension or if you live abroad, so long as you have a personal allowance. You can also backdate your claim to include any tax bills from as far back as four years ago. If you were eligible for Marriage Allowance across this time period, your claim is covered, but time is truly of the essence, as a new tax year is just around the corner. The same four-year grace period is eligible if you were married but your partner died after 2016. Even as a widow you can backdate Marriage Allowance for up to four years within your claim.
A claim made during the 2026/27 tax year can therefore potentially include the 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 tax years if you were eligible throughout that period.
How we can help
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