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Check 04 of 31 · Tax

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Are you owed a Marriage Allowance refund?

Marriage Allowance lets one partner move £1,260 of unused Personal Allowance to the other. It is worth £252 a year to the couple.

It only works one way: the partner earning under the £12,570 Personal Allowance gives, and the basic-rate taxpayer receives.

It can be backdated as far as 6 April 2022, which is 4 earlier tax years. Nobody applies it for you, and HMRC does not prompt you.

This is 1 of 31 Checks in the ClaimPilot rule library. The whole answer is below, including the free route. Nothing on this page needs paying for.

Estimated

£252 a year, and up to 4 earlier tax years

Effort

15 minutes

Deadline

5 April 2027 for the 2022–23 tax year

Last verified

27 August 2026

Estimated ranges are estimates, never promises. The figure you actually receive depends on your own circumstances and on the body you send the letter to.

01

Who this applies to

  • You are married or in a civil partnership. Living together is not enough.
  • One of you has income below the £12,570 Personal Allowance — often a part-time, caring or retired year.
  • The other pays the basic 20% rate. In Scotland they must pay the starter, basic or intermediate rate.
  • Neither of you claims Married Couple's Allowance, which is a different, older relief for couples where one was born before 6 April 1935.

02

What it is worth

£252 for the current tax year, applied through the receiving partner's tax code.

Each backdated year is paid as a refund, usually by cheque or bank transfer. Four years plus the current year is the maximum reach.

The yearly figure moves with the Personal Allowance, so earlier years are not all worth exactly £252.

03

The free route, step by step

You can do all of this yourself, free, today. We are not in the middle of it and we take no share of it.

  1. 01Check which of you is the lower earner across each year you want to claim. Payslips or a P60 settle it.
  2. 02The lower earner applies, not the higher. Applying the wrong way round is the most common failure.
  3. 03Apply online with a Government Gateway account, or by post on form MATCF if you would rather not create one.
  4. 04Tick the earlier years you want backdated in the same application. There is no need to write separately for each.
GOV.UK — apply for Marriage Allowance

04

Evidence you will need

  • Both National Insurance numbers, which go to HMRC and never to us
  • The date of your marriage or civil partnership
  • Each partner's income for every year you are claiming, from a P60 or payslips
  • A form of ID for the applicant, such as a passport or payslip details

ClaimPilot never asks for any of this. The Scan asks about circumstances, not identity, and no letter is pre-filled with data we did not need.

05

What to watch for

  • If the higher earner pays the 40% rate, the transfer usually costs you money rather than saving it.
  • The allowance renews automatically once granted. You do not need to reapply each year, and you must cancel it if circumstances change.
  • The 2022–23 tax year drops out of reach after 5 April 2027. That is a hard cut-off, not a rolling one.
  • No agent is needed. Some firms charge a share of this refund for a 15-minute free form.

06

Sources

Last verified: 27 August 2026. A Check last verified more than 180 days ago is withdrawn from the library until someone checks it again.

That was 1 of 31 Checks. Which of the other 30 apply to you?

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