Marriage Allowance or Married Couple's Allowance: which can you claim?

If you are married or in a civil partnership, there are two different tax allowances that can reduce your bill, and for most couples only one of them is available. Marriage Allowance lets the lower earner transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to the higher earner, cutting the couple's tax by up to £252 in the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April the next year¹. Married Couple's Allowance is a separate, older relief that only applies where at least one partner was born before 6 April 1935².

The two are not alternatives you can pick between on the same facts. If you qualify for Married Couple's Allowance, you cannot make a Marriage Allowance transfer, and the rules say an individual is not entitled to more than one tax reduction of this kind for a tax year⁴. For almost every couple under pension age, the question is simply whether Marriage Allowance applies.

Marriage Allowance was introduced from 6 April 2015 and is claimed through HMRC, either online or by post⁵. It is free to claim. The rest of this page sets out who qualifies, what each partner needs to earn, how Scotland and Wales differ, how far back you can claim, and what happens when circumstances change.

Marriage Allowance or Married Couple's Allowance: the key difference

Marriage Allowance works by moving part of one partner's tax-free Personal Allowance to the other. HMRC describes it as giving a tax reduction to a person whose spouse or civil partner has elected for a reduced Personal Allowance⁶. The partner who gives up the allowance must not be a higher rate or additional rate taxpayer, and the partner who receives it must pay tax at the basic rate⁷.

Married Couple's Allowance is a different mechanism with a much narrower door. It is available to married couples and civil partnerships where one or both partners were born before 6 April 1935⁴. It gives a tax reduction rather than a transfer of allowance, and it is worth considerably more than Marriage Allowance where it applies: the maximum amount is £11,700 for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, up from £11,270 in 2025 to 2026, with a minimum amount of £4,530 for 2026 to 2027 and £4,360 for 2025 to 2026⁸.

Because the eligibility dates do not overlap, in practice a couple either falls into the older Married Couple's Allowance group or the newer Marriage Allowance group. The two are mutually exclusive: couples entitled to the married couple's allowance cannot make a transfer under the newer scheme⁴.

Marriage Allowance: transfer £1,260 and save up to £252

The mechanics are simple. You transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner, and this reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year¹. The transferable amount is fixed at £1,260 per tax year, which is 10% of the standard Personal Allowance⁹.

The effect on the receiving partner is that their tax-free income rises. Transferring the maximum £1,260 means they could earn up to £13,830 before paying income tax². HMRC's own worked example shows a couple with one partner earning £11,500 and the other £20,000 saving £214 in tax, because as a couple they pay Income Tax on £6,360 rather than £7,430¹.

The saving is not always the full £252. It depends on how much tax the receiving partner would otherwise pay at the basic rate. If their income is only slightly above the Personal Allowance, the transfer can only shelter income that would have been taxed, so the benefit is smaller. The £252 figure is the maximum, reached when the receiving partner has enough basic rate income to use the whole transferred allowance¹.

Who can get Marriage Allowance: income limits for each partner

Both partners have to meet conditions. The person transferring the allowance must have income below the Personal Allowance, so they are a non-taxpayer, and the person receiving it must pay Income Tax at the basic rate¹¹. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland that usually means the receiving partner's income is between £12,571 and £50,270 before the transfer¹. Independent guidance puts the receiving partner's income between £12,570 and £50,270².

Higher rate and additional rate taxpayers cannot receive the allowance¹¹. Both partners must also have been born on or after 6 April 1935, which is what separates this scheme from Married Couple's Allowance².

The lower earner does not have to be earning nothing. They simply need to be below the Personal Allowance of £12,570, so that there is spare allowance to give away¹². A partner with unused allowance can transfer the fixed £1,260 regardless of exactly how far below the threshold they sit, and the higher earner must be a basic rate taxpayer, which usually means income between £12,571 and £50,270 before receiving Marriage Allowance⁵.

If you are part of a couple claiming means-tested benefits, the tax saving can interact with your award. Universal Credit and similar benefits are assessed on household income, so a change in your net pay can affect what you receive. The tax position and the benefit position are worked out separately, and it is worth checking both.

Scottish and Welsh taxpayers: different limits apply

Income tax rates and bands are not the same across the UK, and Marriage Allowance follows the Scottish bands. If you are in Scotland, your partner must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate, which usually means their income is between £12,571 and £43,662¹. Independent guidance gives the same upper figure, saying the higher-earning partner must earn less than £43,662⁷.

That is a lower ceiling than the rest of the UK, where the basic rate band runs to £50,270¹³. The reason is that Scotland has more tax bands, and the intermediate rate sits where the basic rate would in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Eligibility in Scotland extends to those in the starter, basic or intermediate tax bands¹⁴.

For a Scottish couple, this means a receiving partner earning between £43,662 and £50,270 would be outside the scheme even though an identical couple south of the border would qualify. The transfer itself is still £1,260 and the maximum saving is still £252¹.

Wales sets its own rates but uses the same band structure as England and Northern Ireland for this purpose, so the £12,571 to £50,270 range applies¹. If you are unsure which band you fall into, your tax code and payslip will show it, and the tax codes explained page sets out what the numbers and letters mean.

Married Couple's Allowance is only for couples where one partner was born before 6 April 1935

This allowance is a legacy of the old married man's allowance and has been closed to new claimants for decades. You can claim it if you are married or in a civil partnership and one of you was born before 6 April 1935². Independent guidance describes it as allowing you or your spouse to reduce a tax bill by up to 10%, but only for couples where one or both partners were born before 5 April 1935⁷.

The amounts are much larger than Marriage Allowance. For 2026 to 2027 the maximum is £11,700 and the minimum is £4,530; for 2025 to 2026 the figures were £11,270 and £4,360⁸. There is an income limit of £39,200, above which the allowance is gradually reduced⁸. Independent guidance gives the same £39,200 limit for 2026/27 and £37,700 for 2025/26¹⁵.

There is a rule about which partner receives it. If you married or became civil partners on or after 5 December 2005, the allowance is given to the partner with the higher income¹². For marriages before that date, the older rules apply and the husband was traditionally the recipient, though the allowance can be transferred between partners.

You cannot claim both at once

The two allowances do not stack. Couples entitled to claim the married couple's allowance are not entitled to make a transfer under Marriage Allowance⁴. The legislation also states that an individual is not entitled to more than one tax reduction or one election for a tax year⁴.

In practice this is rarely a live choice, because the birth date rules separate the two groups. If either partner was born before 6 April 1935, Married Couple's Allowance is the route. If both were born on or after that date, Marriage Allowance is the only one available².

Where a couple might once have had a choice, the older allowance is generally worth more, so the exclusion protects the larger relief rather than removing it. The rule exists to stop the same couple claiming two separate marriage-related tax reductions in the same year.

When Marriage Allowance stops or is wasted

The transfer continues automatically until you cancel it, so the main trigger for it stopping is a change in circumstances¹. If the receiving partner's income rises above the basic rate band, they can no longer receive the allowance, and the transfer should be cancelled. If the couple separates or divorces, the basis for the claim ends.

The allowance can also be wasted in a quieter way. If the receiving partner does not have enough taxable income to use the transferred allowance, part of the benefit is lost, because the transfer is a fixed £1,260 rather than a variable amount. A couple where the higher earner is only just over the Personal Allowance will see a smaller saving than the headline £252.

There is a separate set of rules for bereavement. If your partner has died since 5 April 2022 you can still claim, and HMRC asks you to phone the Income Tax helpline rather than apply online¹. Claims can be made on behalf of a deceased spouse or civil partner under changes made in Finance Bill 2017-18 to Sections 55B to 55D of the Income Tax Act 2007¹⁷. Before those changes, the legislation did not allow transfers of Personal Allowance on behalf of deceased spouses and civil partners, or from a surviving partner to a deceased partner¹⁸.

Where a partner died before 6 April 2017, different bereavement benefits may apply instead. Bereavement Support Payment is available if your husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner died on or after 6 April 2017¹⁹. Widowed Parent's Allowance may still be paid to some parents whose partner died on or before 5 April 2017²⁰, and if your partner died before 6 April 2017 you could be entitled to it²¹. These are separate from the tax allowance and are claimed through different routes.

How to claim, and how far back you can go

You can apply for Marriage Allowance online, though different routes apply if you are registered for Self Assessment or if you are backdating a claim⁵. You need both National Insurance numbers and two proofs of identity, such as a P60, recent payslips or passport details¹³.

Backdating is now tightly limited. You can backdate your claim to 6 April 2022, which is the 2022 to 2023 tax year¹. Older guidance described backdating of up to four tax years¹¹, but claims for years before 2022/23 are no longer possible. From 6 April 2026, retrospective claims for the six earlier tax years closed altogether, so the window is fixed at 2022/23 onwards.

The steps are:

1. Check both partners meet the income and birth date conditions¹.
2. Gather both National Insurance numbers and two proofs of identity¹³.
3. Apply online through HMRC, or by post if you are backdating or registered for Self Assessment⁵.
4. HMRC adjusts the receiving partner's tax code so the benefit arrives through pay or pension¹.
5. Tell HMRC if circumstances change, so the transfer stops when it should¹.

If you are unsure whether you qualify, HMRC's guidance on what financial help you can get is a starting point⁹, and free, impartial help is available from MoneyHelper and from tax charities. If you think you have overpaid tax in an earlier year, the claiming a refund page explains how that works.