For the 2026/27 tax year, the Married Couple’s Tax Allowance is worth between £453 and £1,170 off your tax bill, depending on the claimant’s income.1MoneyHelper. Marriage and Married Couple’s Allowance It works as a tax credit, not a deduction from taxable income. HMRC calculates a gross allowance figure and then knocks 10% of that figure straight off what you owe.2GOV.UK. Married Couple’s Allowance – What You’ll Get The maximum gross allowance is £11,700, giving the £1,170 ceiling; the minimum is £4,530, giving the £453 floor. The relief never drops below that floor, however high the income.
Who Can Claim
Three conditions all have to be met. At least one spouse or civil partner must have been born before 6 April 1935. You must be legally married or in a civil partnership. And you must be living together.3GOV.UK. Married Couple’s Allowance The date-of-birth rule is a hard line, which in practice limits this relief to couples in their nineties or older.
The living-together test is about the relationship, not the address. You count as living together unless you are separated by court order, by a formal deed of separation, or in circumstances where the separation is likely to be permanent. A partner moving into a care home or hospital for medical reasons does not, by itself, break the claim.
How Your Income Changes the Amount
If the claimant’s adjusted net income is £39,200 or less in 2026/27, you get the full £11,700 gross allowance and the maximum £1,170 tax reduction. Above that threshold, the gross allowance tapers away by £1 for every £2 of income over the limit, until it hits the £4,530 minimum. From that point it stops falling. So anyone with adjusted net income above roughly £53,540 receives only the minimum £453 credit.
Adjusted net income is your total taxable income minus certain reliefs, chiefly Gift Aid donations and relief-at-source pension contributions, both using the grossed-up figures.4GOV.UK. Personal Allowances: Adjusted Net Income Sizeable donations or pension payments can pull your income below the £39,200 line and preserve more of the allowance.
Whose Income Counts
Which partner’s income HMRC uses depends on when you married. For marriages before 5 December 2005, the husband’s income determines the amount. For marriages and civil partnerships on or after that date, it is the income of whichever partner earns more.3GOV.UK. Married Couple’s Allowance Because of the age requirement, nearly all current claimants married before 2005, so the husband’s income is almost always the figure in play.
Sharing or Transferring the Allowance
There are two separate ways to move the relief between spouses, and they do different jobs.
Electing to Share in Advance
The husband, or the higher earner for post-2005 marriages, can choose to transfer either half or all of the minimum amount of the allowance to their partner. For 2026/27 that means transferring either £2,265 or the full £4,530. The election is made on Form 18 and stays in force until you change or cancel it. The age-related portion above the minimum cannot be shared this way.5HM Revenue & Customs. PAYE13105 – Coding: Married Couples: Date of Marriage Prior to 5 December 2005
Transferring Unused Surplus After the Fact
If the claimant’s tax bill is too small to absorb the full credit, the unused portion can be passed to the other partner using Form 575(T), which you can submit online or by post.6GOV.UK. Ask HMRC to Transfer Surplus Income Tax Allowances Worth checking every year, because the point of the relief is lost if the claimant has no tax to reduce.
How to Claim
If you file a Self Assessment tax return, complete the Married Couple’s Allowance section within it. If you do not file Self Assessment, contact HMRC directly with the date of your marriage or civil partnership and your spouse’s date of birth.7GOV.UK. Married Couple’s Allowance – How to Claim
Once the claim is processed, HMRC adjusts your PAYE tax code, so the benefit flows through your pay or pension automatically each month.5HM Revenue & Customs. PAYE13105 – Coding: Married Couples: Date of Marriage Prior to 5 December 2005 If you were eligible in earlier years but never claimed, HMRC generally allows corrections for the previous four tax years; contact them to confirm what applies in your case.
When a Spouse Dies
The full Married Couple’s Allowance stays available for the whole of the tax year in which a spouse or civil partner dies. If the partner who held the claim dies and their tax bill was too small to use the full relief, the unused balance should transfer to the surviving partner for that same year.8GOV.UK. Your Benefits, Tax and Pension After the Death of a Partner
After that tax year ends, HMRC stops the allowance automatically, and from the following year the surviving partner has only their personal allowance.8GOV.UK. Your Benefits, Tax and Pension After the Death of a Partner Check that HMRC has correctly applied the transfer in the year of death, because it does not always happen automatically.
Not the Same as Marriage Allowance
If both partners were born on or after 6 April 1935, the Married Couple’s Allowance is not available; the separate Marriage Allowance may be instead, and you cannot claim both.1MoneyHelper. Marriage and Married Couple’s Allowance Marriage Allowance lets the lower earner transfer £1,260 of their personal allowance to their partner, cutting the recipient’s tax by up to £252 a year. That is a much smaller sum than the Married Couple’s Allowance, but it applies to couples where one partner earns below the personal allowance and the other pays basic-rate tax.