Marriage Allowance

baxy

I transferred the full amount to my husband but since receiving my HMRC pension I am now over the tax threshold. Should I cancel the transfer?

Dazed_and_confused

It depends on how much tax you will have to pay. It is still worthwhile for some people who are only just liable to tax but if you are going to be paying £230 or more you might want to reconsider.

Check gov.uk first though because when the year you want to cancel it from makes a difference as to who does the cancelling, you or your hubby.

Neilkenyon

Can I ask I followed martins advice and applied for married tax as my wife earns less than &11000 per year and I earn less than £45000 we have had a letter now saying we owe them £400 and not the other way round how can this be?

Dazed_and_confused

I'm pretty sure Martin Lewis has never given this advice,

I followed martins advice and applied for married tax as my wife earns less than &11000 per year and I earn less than £45000

Anyone who applies for marriage allowance either has extra tax to pay or it makes no difference. You can never ever pay less tax by applying.

p00hsticks

Neilkenyon wrote: »

Can I ask I followed martins advice and applied for married tax as my wife earns less than &11000 per year and I earn less than £45000 we have had a letter now saying we owe them £400 and not the other way round how can this be?

Firstly, as Dazedandconfused said, I presume you mean your wife applied, as she is the one who is the lower earner ?

The marriage allowance works by allowing someone who isn't using their full £11,500 tax allowance to elect to transfer a fixed 10% to their spouse / civil partner, providing that the latter is not a higher rate tax payer.

For this year, your wife's tax allowance would effectively be reduced by £1,150 and yours increased by the same amount.

I think due to the low take up for this, when you now apply I believe that HMRC automatically award the allowance for tax years 2015-16 and 2016-17 as well as the current year. I think that the recipient of the transfer is sent a cheque for previous years - did you get one ?

There are a few ways that, having been given the allowance, you could then end up having to pay some/all of it back.

The ones I'm aware of are;
- if the recipient was a higher rate tax payer in any of the years in question
- if the transferer and recipient weren't actually married
- if the transferer earns more than their reduced allowance (in which case they will owe some tax, but less than the recipient has received back)

Did the letter you've received not give any reason as to why you owe the tax ?

PS - be wary of using your real name on forums such as these, as you are giving away personal information

polymaff

Neilkenyon wrote: »

Can I ask I followed martins advice and applied for married tax as my wife earns less than &11000 per year and I earn less than £45000 we have had a letter now saying we owe them £400 and not the other way round how can this be?

Don't say "we" when talking about MAT. This is an arrangement between two connected individuals - and you must get clear which is which. For instance you say that "I ... applied for married tax ... " Did you really mean that the higher earner applied for MAT? Who did what - and who owes £400?

And what tax year(s)? £11,000 and £45,000 are parameters from different tax years

Emma2195

Hello everyone,
Please may someone advise me? I am a bit confused regarding the new marriage tax allowance amendment allowing someone to claim after their spouse has passed away. I am a widow as my husband died in 2003, so well before 2015. Can I still claim for marriage tax allowance or must your spouse have passed away AFTER 2015?
I would really appreciate it if someone could clarify this for me- thank you so much!!
Kind regards,
Emma

Dazed_and_confused

Sorry for your loss but I genuinely don't understand your confusion.

Marriage Allowance started from 6 April 2015 so unless you were married on 6 April 2015 or later you cannot apply.

What have you read which made you think you possibly could apply?

p00hsticks

Emma2195 wrote: »

Hello everyone,
Please may someone advise me? I am a bit confused regarding the new marriage tax allowance amendment allowing someone to claim after their spouse has passed away. I am a widow as my husband died in 2003, so well before 2015. Can I still claim for marriage tax allowance or must your spouse have passed away AFTER 2015?
I would really appreciate it if someone could clarify this for me- thank you so much!!
Kind regards,
Emma

I don't think so. Looking at the draft legislation the amendments allow for applications for 'the tax year in which the individual dies, or an earlier tax year'.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-marriage-allowance-claims-on-behalf-of-deceased-partners

badmemory

I do wish that people would realise that due to governmental downgrading of all government jobs, that when you ring a gov dept your are getting a call centre not an actual gov dept. They are undertrained, underinformed, and unable to do much other than pass on what you have said. They are unable to tell you that the (for example) marriage allowance you have claimed is not a good idea for you, or that the child benefit you are claiming is going to have to be paid back because your spouse is earning too much.

It is now down to you & you alone the HMRC charter no longer applies. This charter says they will help you to pay the correct tax. The current thinking is that if you make a mistake on your tax we will wait a few years before coming back & telling you that and then charge you penalties for the privilege.