Married couples living across the UK could be missing out on £1,242, financial guru Martin Lewis has warned.
The ITV star and MoneySavingExpert founder predicts that some two million Britons aren't claiming marriage tax allowance, which in essence allows workers to transfer £1,260 of their personal allowance to a partner, to shave their yearly tax bills.
A personal allowance is best defined as the amount that a person can receive before they start paying tax each financial year.
The Star reports that for the current tax year (2022/23) you can claim a £252 tax break, however, it's possible to claim for four previous years. Should you decide to do so, you could receive up to £1,242 in total.
To be eligible to do so, you have to be married or in a civil partnership - with both parties involved being born on or after April 6, 1935. One of you must also be a non-taxpayer, while the other has to be paying the basic rate of tax at 20 per cent.
This usually means that one person in the couple earns less than £12,750 annually, while the other has an income between £12,571 and £50,270. Martin recently took to Twitter to urge people to claim should they be eligible for the marriage tax allowance.
The current tax year comes to a close tomorrow (April 5), and after this, you'll be able to backdate your claim as far as the 2019/20 tax year - where as at the time of writing, you can currently still go back to the 2018/19 tax year.
Taking to Twitter, Martin said: "URGENT please share. Are you married or in civil partnership if so – is one of you a basic 20% taxpayer? The other a non-taxpayer (earn under £12,570/yr). If so you're likely due up to £1,300 tax back, but if you don't sort by Wednesday April 5 you risk losing £100s.
"Many asking me 'We're pensioners can we do this', 'I'm a volunteer can I do this', 'I'm on maternity can I do this', 'I'm self employed can I do this', YES! It's simple, if you're under 85, and in a tax-year don't pay tax, then you can give this to your 20% tax rate paying spouse."
You can apply for marriage tax allowance via the official HMRC website, or by calling 0300 200 3300.
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