UK households must boost tax-free Personal Allowance by £1,260 before Monday | Personal Finance | Finance
Married couples have just hours left to claim a tax-free Personal Allowance increase of £1,260 before the deadline at midnight on Sunday. The tax-free Personal Allowance is stuck at £12,570, which it’s been frozen at since 2021, but there is an allowance you can claim from HMRC if you’re in a married couple and only one of you exceeds that threshold – the Marriage Tax Allowance.
However, the end of the tax year is rapidly approaching and from just after midnight on Monday, April 6, you will no longer be able to back-claim for the tax year 2021-22, meaning you lose out on a £1,260 Personal Allowance boost relating to that tax year forever.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on Thursday, March 26, Martin explained that time is almost over to make a claim.
Martin said: “The rule on taxes is you can have this current year and count back four years. Now on April 6, we go to next tax year, because it’s a new tax year.
“So that means you can claim back four years, we’re now in the period, the last period where you can claim the 2021-22 tax year for things, specifically April 6 2021 to April 5, 2022.
“So if any of these apply, you need to go quickly.
“First one is Marriage Tax Allowance. We’ve talked about it many times. Now for this, you have to be married or in a civil partnership. Just living together, common law, does not count under the law, you need to be in a civil partnership or a marriage.
“Then, the non-taxpayer can go to gov.uk and apply to shift 10% of their Personal Allowance, the amount that you can earn each year without paying tax, to the taxpayer. 10% is £1,260, so that goes to someone who would have paid 20% tax so they save £250 a year of tax, because they’ve got a bigger tax-free allowance.
“But if you were eligible you can claim back four tax years, which means you’re about to lose the 2021-22 tax year, so if you haven’t done it and you were eligible for that, get your skates on.”
