Marriage Allowance

JonGor

My wife is from another nation, has never worked and has never had a national insurance number. How can we apply for marriage allowance without it? 

sheramber

your wife needs to be entitled to the personal allowance and needs a National Insurance number.
 
 Her residency status will determine whether she is entitled to the personal allowance.

Plutonomics

sheramber said:

your wife needs to be entitled to the personal allowance and needs a National Insurance number.
 
 Her residency status will determine whether she is entitled to the personal allowance.

This isn't completely correct according to the government website. My wife just applied for it and we are in the same situation as OP (edit: Assuming OPs wife is in the UK, my wife is resident in UK but has no NI number), I am now waiting for confirmation it has been successfully applied. See the below link:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-marriage-allowance
It states:
"If you have come to the UK and you do not plan to work or study, you cannot get a National Insurance number. Phone the Income Tax helpline to apply for Marriage Allowance."

sheramber

 You have to be resident to claim income tax  personal allowance and national insurance number . If your wife is resident then she can claim these.
if she were not  resident then she would not be entitled to these so the statement is correct.
There have been questions raised about claiming the allowance and it turns out  the foreign national wife is not resident in this country.
The OP does not state she is resident so the answer covers that eventuality 

Plutonomics

That's right, she must be resident, but doesn't need a National Insurance number. They won't give them out unless people plan on working. If someone doesn't have an NI number then they can call the tax people and still apply the marriage allowance without this.

MarkWE

Plutonomics said:

sheramber said:

your wife needs to be entitled to the personal allowance and needs a National Insurance number.
 
 Her residency status will determine whether she is entitled to the personal allowance.

This isn't completely correct according to the government website. My wife just applied for it and we are in the same situation as OP (edit: Assuming OPs wife is in the UK, my wife is resident in UK but has no NI number), I am now waiting for confirmation it has been successfully applied. See the below link:

It states:
"If you have come to the UK and you do not plan to work or study, you cannot get a National Insurance number. Phone the Income Tax Helpline to apply for Marriage Allowance."

Hi, can you remember how you did this? We're in the same situation - wife doesn't have an NI number, isn't planning to work, we want to claim Marriage Allowance. We phoned that helpline yesterday and the person just said they couldn't help us because we both need NI numbers. Even after I told her what the website said, she just put us through to the NI application line. Did we just get a bad adviser?

thorsoak

You can only claim the marriage allowance if you both have a taxable income, and as your wife is not, and does not intend to work, she will not have any income nor will she be making no national insurance contributions and therefore has no tax-free allowance available to be allocated and set against your income.    You will not get cash!

sheramber

That is not correct   thorsoak. it is nothing to do with National Insurance contributions. NI number is purely for identification purposes.  You certainly do not need to have taxable income to apply. 
 
 Yes, you were given the wrong information. Try phoning again and hopefully you will get   somebody who knows what they are talking about.
However, it is your wife that has to apply to transfer the allowance to you so make sure she is with you when you call.

thorsoak

So, you are telling me that you can come into this country with a wife - and immediately claim a marriage allowance to reduce your  tax, because your wife who does make national insurance contributions, has no intention of working?   

sheramber

Marriage allowance is a transfer of allowances   from one person to another.  the person who transfers some their allowances then has  less personal allowances available. 
Of course, if they are not working     they don't need these allowances..
the person receiving the transfer gets a  tax credit deducted from their tax liability.
the only requirements are that you are married or in civil partnership and are entitled to the personal allowance.  

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

It will not affect your application for Marriage Allowance if you or your partner:

• are currently receiving a pension
• live abroad - as long as you get a Personal Allowance.