UK Marriage Allowance Calculator 2026/27 (£1,260 Transfer)

Marriage Allowance lets a spouse or civil partner transfer £1,260 of Personal Allowance to the other, provided the recipient is a basic rate taxpayer. The headline benefit is £252, being £1,260 taxed at 20%.

The part almost every calculator omits is that the transfer is not free. The partner giving up the allowance keeps only £11,310 instead of £12,570. If their income sits between those two figures, they begin paying tax they would not otherwise have paid, and the household keeps less than £252. At exactly £12,570 the claim is worth precisely nothing: the lower earner pays £252 more and the higher earner saves £252.

This is why the claim is genuinely valuable for a non-earner or a low earner, and pointless for someone using their whole allowance.

Step 1 -- Eligibility. Three conditions must hold. The transferring partner must earn no more than £12,570. The receiving partner must be a taxpayer, so earning above £12,570. And the receiving partner must be a basic rate taxpayer, meaning income no higher than £50,270 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or £43,662 in Scotland.

Step 2 -- The recipient's saving. They gain £1,260 of allowance, worth 20% of it, capped at the tax they actually have to save:

Step 3 -- The transferor's cost. Their allowance falls to £11,310, so any income above that becomes taxable:

Step 4 -- Net household benefit is the saving less the cost. It runs from the full £252 down to nil as the transferor's income rises from £11,310 to £12,570.

Lower earner £8,000, higher earner £30,000:

• Lower earner's reduced allowance is £11,310, and £8,000 is below it, so no extra tax
• Higher earner's allowance rises to £13,830, cutting taxable income by £1,260
• Saving: £1,260 × 20% = £252
• Net household benefit: £252

Lower earner £12,000 (inside the taper):

• Reduced allowance £11,310, so £690 of income becomes taxable → £690 × 20% = £138 of new tax
• Higher earner still saves £252
• Net benefit: £252 − £138 = £114, less than half the headline figure

Lower earner £12,570 (using the full allowance):

• £1,260 becomes taxable → £252 of new tax, exactly cancelling the £252 saving
• Net benefit: nil. The claim is pointless at this income.

Higher earner £60,000:

• A higher rate taxpayer, so the claim is not permitted at all

• The Married Couple's Allowance, a separate and more generous relief available only where one spouse was born before 6 April 1935. You cannot claim both.
• Scottish intermediate rate taxpayers. Recipients paying the 21% intermediate rate remain eligible, but the calculator applies relief at 20%, which slightly understates their saving.
• Dividend and savings income in either partner's income, which can affect whether the recipient is genuinely a basic rate taxpayer.
• Mid-year changes such as marriage, separation, or a partner's death, where the claim is apportioned or transfers differently.
• The claim mechanics. The transfer is made by the lower earner through their Personal Tax Account, and continues automatically until cancelled.
• How the benefit is delivered. It usually arrives as a changed tax code for the recipient rather than a payment, so it appears as slightly higher take-home pay.
• Whether backdating is available. The four-year backdating figure assumes the same circumstances applied in each earlier year, which is often not the case.

• Assuming it is always worth £252. It is worth £252 only where the lower earner is comfortably below £11,310. Between £11,310 and £12,570 it tapers to nothing.
• Claiming when the lower earner uses their full allowance. At £12,570 the claim nets exactly zero, and the household has gained nothing for the paperwork.
• Getting the direction wrong. The lower earner applies to give allowance away. Applications made by the higher earner are rejected.
• Overlooking the Scottish ceiling. A recipient on £45,000 is a basic rate taxpayer in England but above the £43,662 Scottish ceiling, and therefore ineligible in Scotland.
• Forgetting to cancel it. The transfer continues automatically year to year. If the lower earner's income rises, the claim can quietly become worthless or mildly negative.
• Missing the backdating. A claim can be backdated four tax years, so a first claim can be worth up to five years of benefit at once.

• GOV.UK: "Marriage Allowance" -- £1,260 transferable, maximum saving £252, four-year backdating
• GOV.UK: "Marriage Allowance: how it works" -- eligibility conditions and the Scottish basic rate ceiling of £43,662
• GOV.UK: "Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances" -- the £12,570 allowance from which the transfer is made
• All figures verified on 30 August 2026 and mirrored in engine/tables/2026/uk-2026-27.json