Marriage Allowance

lovesarigerme

I’m hoping someone can help. I got nowhere with HMRC today. I am a non tax payer. My annual income is £11600. My husband and i applied for the MA via my PTA for current year (19/20). As i understood it from mse.com and gov.uk, i would transfer £1250 to my husband which would increase his tax free allowance to £13750 and give him £250 extra cash (which is exactly what happened), and my tax free allowance would reduce to £11250 - giving me a tax code of 1125. I would then pay a bit of tax on the £350 i had gone over my new allowance, so say £70 i would need to pay. This would make us £180 better off. Imagine my surprise when i checked PTA after being notified my tax code had changed - it has actually gone down to 1035, meaning they have reduced my tax free allowance to £10350?!?! I have no other job, no savings, nothing. I called HMRC and was nearly in tears by the end of the 2 calls i made. They were horrible, told me i wasnt eligible?!?! I explained that yes i was from the info i had, but i understood i was in the grey area of being slightly over the tax free allowance when the £1250 was transferred to my husband. They are now saying that well yes i am eligible, but they wont change my tax code,  it is correct, despite me only transferring £1250 from £12500 which surely leaves £11,250 for me? They had me in circles with their strange way of explaining things which made no sense. It appears very simple to me. They now say i may need to pay £226 in tax this year despite me only earning £11600, just slightly over what i should have been left with from the £11,250. Please can someone explain what is happening and how i dispute this with someone who will listen to what i am saying? Oh and another thing!!! I told him it made me worried for next year (20/21), he asked what my income will be and i told him £10350. He then set my tax code for next year as 1035!!!!! Again, should it not be 1125 regardless of what i earn???? I dont understand and i am nearly in tears again. 

polymaff

Firstly, from the info you've provided, you are correct and HMRC, wrong.  The extra information that would help would be the breakdown of the latest tax code you've received.  Often, a coding notice after an election for MAT gives HMRC the opportunity to bundle in other issues - and that confuses things!  There are two procedural things you need to correct in any further dealings:  Only one party "elects" for MAT.  Also, the other party to the MAT's Personal Allowance does not change.  The benefit that party receives is a credit against tax liabilities for that tax year.

mamastevens

Hello, can you help a layman?! I applied for the marriage tax allowance, sorted the years I was eligible for refund so awaiting that cheque for my husband.

Lovely.

So my issue is this; I’ve just recieved a cheque for £238 as an PAYE income tax refund for the year 16/17. This isn’t part of the refund I’m awaiting is it?? It’s addressed to me and the cheque written to me and doesn’t say anything about marriage allowance or being related to that. I assumed anything related to MA would be addressed to my husband.

Is this just them looking at my tax and realising I paid too much?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

If you applied then you can only ever pay the same amount of tax or more, never less.

So there are two possibilities, your husband has also applied (or you did it the wrong way round) or you are due a tax refund for some unrelated reason.

Have you received a calculation called a P800?

Silverbird65

Hi my Q is I qualify for 5000 savings free interest but do have bank interest a very small co pension and Govt Pen new rate but reduced due to serps. If I claim MS for hubby will that then put me in poss taxable bracket. Also what about previous years can I ask Hmrc to check? I don't think so?
Cheers

polymaff

You are being too coy.  Tell us the amount and type of taxable sums involved - and which tax year you are talking of.

Also - and this is a copy'n'paste job it has been said so often - you do not claim for hubby.  You apply for MAT or he applies for MAT.  I'd guess that you mean the former. Applying for MAT is not a joint activity - and there are numerous cases in the MSE archives where this misunderstanding has made MAT go horribly wrong.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Silverbird65 said:

Hi my Q is I qualify for 5000 savings free interest but do have bank interest a very small co pension and Govt Pen new rate but reduced due to serps. If I claim MS for hubby will that then put me in poss taxable bracket. Also what about previous years can I ask Hmrc to check? I don't think so?
Cheers

Your post is a bit confusing but as polymaff says more detail is needed to give a more meaningful response.

HMRC only check if you are both eligible.  A couple both earning £40k are eligible but they won't normally be able to benefit.

You really need to look at the position for each individual tax year before applying.

Boldhoof

We applied for the Marriage Tax Allowance as my wife has not earned anything in the last 4 years. We did it online just over a week ago and we have since received a cheque from the tax office for £686 on Monday. Today I received 2 letters, one with my new tax code. The other had the allowance taken from my tax code and given to my wife and saying I owed £687. The cheque we received was payable to me as the higher earner as expected. Just confused as to what has happened. We know for defiant that my wife has not earned anything in the last 4 years. I have banked the cheque so if it turns out they want it back its okay as not spent any, just totally confused. 

sheramber

 Do you pay tax a t the higher rate?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Boldhoof said:

We applied for the Marriage Tax Allowance as my wife has not earned anything in the last 4 years. We did it online just over a week ago and we have since received a cheque from the tax office for £686 on Monday. Today I received 2 letters, one with my new tax code. The other had the allowance taken from my tax code and given to my wife and saying I owed £687. The cheque we received was payable to me as the higher earner as expected. Just confused as to what has happened. We know for defiant that my wife has not earned anything in the last 4 years. I have banked the cheque so if it turns out they want it back its okay as not spent any, just totally confused. 

"We" cannot apply or have received a cheque.

You will find you get more help if you be as clear as possible about exactly what has happened.  Tax is all about the detail and without that it is all guesswork.

Could both of you have applied by mistake?

What exactly are these "letters".  Real letters or tax code notices?  Or tax calculations?