Can I have spouse unused tax allowance?

No, doesnt work like that any more I'm afraid,
You have yours, she has hers and never the twain shall meet

rightfoot_shifter wrote: »

Many moons ago I believe the tax system allowed for all or most of the tax allowance to be set against one income in a marriage; marriage allowance. As part of the womens 'equality' & to incent them into work the allowance was separated so I man got his own allowance & a woman hers.
This works OK when a wife is in employment above the tax allowance but my wife earns so little on part-time work (£2000 PA for some years) that I wonder if there is still an unpublicised loophole that can transfer her unused allowance against my income.

Your thoughts, as always, much appreciated.

As has been advised, you are unable to claim your wife's unused Personal Allowance, just as she is unable to claim any unused PA of yours.

Many moons ago, prior to Independant Taxation (1990 ish) then all single people got a Personal Allowance. Upon marriage, the husband received a Higher Personal Allowance (this then morphed into a personal allowance and a married couples allowance). Any income earned by husband or wife was treated as the husbands for taxation purposes, although the wife was entitled to Wife's Earned Income Allowance (same amount as a single allowance,) to set against any earned income, although any surplus was lost, but the couple only got 1 basic rate tax band, so there were more higher rate tax payers if both husband and wife worked.

So, if we were back in 1986 and you circumstances were the same, then you would only be able to claim the WEIA up to a maximum of £2000 to cover your wife's income, any balance of that allowance would not be transferable to you.