Tax Refund Calculator

Marriage Allowance calculator

If one of you earns less than the personal allowance and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer, you can move £1,260 of unused allowance between you and cut your tax bill. You can also backdate it four years, so a first claim is often worth four figures rather than one year's saving.

Your incomes

Total income for each of you, before tax. It doesn't matter which way round you enter them.

Enter both incomes, then press Check eligibility.

How Marriage Allowance works

Everyone gets a personal allowance — income taxed at 0%. If you don't earn enough to use all of yours, it would otherwise go to waste. Marriage Allowance lets you hand 10% of it to your husband, wife or civil partner.

  • The lower earner transfers £1,260 of their allowance.
  • The higher earner pays 20% less tax on that £1,260, worth up to £252 a year.
  • It can be backdated four tax years, so a first claim can be worth over £1,000.
  • Once claimed it renews automatically each year until you cancel it or your circumstances change.

You must be married or in a civil partnership. Living together doesn't qualify, however long you've been together.

Who qualifies

Both of these need to be true in the same tax year:

  • The lower earner has income below their personal allowance — £12,570 in each of the last four years — so they are not paying income tax.
  • The higher earner pays the basic rate: income roughly between £12,571 and £50,270. In Scotland the starter, basic and intermediate rates all qualify, up to £43,662.

If the higher earner pays the higher or additional rate, you cannot claim. If neither of you pays tax, there is nothing to reduce.

Why it isn't always the full £252

The headline figure assumes the lower earner has allowance genuinely going spare. Once their income is within £1,260 of the personal allowance, giving some away means they start paying tax themselves — and that comes off the couple's overall gain.

On an income of £12,000, for instance, transferring £1,260 leaves an allowance of £11,310, so £690 becomes taxable and costs £138. The couple is still better off, but by £114 rather than £252. The calculator above nets this off for you rather than quoting the maximum.

What this estimate leaves out

  • It applies the incomes you enter to every backdated year. If your circumstances changed, individual years may differ.
  • It assumes ordinary employment or pension income. Dividends and savings interest have their own allowances and can change the position.
  • Couples where one partner was born before 6 April 1935 should look at Married Couple's Allowance instead, which is usually worth more.

This is an estimate, not tax advice. See the terms page for the full disclaimer.

How to claim it

The lower earner makes the claim — the one giving the allowance away, not the one receiving it. It is free and takes a few minutes.

  • Apply through HMRC directly. You will both need your National Insurance numbers.
  • Ask for it to be backdated when you apply — it is not automatic, and earlier years drop out of reach as time passes.

You have four years. Backdated claims reach back four tax years, so the oldest year is always the one closest to expiring. Claiming free through HMRC takes minutes — you never need to pay anyone a percentage to do it.

Other calculators

Overpaid tax through PAYE? Use the main tax refund calculator. Working in construction under CIS? Use the CIS tax rebate calculator.