Interest Received

Dazed_and_confused

MAT is more commonly known as Marriage Allowance (which is completely different to Married Couple's Allowance).

It may be possible for your wife to apply (the person giving up part of their allowance is the one who applies) for this and by doing so she agrees to give up a portion of her Personal Allowance. You dont receive any extra allowances in return but you do get an amount knocked off your tax liability.

For the forthcoming year the Marriage Allowance amount is £1190 and you would get £238 knocked off your tax liability (less if you don't pay that much tax).

This started in 2015:16 and it's important your wife considers each tax year separately before thinking about applying. What might be happening now (as far as her income is concerned) may not have been the same back in 2015.

polymaff

RG2015 wrote: »

Would you be able to explain MAT please.

And also, there is no right or wrong in my eyes. I will pay every penny of tax that is due. In this case I will ensure that I do not earn more than £1,000 of interest in any tax year.

MAT is Marriage Allowance Transfer - the ability, in certain circumstances, to transfer approximately 10% of a spouse's/civil partner's Personal Allowance to the other spouse/civil partner.

I quote it as the rules surrounding MAT are very clearly laid down in legislation and yet HMRC have extensively and seriously mis-interpreted, mis-implemented and, via gov.uk, mis-described it.

As for right and wrong - I only make that point in that dori2o stated the facts and yet the issue continued to be chewed over.

As for beggaring your income just to avoid having to pay more tax is - mostly - a prime example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

There are but a few circumstances in which your marginal income tax rate will exceed 100%

RG2015

Thank you, Dazed and Confused,

MAT yielded nothing on Google but following your post I included marriage allowance in the search and I arrived at the full expansion of the acronym.

Marriage Allowance Transfer.

As it happens, I have had this since it was introduced and wasn't aware that this had caused any problems.

RG2015

polymaff wrote: »

MAT is Marriage Allowance Transfer - the ability, in certain circumstances, to transfer approximately 10% of a spouse's/civil partner's Personal Allowance to the other spouse/civil partner.

I quote it as the rules surrounding MAT are very clearly laid down in legislation and yet HMRC have extensively and seriously mis-interpreted, mis-implemented and, via gov.uk, mis-described it.

As for right and wrong - I only make that point in that dori2o stated the facts and yet the issue continued to be chewed over.

As for beggaring your income just to avoid having to pay more tax is - mostly - a prime example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

There are but a few circumstances in which your marginal income tax rate will exceed 100%

Thank you for your comprehensive explanation.

And no cutting off of noses to spite my face. I just transfer some capital to my wife and as a non taxpayer she can save it in her name unencumbered by any tax concerns.

polymaff

RG2015 wrote: »

I just transfer some capital to my wife and as a non taxpayer she can save it in her name unencumbered by any tax concerns.

You are presumably planning for 2018/19 or later. It's a bit late to pass any capital to your wife to reduce your liability in 2017/18