Long delay in receiving retrospective marriage allowance payout

Dazed_and_C0nfused

emlou79 said:

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?

You are getting confused.

Anyone who applies for Marriage Allowance can only ever pay the same or more tax. 

So the refund you got was nothing to do with Marriage Allowance.

The message means you applied for those years after the tax year had ended - retrospectively.

It is your spouse who would get any tax refund due from Marriage Allowance.  Have you asked them about this?  Could they have been a higher rate payer in the other years?

emlou79

We received a cheque for £250 a few weeks after I had applied for the marriage tax allowance so can only assume it was for that. 

I thought that if one of you wasn’t working or earnt less than a certain amount could apply for this?

[Deleted User]

emlou79 said:

We received a cheque for £250 a few weeks after I had applied for the marriage tax allowance so can only assume it was for that. 

I thought that if one of you wasn’t working or earnt less than a certain amount could apply for this?

Yes - you applied for marriage allowance and your tax didn’t alter. Your spouse’s tax reduced by £250. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

emlou79 said:

We received a cheque for £250 a few weeks after I had applied for the marriage tax allowance so can only assume it was for that. 

I thought that if one of you wasn’t working or earnt less than a certain amount could apply for this?

HMRC don't send cheques to couples.

As long as neither of you are liable to tax at higher rates then you are both eligible.

But normally only couples with one person who has low or no income can benefit from Marriage Allowance.

Before you get even more confused you need to be clear about who applied and who got the refund.

emlou79

I applied as I am the one not working and the cheque was sent to my husbands accountant. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

The most likely explanation is that your husband wasn't eligible in the other tax years or something has gone wrong.

I think he would be best phoning HMRC or going on webchat and ask what has happened to the other years?

emlou79

Ok thanks very much for your help. 

Where can I find a link for a web chat, been on their site and have never come across one? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/income-tax-enquiries-for-individuals-pensioners-and-employees

emlou79

thank you 

J0R0

Just to give an update on my marriage allowance tax refund. After again chasing up HMRC, I have finally resolved my issue. A tax refund has been issued and received in the form of a cheque payable to my wife for the 2 retrospective years that I queried.

The total income for these years did not go over the threshold. HMRC had no explanation why it has taken over a year to resolve my query.

The call handler that resolved the query was the same one that had originally transferred me twice to the self-assessment department. This time I said that I did not want to be transferred as I have been waiting for a year to resolve this case and that the thresholds had NOT been crossed for the years concerned.  She asked me to wait, while she looks into it. Came back to me and said it was all resolved and I would get a cheque through the post !.

It seems HMRC are quick to hand out £100 penalties if you are late filing your tax returns, but when they are required to return the money, they take as long as possible. Not a good experience.