Marriage Allowance

KingGooner

As Consumerist says.... done and dusted in 5 minutes with I am assuming no further intervention required by me. It will just happen.

Received HMRC email within 5 minutes despite it being 1.00 in the morning.

Thanks for using the new Marriage Allowance service. Your transfer was successful.

We’ll reduce your personal allowance by £1,060 and increase your spouse or civil partner’s allowance by the same amount. This will apply for the current tax year and will continue into future tax years.

If your spouse or civil partner usually completes a Self Assessment return, we’ll write to them to confirm the transfer.

If they’re employed and pay tax via PAYE, we’ll send them a revised notice of tax coding by post in due course.

There is no need to contact us.

foursmiles

YEY!
Don't often get £212 for simply filling in a few details online in a quick 5 minute form.
Thanks for letting us know about this tax benefit which has not been publicised very much, or have we been asleep and missed it?
It's a nice boost to our annual income.

Please keep up the good work everyone at the MSE team.:T:T

p00hsticks

foursmiles wrote: »

YEY!
Thanks for letting us know about this tax benefit which has not been publicised very much, or have we been asleep and missed it?

You've been asleep and missed it.. ;-)

dsab

Is the £42,385 actually annual income or taxable income?

I earn above that Amount, but when deducting Pension contributions and Childcare Vouchers my taxable Income will falls just about below that.

Is it possible/worth applying in those Instances? Haven't been able to find a clarification in that anywhere.

vacheron

dsab wrote: »

Is the £42,385 actually annual income or taxable income?

I earn above that Amount, but when deducting Pension contributions and Childcare Vouchers my taxable Income will falls just about below that.

Is it possible/worth applying in those Instances? Haven't been able to find a clarification in that anywhere.

I posted similar queries on this thread while I was trying to ascertain the exact salary threshold, including asking HMRC with no response.

What I think the common consensus was is that as long as you are a "basic rate taxpayer"(do not pay tax at 40% or above) you are eligible.
I have a salary sacrifice set so that all higher rate income goes into my pension which means I don't pay higher rate tax and so have applied for and received the allowance.

This seems to be clarified in point 1 on the gov.uk website.

What now seems possible is that I can reduce my pension contributions (thereby increasing my salary), by the extra £1060 allowance and remain a basic rate taxpayer and remain eligible in future years, whereas had I not been in receipt of the allowance this would have made me a higher rate taxpayer. It is a bit of a catch 22, however I have not yet been able to confirm 100% that this would be acceptable in the eyes of HMRC.

molerat

The .gov site puts things in lowest level of understanding terms which usually causes confusion. The HMRC documents state that both the giver and receiver must be liable to income tax at the basic rate so effectively neither of you have to actually pay any tax to be eligible but you are excluded if either of you pay tax at the higher or additional rate.

molerat

vacheron wrote: »

What now seems possible is that I can reduce my pension contributions, and thereby increase my salary, by the extra £1060 allowance and remain a basic rate taxpayer and therefore eligible in future years, whereas had I not been in receipt of the allowance I would have been a higher rate taxpayer. It is a bit of a catch 22, however I have not yet been able to confirm 100% that this would be acceptable in the eyes of HMRC.

I think you are on dodgy ground if the case is that without the application of the extra £1060 allowance you would have been a higher rate taxpayer.

vacheron

molerat wrote: »

I think you are on dodgy ground if the case is that without the application of the extra £1060 allowance you would have been a higher rate taxpayer.

Yes. That was my concern which is why I have not done so yet. The annoying thing is that all requests to the "ask us a question" links they provided have been totally ignored.

Edit: I suppose that anyone who receives a normal pay rise that takes them into the region between £0 and £1060 above what would have been their original upper rate threshold before the allowance was applied may also unwittingly find themselves in the same position. I wonder if they would be expected to inform HMRC in this instance?

I'm sure the majority of PAYE employees may not have detailed tax knowledge and/or their own personal calculations so would not even realise this was the case.

psb

Got 2nd e-mail asking me to officially apply, went through procedure got to add amount on P60 from 2014/15, added amount but would not recognise amount as correct, after several attempts, got told I had used up all attempts and to try again in 24 hours or telephone 03002003300. Telephoned them, got straight through, answered a few security questions they confirmed my P60 had been correct and a very nice young lady said ok thats it you will both be receiving new Tax Codes and the allowance will be transferred backdated from the begging of this Tax Year !
WOW it was so worth getting kicked out to start with and so easy once through on the telephone, which actually 2 minutes 54 seconds!

50Twuncle

It appears that you have to apply for the tax reduction in the name of the person who is having their tax code reduced - Rather than the person who is having their tax code increased..
I tried to do this on-line and failed - because I was trying to do it in my name - rather than my wifes (who is a non-earner)