Married tax allowance

You cannot, under any circumstances, "claim" Marriage Allowance.

Your wife would be eligible to apply providing she isn't a higher rate payer.

You would be eligible to receive Marriage Allowance providing you aren't a higher rate payer.

Whether you both, as a couple, would benefit overall depends entirely on your wife's taxable income and how that income is made up I.e. wages, pension, interest, dividends etc.

She could in theory have taxable income of more than £16k and apply and still not have any extra tax to pay.

On the other hand if her taxable income was just £10900 but all wages or pension she would make herself pay tax by applying. But as a couple you would be better off overall as your tax reduction would be more than her tax bill.

Figures above relate to the current tax year.

A very important point is the type of pension contribution she is making. If it is relief at source she might have a problem, if it's net pay and her P60 or payslips reflect the lower "taxable" pay figure she might be ok.

But a lot of guesswork with the limited info provided so far.

IR7819 wrote: »

...as I am a basic rate tax payer.

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

You cannot, under any circumstances, "claim" Marriage Allowance.

Unless you're questioning the term "claim", couldn't he? In some circumstances it might even make sense to do so.

I look forward to a circumstance when BOTH parties elect for MAT.


Can't see anything in the legislation which bars it - and it could be quite a money-maker, especially to those with dividend income actually taxed at basic rate.