Long delay in receiving retrospective marriage allowance payout

J0R0

Hi, I applied for the marriage allowance in March 2020. I have received 2 payouts and 2 years have not been paid out as shown here:

2015 - 2016: Received a cheque for this tax year

2016 - 2017: Nothing

2017 - 2017: Nothing

2018 - 2019: Received electronic transfer payment for this tax year

I have called HMRC multiple times to chase up the remaining tax years and keep getting transferred from dept to dept. Each call lasting at least 30 minutes on hold. Latest call today lasted 1hr 15 mins with at least 45 mins on hold. Online chat seems unhelpful and non-existent and when I did manage to get through, got disconnected.

Does anyone know how long backdated payout should take?. The person I spoke to today said there is no time limit on how long it takes. The HMRC help pages suggest payments will be received within 3-4 weeks. It seems I keep going round in circles every time I call HMRC.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Anyone who applies for Marriage Allowance can only ever pay the same tax or more, never less.

Do you mean your spouse applied?

If so did she apply for the two missing years?

Assuming she did roughly how much was the refund for 2018:19?

J0R0

Hi, I applied as a non-taxpayer as I am currently not working and did not work for the other years applied for. My wife has had her tax code changed when I applied.

For 2018-19 the refund was £238.22 and for 2015-26 it was £213.50

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You have lost me.
In your original post you said,

I applied for the marriage allowance in March 2020. I have received 2 payouts and 2 years have not been paid out as shown here:

If you apply you cannot get a refund for Marriage Allowance, any refund would be for a different reason.

Who applied and who received the refunds?

J0R0

I have used the information available here: "www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/marriage-tax-allowance". I am the non-taxpayer so applied to have my personal allowance transferred to my wife. Reading the section "how much I can get" at the above link shows the figures for backdated years.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

If you applied you cannot get anything back.

Your spouse would get any refund due.

Did you really get the £213 and £238 or did your spouse get those refunds?

Id your spouse for them is it possible that she was a higher rate taxpayer in either of the missing tax years?

J0R0

The electronic transfer amount went straight into our joint account and I deposited the cheque into the same account. I cannot recall the name on the cheque, but I believe it was my name.  How would I identify if my spouse was a higher rate taxpayer during the missing tax years?  If she logs into her HMRC account on gov.uk will it show there if she was a higher rate taxpayer for these years?

J0R0

I have just checked the link "www.moneysavingexpert.com/content/mse/msecom/en-gb/content/overlay/marriage-tax-allowance-historic-tax-limits/" and found the following info:

To have been a basic-rate taxpayer in previous tax years, you must have earned less than these thresholds:

2018/19: £46,350

2017/18: £45,000

2016/17: £43,000

2015/16: £42,465

So my spouse should have earned less than the figures shown in the years 2017-18 and 2016-17 to qualify for the marriage allowance backdated claim for that particular year?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

It's a bit more complicated than that in reality but if she was earning more than those amounts (per her P60's) then chances are she isn't eligible.
Although why HMRC couldn't just tell you to get her to phone for an explanation I don't know.

J0R0

Thanks for your advice. I will check with my spouse. Yes, you're right about HMRC. The person I spoke to after being transferred said they usually have agency staff who take the 1st calls, who just work from a script and probably do not have access to more of their system. Having said that, I don't know why the second person I was put through could not identify this as a possible explanation.

emlou79

I applied for marriage tax allowance back in sept 2020 and received one cheque but am still waiting on the other 4 backdated cheques. 

I log into my account on gov.uk and for the 4 backdated years it says “applied for marriage tax allowance retrospectively”. 

What does this mean, can anyone help?