Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning for couples who are married or in a civil partnership.
On the most recent episode of the Martin Lewis Money Show, the Money Saving Expert warned that some couples could be missing out on £1,242.
This is because they are not claiming marriage tax allowance.
Martin estimates that around 2.1 million qualifying couples are missing out on this tax perk
Marriage tax allowance allows the higher earner in your relationship to lower their tax bill by transferring the personal allowance of the low earner.
Your personal allowance is how much you can earn tax-free each tax year and the amount you can transfer through marriage tax allowance is £1,260.
One of you must be a 20% taxpayer, while the other must be a non-taxpayer to apply for marriage tax allowance.
For the current 2022/23 tax year, the tax break you can get is worth £252, however, Martin told his audience in Liverpool that you can also claim backdated tax allowance back for the last four tax years.
Currently, you can backdate your claim until the 2018/19 tax year but you only have until April 5 2023 to do so.
For the last two tax years, you have been able to claim £252 in marriage allowance.
In 2020/21 and 2019-20 you are able to claim £250 and in 2018-19 you are able to claim £238.
Martin told the audience that if you claim for this tax year and backdate the maximum four years, you'll get up to £1,242. You won't have to tick any boxes or make a special request for this – it'll happen automatically.
Martin explained: "If you're eligible, you can claim back four years. That means if you were eligible, you would get £1242 pounds, but you need to do it now, or you lose the £238 from 2018-19."
If you miss this deadline you will not be able to claim, however, you will be able to claim the next year's tax year.
Martin added: "If you do it in April, you'll feel like you've got the same amount of money, but that's because you'll be getting next year's allowance as well.
"But you will still get that if you play now because once claimed, unless you're not eligible, you needn't claim again, you'll get it automatically."
"We are talking serious cash here."
How to claim marriage tax allowance
You’ll need to be married or in a civil partnership to claim marriage tax allowance - it doesn’t apply to those who are cohabiting.
As we've mentioned above, one of you also needs to be a non-taxpayer while the other person needs to be paying the basic 20% rate of tax.
This usually means one of you doesn’t pay tax or earns less than £12,570, while the other person would be making between £12,571 and £50,270.
If you live in Scotland, the 20% taxpayer will normally earn under £43,662.
You can apply for marriage tax allowance online via the HMRC website or by calling 0300 200 3300.
