Marriage Allowance calculator

The rules in one paragraph

One partner must earn under the personal allowance (so some of it is going unused); the other must be a basic-rate taxpayer, above the allowance but below the higher-rate line (£43,662 in Scotland, where the intermediate rate still counts as eligible). The transfer is all-or-nothing at £1,260: you cannot transfer less, which is why a lower earner between £11,310 and £12,570 still usually benefits on a household basis but personally starts paying a little tax, the calculator above nets the two off. Claim once at gov.uk and it renews automatically; remember to cancel if the lower earner's income rises, or a surprise bill follows.

Why most failed claims fail

• The receiving partner is a higher-rate taxpayer. This is the single most common disqualifier. The transfer only works where the receiver pays basic rate, so a couple where one earns nothing and the other earns £60,000 cannot claim at all, even though the household looks like exactly the case it was designed for.
• You are living together but not married. It requires marriage or a civil partnership. Long-term cohabiting partners are not eligible, however long.
• The lower earner is not actually under the allowance. If they earn more than £12,570 they are using their own allowance and have none spare, though the partial cases just above the line can still leave the household better off, which is what the checker tests.

A first claim is worth far more than £252

Claims backdate four tax years, and the personal allowance has been frozen throughout, so each of those years is worth roughly the same £252. A couple claiming for the first time and backdating in full is therefore looking at around £1,260 — the current year plus four behind it — paid as a rebate rather than spread across future payslips. Rates for those years are on the 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 pages.

Once made, the transfer continues automatically each year until one of you cancels it, so it is worth revisiting if either income changes: if the receiver moves into higher rate the claim should be cancelled, and if you do not, HMRC will claw the difference back through a tax code adjustment rather than write it off.

Checked 2026-08-28 by Hadi against gov.uk/marriage-allowance. Your tax code changes to M (recipient) or N (transferor), decode yours in the tax code checker.

How to use the Marriage Allowance calculator

1. 1

   Enter both incomes.

2. 2

   The tool checks eligibility: one partner below the personal allowance, the other a basic-rate taxpayer.

3. 3

   Read the transfer, which is 10% of the personal allowance moved between you.

4. 4

   Check the backdating, since claims can go back four tax years.

When should you use the Marriage Allowance calculator?

Use it if one of you earns under the personal allowance, since the unused part can be transferred and claims backdate four years.

Where to go next

• Household income calculatorTo see the household picture the claim sits in.Open
• Tax rebate calculatorTo backdated claims arrive as a refund.Open
• Income tax calculatorTo check the tax the transfer reduces.Open

All 51 calculators share one tested engine, so a figure from the marriage allowance calculator agrees with every other page here. See the full calculator index or the pay and tax guides.