Marriage Allowance: £1,260 transferred, up to £252 a year, and what a backdated claim to April 2022 can add for a client couple

A paraplanner is preparing a review for a couple in their late forties. One earns £11,000 from part-time work and the other £38,000. Nobody has ever mentioned Marriage Allowance. The question for the file is whether it applies, and how much of a backdated claim to put in front of the adviser. This guide works through the page and the count of years.

The rule on GOV.UK

Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner. It reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year.

The conditions on the page:

• You must be married or in a civil partnership. Living together does not count.
• You must not pay Income Tax, or your income must be below your Personal Allowance, usually £12,570.
• Your partner must pay basic-rate tax. That usually means income between £12,571 and £50,270.
• In Scotland, your partner must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate, usually income between £12,571 and £43,662.
• Receiving a pension, or living abroad while keeping a Personal Allowance, does not stop you applying.
• If you or your partner were born before 6 April 1935 you might benefit more from Married Couple's Allowance, and you cannot get both.

The numbers for one year

Our arithmetic. £1,260 x 0.20 = £252, which matches the "up to £252" on the page. The words "up to" matter: a partner whose income only just reaches the Personal Allowance has no basic-rate tax for the transfer to reduce.

Who passes the income test

Our own test of the page's ranges, using the England, Wales and Northern Ireland figures. A Scottish couple should use the £43,662 upper figure, so the £50,000 partner above would fail there.

The backdating count

The page says you can backdate a claim to 6 April 2022, for any years you were eligible. Counted by tax year from that date, with today being 21 October 2026:

Five tax years. If the full £252 applied to every one of them, the figure would be 5 x £252 = £1,260. I did not read the amounts for the earlier years: the page says the partner's bill is reduced "based on the Personal Allowance rate for the years you backdate", so the sum for a real client can differ. Treat £1,260 as the ceiling of an illustration and check each year before you put a number in a letter.

What to put on the review note

• Marital status and both incomes by tax year. Eligibility is tested year by year, so a year when the lower earner went over £12,570 drops out.
• The Scottish question. The upper limit is different, so record where each partner pays tax.
• The claim date. The page's backdating start is a fixed date, so raise it at the first review you can rather than the next.
• Married Couple's Allowance. Only relevant if either partner was born before 6 April 1935; ask.

For the rest of the review file, see the annual review checklist and the worked pension carry forward example.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your advice team and read your client list before each review season, flag married couples where one partner earns under the Personal Allowance and the other is a basic-rate payer, and prepare the one-page note for the adviser to approve.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check GOV.UK and the client's circumstances before you advise.