From April 2015 married couples and civil partners will be able to transfer up to 10% of their personal allowance to their spouse. This new allowance will be known as the ‘marriage allowance’.
The Government has estimated that up to 4 million couples could be eligible for this new tax break where Tax savings of up to £212 per year could be realised. It will not be available to couples born before April 1935 as a separate Married Couples Allowance applies.
What is the marriage allowance?
The marriage allowance allows spouses and civil partners to transfer £1,060 of their personal allowance to their partner in 2015/16. The spouse making the transfer should have earnings of below the personal allowance (£10,600 for 2015/16) and the receiving spouse must not pay tax at higher than the basic rate.
In practice this will be mainly applicable to single earner households, where the non-working spouse’s personal allowance would have otherwise been wasted. To the extent that the spouse making the transfer has earnings in excess of 90% of the personal allowance, i.e. over £9,540 for 2015/16, they will end up paying some tax if they elect in to the marriage allowance.
How do I apply?
Register your interest now by filling out a short form online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance.
HMRC will then contact you to formally apply for the marriage allowance sometime after 6 April 2015.
Drummond Laurie can help you with this and other related topics. For an initial chat, please call Gillian Niven on 01324 441280 or email gillian.niven@drummondlaurie.co.uk.