Marriage tax allowance for dependent non UK wife??

Dookdik17095

My Brother  is in the Army  he  has a Thai wife they have been married for 18 years , who is dependent  but she does not live in UK she can only visit for 6 months a year  ,

He has been told that he cannot get married mans Tax code   as she is not British citizen .

They also have 2 children son 16 and daughter 12 .

Is this true ????

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Dookdik17095 said:

My Brother  is in the Army  he  has a Thai wife they have been married for 18 years , who is dependent  but she does not live in UK she can only visit for 6 months a year  ,

He has been told that he cannot get married mans Tax code   as she is not British citizen .

Is this true ????

By whom has he been told this?

Has he looked at the relevant legislation?

Dookdik17095

HMRC told him this .

he does get Child benefit for the kids and they go to school in UK now .

Bookworm105

so it appears she is not "resident" (in tax terms) in the UK if she is restricted on how long she can visit here.

the question therefore becomes where is she "ordinarily" resident?
Probably difficult to answer if she is an army wife and goes from base to base?
On the other hand if she does not accompany him on tours and instead has a "home" somewhere, where is that somewhere?

As you say she is Thai, then one assumes her domicile is Thailand, but her residence may not?
There is a tax treaty with Thailand but it requires both Thai domicile and residence to quality for UK personal allowance - see the link given above

sheramber

Tax residency can also be claimed due to certain ties such as family or accommodations. 

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis/rdrm11510

Voyager2002

Dookdik17095 said:

HMRC told him this .

he does get Child benefit for the kids and they go to school in UK now .

That is the key piece of information...

The "married man's tax allowance" is a very old wording. Last time I looked at the matter (back in the 1990s) it had been replaced by an increased personal allowance for anyone, male or female, who had another person living in their household. If his children live with him he should get this.

Incidentally, his wife is not present in the UK for tax purposes which is why he cannot use her to increase his personal allowance: this has nothing to do with her citizenship.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Voyager2002 said:

Dookdik17095 said:

HMRC told him this .

he does get Child benefit for the kids and they go to school in UK now .

That is the key piece of information...

The "married man's tax allowance" is a very old wording. Last time I looked at the matter (back in the 1990s) it had been replaced by an increased personal allowance for anyone, male or female, who had another person living in their household. If his children live with him he should get this.

Incidentally, his wife is not present in the UK for tax purposes which is why he cannot use her to increase his personal allowance: this has nothing to do with her citizenship.

I think you are a little out of touch.

Married Couple's Allowance, which has been around for a very long time, provides a large tax saving but one of the couple now has to be born in 1935 or earlier.

Marriage Allowance, which I think is what the op was asking about, started less than 10 years ago and isn't nearly as beneficial, max £252/year saving at the moment.

Brie

Nothing to do with her citizenship.  All to do with her place of residence and where she may be paying tax. 

sheramber

Brie said:

Nothing to do with her citizenship.  All to do with her place of residence and where she may be paying tax. 

It is to do with her tax residency, which depends on how much of a year she spends in the UK and what ties she has to the UK., as detailed in the two links given above.

Jeremy535897

People who are neither resident in the UK for tax purposes, nor a UK citizen, are not entitled to a personal allowance. The UK Thailand DTA does not help (Article 24(4) of the 1981 agreement).
Consequently she has no personal allowance to transfer to him, assuming she is not resident here. However, the statutory residence test may mean she is resident here. That is not a straightforward question, and links have been provided.

Dookdik17095

She is not classified as a UK resident  she cant spend more than 6 months in UK . She has family commitments in Thailand and my brother usually spends  vacation time in thailand ,,  She does not have to pay tax in Thailand as she does not have enough income for that from family business .

They have never managed to get her UK residency as she would have to stay in UK for 2 years as a resident  to progress and  my brothers deployments and her  commitments have  broken that rule .. The kids go to private schools  in UK .He is leaving army in 3 years  so things may change ,, Thank you for your advice .  i will pass it all onto my brother .

So