Written questions, answers and statements

Married People: Tax Allowances

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Question for Treasury

UIN 169811, tabled on 3 September 2018

Question

Layla Moran
Liberal Democrat
Oxford West and Abingdon
Commons

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many couples claimed Marriage Allowance in each year since 2015-16.

Answer

Mel Stride
Conservative
Central Devon
Commons

Answered on

6 September 2018

Marriage Allowance is a tax relief for married couples and civil partners which allows one partner to transfer part of their personal allowance to the other. We estimate a total of 4.2 million couples are eligible for Marriage Allowance, of which a total of 3.2 million have claimed.

In 2015/16, 644,916 couples claimed Marriage Allowance.

In 2016/17, 1,172,792 couples claimed Marriage Allowance (in addition to those who claimed in 2015/16).

In 2017/18, 1,000,067 couples claimed Marriage Allowance (in addition to those who claimed in 2015/16 and 2016/17).

In 2018/19 as of 3 September, the number of couples that have successfully claimed Marriage Allowance is 431,579 (in addition to those who have claimed in all previous tax years).

Eligible couples who have yet to claim Marriage Allowance for the 2015/16 tax year will not lose out as they have until 5 April 2020 to do so.

Answered by

Treasury
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