marriage allowence

Boughtonkg

My wife sent a claim form in for marriage allowance over a month a go and as no reply what do we need to do

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Be patient.  Is there any reason why she didn't do it online?

justwhat

Do it online , only takes a few days 

Boughtonkg

She has no computer so decided to seen a claim form

Boughtonkg

I did my Self assessment on line when the tax calculation was sent to me by post there was a comment on the tax return stating You are not entitled to tax reduction reduction because of Marriage Allowance Transfer you or your spouse/civil partner do no meet the criteria WE were married in 1986
I pay tax at 20% and my pension is less than £20000 and my wife pension is less than £ 8000 so according to HMRC website calculator we should be entitled the Marriage allowance 

RoystonV

Applied for MA around 9 months ago and got the amendment to our tax codes within days. My understanding is that it would then be backdated four tax years and that we should have also received a cheque for around £750 to reflect this. When I checked the HMRC portal in Aug 2023, it estimated the process would complete in November but we have seen no sight of the cheque and my wife’s online tax account says the process is complete. Am I missing something here or is it a case of contacting them by phone?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

RoystonV said:

Applied for MA around 9 months ago and got the amendment to our tax codes within days. My understanding is that it would then be backdated four tax years and that we should have also received a cheque for around £750 to reflect this. When I checked the HMRC portal in Aug 2023, it estimated the process would complete in November but we have seen no sight of the cheque and my wife’s online tax account says the process is complete. Am I missing something here or is it a case of contacting them by phone?

Who applied?

Did they definitely complete the application so it covered the prior 4 years as well at ye current tax year?

Have they (the applicant) had any calculations at all or a bill for the earlier tax years?

Did the recipient previously complete tax returns for the earlier years for any reason?

Could there be a third party involved who would be legally entitled to any refund for the earlier years?  This is typically where you have used a third party to say claim job related expenses but the agreement entitled them to any tax refund for the tax years they originally dealt with irrespective of the reason why.

RoystonV

sorry for being vague. My wife (non tax payer) applied to transfer the allowance to myself. I assumed the transfer would then impact my previous 4 tax years so there would be a refund of tax due (to me effectively) through the increase in my tax free threshold for the historic tax periods.

My wife has received no calculations of any kind and has never previously completed a tax return for any of the historic years as she has been at home with our children throughout. No third party involved at any stage.

Does that help?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

RoystonV said:

sorry for being vague. My wife (non tax payer) applied to transfer the allowance to myself. I assumed the transfer would then impact my previous 4 tax years so there would be a refund of tax due (to me effectively) through the increase in my tax free threshold for the historic tax periods.

My wife has received no calculations of any kind and has never previously completed a tax return for any of the historic years as she has been at home with our children throughout. No third party involved at any stage.

Does that help?

Yes 😀.

Firstly being the recipient of Marriage Allowance does not include in any way a change to the amount of income you can have before paying tax.  You receive a tax credit, worth £252 in the current tax year, against your tax liability.

The fact that it's a really a tax credit not extra allowances makes no difference to most people but it does to a few.

Have you completed tax returns for any of the previous 4 tax years?

Are you confident that the application she submitted did include the previous years?

Were you a higher rate payer in any of the previous 4 tax years?

RoystonV

Thanks for your prompt response. 

To answer your 3 questions; 

Yes I have completed a tax return for each of the historic periods

Yes, I’m sure her application covered the historic periods

No, I’ve not been a higher rate tax payer in any of those periods (but was prior to that)

Dazed_and_C0nfused

RoystonV said:

Thanks for your prompt response. 

To answer your 3 questions; 

Yes I have completed a tax return for each of the historic periods

Yes, I’m sure her application covered the historic periods

No, I’ve not been a higher rate tax payer in any of those periods (but was prior to that)

I suspect that that is where the issue lies then.

As you yourself cannot "claim" Marriage Allowance HMRC need to revise your returns (or enable you to receive the appropriate credit) for each of those years now your spouse has applied.

Don't know why this hasn't happened yet but I doubt there is any point waiting any longer. 

You could try phoning at 8am or use webchat (type in advisor a couple of times as this seems to get a human response) to find out what the delay is.

One small consolation is that you should be entitled to interest (known as repayment supplement) for the tax overpaid in each of the 4 years in question.

Have you checked your Self Assessment account to make sure there are no updates there or credit on your statement of account?