Marriage Allowance Calculator

What Marriage Allowance is

Marriage Allowance lets one partner give up 10% of their Personal Allowance, rounded up to the next £10, to the other. With a Personal Allowance of £12,570 that is £1,260. The receiving partner's tax is cut by 20% of the transferred amount, which is up to £252 for the tax year.

Who can claim

You must be married or in a civil partnership. The partner giving up the allowance needs income below their Personal Allowance, usually £12,570. The partner receiving it must pay tax at the basic rate, which is usually income from £12,571 to £50,270. In Scotland the receiving partner must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate, usually income from £12,571 to £43,662. Receiving a pension, or living abroad while keeping a Personal Allowance, does not affect eligibility.

Who cannot claim

Unmarried couples living together cannot claim, and you cannot get Marriage Allowance and Married Couple's Allowance at the same time.

The catch for the lower earner

Giving up £1,260 of allowance lowers the lower earner's tax-free amount to £11,310. If their income is above that, the excess becomes taxable at 20%, which reduces the household's net gain. The calculator subtracts this cost, so a partner with £12,000 of income produces a net saving of £114 rather than £252. The net saving shrinks towards nil as income approaches £12,570, and at £12,570 or more the giving partner no longer qualifies, because their income must be below the Personal Allowance.

Backdating

gov.uk says a claim can be backdated to 6 April 2022, the start of the 2022/23 tax year, for each year you were both eligible. The legislation allows an election up to four years after the end of the tax year, so the earliest year available moves on each 6 April; 2022/23 is open until 5 April 2027. The Personal Allowance has been £12,570 throughout, so each eligible year has been worth the same up to £252. The calculator values each earlier year at the net saving it works out for the selected year, which assumes your incomes were similar then.

A worked example

One partner earns £9,000 from a part-time job and the other earns £35,000. The £9,000 is below the £11,310 reduced allowance, so there is no cost to the lower earner, and the net saving is the full £252. If all four earlier years from 2022/23 were also eligible, a backdated claim would add £1,008, for a total of £1,260.

How to claim

You apply online on gov.uk; there is nothing to pay to apply. The claim renews automatically each year until you cancel it, for example when your income or your relationship changes.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most common mistake is assuming a higher-rate taxpayer can receive the allowance: the receiving partner must be a basic-rate taxpayer, so the claim fails once their income passes the higher-rate threshold. Another is forgetting that the lower earner's own allowance shrinks, which is why a partner just under £12,570 gains almost nothing. A third is missing the backdating window, which runs back to 6 April 2022. If your partner has died since 5 April 2022 you can still claim for the period, by phoning the Income Tax helpline.

What this calculator does not cover

It does not check that you are married or in a civil partnership or that neither of you gets Married Couple's Allowance. It treats the lower earner's extra tax as basic-rate (20%) on ordinary income, so Scottish starter-rate (19%) effects, savings and dividend allowances are ignored and could change the answer for some couples. The Scottish £43,662 limit is the gov.uk figure and is applied to every year; check the Scottish bands for the year you are claiming.