Marriage tax allowance - anyone know how it works?

[Legwork]

My husband earns 55k. I’m not working right now. If he pays 10 percent into his pension, can we claim it as he wouldn’t be paying higher rate tax? Or is it done on his full pay?

They increase his tax free allowance by £1k don’t they?

🤷‍♀️🙂I’ve no idea! I just stumbled on a Martin Lewis video - I didn’t know it existed until half a hour ago!

It’s based on whether his “income” is below £50k - that usually means pay after any salary sacrifice

So yes if he does salary sacrifice to bring his gross pay below £50k then it should be possible to use the marriage allowance. And also to claim child benefit

Hey minipie - thank you! That’s really helpful!

Don’t take it as gospel though! I’m not an expert but that’s what I’d expect and it’s how it works for child benefit eligibility which is also based on “income” level.

NB income includes all income, eg interest from savings or income from any side hustle, so if even if he reduces his pay by salary sacrifice, he still has to add on any income from other sources and make sure the total is under the £50k level