Marriage allowance transfer

A taxpayer can transfer £1,250 (£1,190 in 2019) of their Personal Allowance to their spouse or civil partner, if the spouse or civil partner earns more than the taxpayer.

This reduces the Personal Allowance available to the taxpayer and increases the Personal Allowance available to the recipient.

For the transfer to be allowed, neither spouse nor partner can be a higher rate taxpayer.

To enter a marriage allowance transfer:

  1. Select the Data input tab.

  2. Select + Add a new section button.

  3. A new window opens, scroll to the bottom to the allowances section and click on Marriage Allowance Transfer:

A new window displays, which needs to be completed:

  • Transfer £1,250 of your Personal Allowance to spouse? - tick this box to transfer the Personal Allowance from the taxpayer to the spouse or partner. (£1,90 2019):

    • A window will display below, and the information will need to be completed. If a Digital (online) claim has already been made, tick the box, and the remaining input fields can be left blank.

    • If a Digital (online) claim has not been made, please complete the details for the spouse or civil partner as requested.

  • Receive £1 250 of your spouse’s Personal Allowance? - tick this box if the Personal Allowance is being received by the taxpayer, £1,190 (2019).

A transfer of a Marriage Allowance does not appear on the SA 100 - as it is deemed not to be accepted until HMRC verifies it. The transfer is administered from the taxpayer who is entitled to surrender and is surrendering their marriage allowance. The data is kept in Taxfiler by IRIS for memo purposes and is displayed on the tax calculation only.

  1. Click Review HMRC Record for confirmation of status and confirm the details held by HMRC. To use this function you need to have registered with HMRC and received the specific 64-8 for your client and given Taxfiler by IRIS the authority to access the client’s data.

  2. To set up the authority for Taxfiler by IRIS to access client data, select Settings and then the HMRC Online Data tab. This will open a window on HMRC's portal where you can enter your Agent Services Account details.