Marriage Allowance: transferring part of your Personal Allowance

Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your tax-free Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner, so that the higher earner pays income tax on less of their income¹. The transfer is worth up to £252 off the household's income tax in a tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April the next year¹. It is a real reduction in what the couple pays overall: the lower earner gives up part of the allowance they were not using, and the higher earner receives it as extra tax-free income.

The conditions are narrow, and they are what catches most people out. The partner giving up the allowance must normally earn less than their full Personal Allowance, which is usually £12,570, so that the transferred slice is genuinely spare. The partner receiving it must be a basic rate taxpayer, which in England, Wales and Northern Ireland usually means income between £12,571 and £50,270 before receiving the allowance¹. In Scotland the band is different because Scottish income tax has its own rates. Both partners must be married or in a civil partnership: living together is not enough¹.

What Marriage Allowance is: moving £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your partner

Everyone who pays income tax in the UK gets a Personal Allowance, the amount of income they can receive each tax year before tax starts, which is usually £12,570¹. Marriage Allowance lets one partner in a marriage or civil partnership transfer a fixed slice of that allowance, £1,260, to the other¹. HMRC describes it as 10% of your personal tax allowance². The transfer only makes sense in one direction: from the partner whose income is too low to use their whole allowance, to the partner whose income is high enough to benefit from more tax-free income.

The receiving partner does not get the money itself. What they get is a bigger tax-free band, so the income that would have been taxed at their highest marginal rate within that band is instead received free of tax. HMRC's statistics describe the relief as one that "gives a tax reduction to a person whose spouse or civil partner has elected for a reduced Personal Allowance"³. In practice the transfer usually shows up in the receiving partner's tax code, which is adjusted so the right amount of tax is collected through PAYE over the year. If you want to understand what changes in your code, tax codes explained covers how allowances are reflected in the numbers and letters HMRC uses.

The transfer is not a one-off payment you have to arrange each year. Once it is set up, your Personal Allowance transfers automatically to your partner every year until you cancel Marriage Allowance¹. That makes it closer to a standing arrangement in the tax system than to a claim you keep renewing, though it does depend on both partners staying eligible, which is covered later in this page.

How much it saves: up to £252 a tax year

The headline figure is up to £252 of tax saved per tax year¹. That maximum is reached because the transferred £1,260 is taxed at the receiving partner's basic rate: £1,260 at 20% is £252. If the receiving partner's marginal rate is lower than 20%, or their income is not high enough to use the whole transferred slice, the saving is smaller. The saving is a reduction in the couple's combined tax bill, not a payment to either partner.

HMRC gives a worked example of how the arithmetic runs. A partner with income of £11,500 transfers £1,260 to a partner with income of £20,000. As a couple they end up paying income tax on £6,360 rather than £7,430, which saves them £214 in tax¹. That example shows two things: the saving sits below the £252 ceiling when the lower earner's income uses part of the transferred allowance, and the benefit is measured across the couple rather than for one person.

The lower earner does lose something in exchange: their own tax-free band falls from £12,570 to £11,310. If their income is below £11,310, that loss costs them nothing. If their income sits between £11,310 and £12,570, transferring would push part of their income into tax, and the couple can end up worse off than the example suggests, so the eligibility condition that the lower earner's income is below the full Personal Allowance matters in practice¹. The way income tax bands and rates build up is covered in income tax: bands, rates and how your bill is worked out.

Income limits for each partner, including in Scotland

Both partners have to fit an income window, and the windows are not the same for each of them. The partner who transfers must normally have income below their Personal Allowance, usually £12,570, so that they are not using the £1,260 themselves¹. The partner who receives must be a basic rate taxpayer, and the income range that corresponds to basic rate depends on where in the UK you are taxed.

The Scottish figures are lower because Scottish income tax has more bands. A Scottish taxpayer's partner must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate, which usually means their income is between £12,571 and £43,662¹. If the receiving partner pays the higher, advanced or top Scottish rates, they cannot receive the transfer. The Scottish Government's cost of living guidance confirms the same arrangement: you could transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner to reduce their tax⁵.

Two practical points follow from the limits. First, "income" here is taxable income, so things like the State Pension count towards it, and a partner whose pension income sits just above the allowance may not qualify as the lower earner; how the State Pension is taxed is covered in do you pay income tax on the State Pension?. Second, the receiving partner's limit is measured before the transfer arrives, so a partner earning £50,000 in England qualifies, while one earning £43,662 or more in Scotland does not. If either partner's income moves across a boundary during the year, the position can change, and HMRC will adjust matters through the tax code or at year end.

Marriage Allowance or Married Couple's Allowance: you can only have one

There are two separate reliefs for married couples and civil partners, and they belong to different generations of the tax system. Marriage Allowance, worth up to £252 a year, is for couples where at least one partner was born on or after 6 April 1935. Married Couple's Allowance is for couples where at least one partner was born before 6 April 1935, and it works differently: it is given as a reduction in the tax bill itself rather than as extra tax-free income.

The amounts are on a different scale. For the tax year 2025 to 2026, the maximum amount of Married Couple's Allowance is £11,270, with a minimum of £4,360; for 2026 to 2027 the maximum is £11,700 and the minimum £4,530⁶. The relief is worth a percentage of those amounts, not the full figure. The income limit for Married Couple's Allowance is £39,200⁶. The Autumn Budget 2024 tables show the same structure, with the maximum rising from £11,080 to £11,270 between the two years⁷. Northern Ireland's nidirect guidance confirms you may claim Married Couple's Allowance if you are married or in a civil partnership and meet the age condition⁸.

The key rule is that a couple cannot have both. Marriage Allowance at £1,260 is available to married couples and civil partners who are not in receipt of Married Couple's Allowance⁶. So the first question for any couple is the birth date of the older partner: born before 6 April 1935, the couple is in the Married Couple's Allowance regime; born on or after that date, Marriage Allowance is the relief on offer. The comparison between the two, including how the older relief's reduction is worked out, is set out in Marriage Allowance or Married Couple's Allowance: which can you claim?.

How to apply

The standard route is to apply online, and HMRC's application page is the place to start⁹. The application asks for both partners' details, including National Insurance numbers, and both of you need to confirm that you meet the conditions: that you are married or in a civil partnership, that the transferring partner's income is below their Personal Allowance, and that the receiving partner pays at the basic rate (or, in Scotland, the starter, basic or intermediate rate)¹.

There are two situations where the route is different. If you or your partner are registered for Self Assessment, the application is not made through the standard online form, and HMRC sets out the different route on its application page⁹. And if you are backdating a claim to an earlier tax year, you apply by post rather than online¹. Neither route carries a fee: the application is free, and HMRC's own guidance on the financial help it offers lists Marriage Allowance among the support you can claim directly².

Once the claim is accepted, the receiving partner's tax code is changed so the extra allowance is applied through PAYE over the rest of the year, and the transfer then continues automatically each year until cancelled¹. If you are not sure what your current code contains, how to check your tax code and the allowances in it explains where to look, and using the HMRC app and your online account covers checking your record. HMRC notes that you can only use your Personal Allowance against one job, so it is given to your main one, which is why the transfer shows up in the main income's code rather than being spread across sources¹⁰.

Backdating a claim to 6 April 2022

If you qualified in an earlier tax year but never claimed, you can backdate your claim to 6 April 2022, the start of the 2022 to 2023 tax year¹. A backdated claim is made by post, not through the standard online form¹. The refund for earlier years is paid separately from the ongoing reduction, and if you have overpaid tax for other reasons too, the process is covered in claiming a refund when you have overpaid income tax.

The limit matters because it moves forward each year. A claim that could once have reached further back now stops at the 2022 to 2023 tax year, so couples who have been eligible for several years have a shrinking window in which to pick up the missed years. The practical approach is to claim the current year online and the earlier years by post at the same time, so nothing further slips out of reach. Each backdated year is worth up to £252, the same maximum as a current year, so a couple claiming the full back period could recover several years' worth of relief in one go.

When circumstances change: divorce, higher earnings or a partner's death

The transfer continues automatically, but only while both partners stay eligible, so changes in circumstances need acting on. The main ones are separation or divorce, a change in either partner's income, and the death of a partner.

Separation and divorce. Marriage Allowance depends on being married or in a civil partnership, so when that ends the transfer should be cancelled. HMRC's guidance on reporting changes lists getting married or divorced, and starting or ending a civil partnership, among the changes that must be reported¹¹. The wider tax consequences of splitting up, including what happens to allowances and joint assets, are covered in separation and divorce: what happens to your tax.

Income changes. If the receiving partner's income rises into the higher rate band, or the transferring partner's income rises above their Personal Allowance, the couple stops qualifying. HMRC's change-of-circumstances guidance includes income going up or down among the changes to report¹¹. Because the transfer is applied through the tax code, an uncorrected claim can leave too little tax collected, which surfaces later as an underpayment.

A partner's death. If your partner has died since 5 April 2022, you can still claim Marriage Allowance by phoning the Income Tax helpline¹. The rules were extended deliberately: legislation introduced in 2017 amended the transferable tax allowance provisions of the Income Tax Act 2007 so that claims can be made on behalf of deceased partners, and HMRC's policy statement on the measure noted it could reduce a surviving partner's tax by up to £230 per year at the time¹². The explanatory material for that legislation sets out the amendments to the Marriage Allowance provisions in the Income Tax Act 2007¹³. After a bereavement there are other financial matters to deal with alongside tax, including Bereavement Support Payment, which you can apply for online, by telephone or by post¹⁴, and, for savers, the ability to inherit an additional ISA allowance up to the value of a deceased spouse's or civil partner's ISA at the date of death¹⁵.

Where Marriage Allowance does not help

Marriage Allowance is a small, specific relief, and there are several situations where it either does not apply or does not do what people expect.

• Cohabiting couples. You cannot claim Marriage Allowance if you are living together but not married or in a civil partnership¹. There is no equivalent for long-term cohabitation, however long the relationship.
• Higher rate partners. If the receiving partner pays the higher rate or above, including the higher, advanced or top rates in Scotland, the couple does not qualify¹.
• Both earners above the allowance. If the lower earner's income is above their full Personal Allowance, transferring £1,260 would push part of their own income into tax, and the couple may gain little or nothing.
• Couples in the older regime. Where a partner was born before 6 April 1935, the couple is in the Married Couple's Allowance regime instead, and cannot receive Marriage Allowance⁶.
• Living abroad without a Personal Allowance. Living abroad does not affect the application as long as you get a Personal Allowance¹. Whether you keep the allowance depends on your residence position, so check moving abroad or to the UK: your residence status before assuming you qualify.

On the last point, the position abroad is worth spelling out. Receiving a pension does not affect the application, and nor does living abroad, provided you still receive a Personal Allowance¹. The State Pension itself can be claimed abroad if you have paid enough UK National Insurance contributions to qualify¹⁶, and you must choose which country you want it paid in, since it cannot be split across countries for parts of the year¹⁷. But residence drives the tax allowance: the guidance on social security abroad notes that benefits payable abroad are not normally increased when UK rates rise¹⁸, and the general guidance on moving, living or retiring abroad confirms that your UK tax position follows your residence status¹⁹. A couple abroad where one partner has lost their UK Personal Allowance cannot make a transfer from it.

Finally, beware of paid claim services. Some companies offer to make Marriage Allowance claims for a fee or a cut of the refund. The claim is free, the online form takes minutes, and backdated claims by post are also free¹. Nothing a claims company does is unavailable to you directly, so paying for the service only reduces the relief. If you need help with the process, HMRC's guidance on the financial help it offers is the place to start².