Marriage Tax Allowance

MiAndLi

Somebody had told me about marriage tax allowance. We thought what the hell and applied, and it offered the opportunity to claim for previous years. We wasn’t sure if we would be eligible for past years but thought there was no harm in trying.

We received a cheque in the post for £685, amazing. However a week or so later we received received simple assessments stating we owed tax, to the sum of £690. Is this correct? Do we need to pay this? It seems daft to award this money and then bill you for it. Surely it would make more sense to just inform you that you are ineligible?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Yes.

Most people are eligible for Marriage Allowance but only a minority can benefit from it.

HMRC only decide if you are eligible.

It sounds like whoever applied didn't bother checking the impact it would have on them before doing so i.e. they were liable to tax in those tax years and as result of giving up part of their Personal Allowance they now owe £690.

Moral of the story is understand what you are doing before taking the plunge.

Butterfly1561

I recently applied for the marriage allowance tax. After waiting 2 months I received a cheque but it has a claim administration and processing fee of £106.87 and vat of £21.37. Should I be paying this or should I have got the whole amount of £248.20. 

molerat

Butterfly1561 said:

I recently applied for the marriage allowance tax. After waiting 2 months I received a cheque but it has a claim administration and processing fee of £106.87 and vat of £21.37. Should I be paying this or should I have got the whole amount of £248.20. 

At some stage you have obviously signed up to a management / claims processing company of some kind and they have taken their cut as agreed in the contract.  You may not have signed up for this particular claim but may have signed up at some time in the past for another claim and they are then authorised as your agents to receive all claims payments through them deducting their cut before passing on to you.  Many people were pushed towards these sharks by unions, yes the ones that are supposed to look after your interests but got a kickback for signing you up.  You need to contact HMRC and get them removed as your agent.

AR57

We've just had the same thing happen as you, Butterfly. HMRC said we were owed £687.78 but MAC have taken £260.37 plus £52.07 VAT out of it so we got a cheque for £374.34!! Would love to know what we should do about it as have never had to claim for Marriage Allowance before this in all 32 years of marriage 

sheramber

Nothing you can do. You did not claim direct from HMRC- which is done online.
You  used the services of a third part company to lodge the  claim on your behalf and you need to pay for   that service. 
Harsh, but  what you should do is read any form thoroughly before you complete it.
FAQ
Why does it say on the form “We assign the payment to Marriage Tax Allowance Limited”? 

Your refund will come to us first. We will then deduct our stated fee above and forward a cheque to you.

 
 have never had to claim for Marriage Allowance before this in all 32 years of marriage 
Marriage Allowance has only been available since 2015