There are special allowances that can reduce your tax bill.

These include payments following marriage break-up - Maintenance payments.We also look at tax relief on charitable gifts - Gift Aid.

When reading the following information - it is important to note that:

• If you are a married couple who qualified for the allowance before 5 December 2005, the Married Couple's Allowance is given to the husband. However, for 2008/09 a married woman can choose to have up to £1,270 of it herself (£127.00 off her tax) and can have £2,540 (worth £254 off her tax) if both husband and wife agree. The balance is used to reduce the husband's tax bill.



• For couples (married or civil partners) who first qualify for Married Couple's Allowance after 5 December 2005, it is given to the partner with the higher income. For 2008/09 the other partner can choose to have up to £1,270 of it (£127.00 off their tax) and can have £2,540 (worth £254 off their tax) if both partners agree. The rest has to be taken off the tax bill of the partner who is entitled to the allowance.

To avoid any duplication, for the purpose of the following text we will assume that the marriage is pre December 2005. However if you married after this date please read this topic in the context of the above two paragraphs.

Married couples allowance (MCA)

Maintenance payments

Charitable gifts

Married Couple's allowance (MCA)

• You are entitled to this allowance if you are a married man, and either you or your wife were born before 6 April 1935.



• The allowance is set annually and is different from a personal allowance as it does not reduce your income, but is used to calculate an amount to come off your tax bill.



• 10% of the allowance set for a year can come off your tax bill. So for 2008/09 the allowance up to age 74 is £6,535 so that 10% or £653.50 can come off your tax bill. For those aged 75 and over, £6,625 is the allowance, so £662.50 can come off the tax bill. You can find more information about the current levels of tax rates and allowances here.



• MCA is due for each tax year that you are living together as husband and wife and it is also given in full in the year of separation, divorce or the death of either spouse.

• In the year your husband dies you will also get the balance of MCA not used against his income without needing to make a claim.

• In the year of marriage the amount to come off your tax bill is one twelfth of the above amounts for each complete tax month (starting on 6th) that you were married. Let your tax office know as soon as possible if you marry in a tax year and qualify because one of you was born before 6 April 1935. You will get your tax relief quicker.

• If you are a married couple who qualified for the allowance before 5 December 2005, the Married Couple's Allowance is given to the husband. However, a married woman can choose to have up to £1,270 of it herself (£127.00 off her tax) and can have £2,540 (worth £254 off her tax) if both husband and wife agree. The balance is used to reduce the husband's tax bill.



• For couples (married or civil partners) who first qualify for Married Couple's Allowance from 5 December 2005, MCA is given to the partner with the higher income. The other partner can choose to have up to £1,270 MCA (£127.00 off their tax) and can have £2,540 (worth £254 off their tax) if both partners agree. The rest has to be taken off the tax bill of the partner who is entitled to the allowance.



• You should make a claim on form 18 which you can obtain from any tax office and it applies from the start of the tax year following the claim until you withdraw your claim.



• Where you are unable to use your full MCA in any tax year you can ask for the balance to be transferred to your wife. The request is made on a form 575 which you can obtain from your tax office.

How does higher income reduce my MCA?

• The MCA can be reduced for a couple when your husband's income is above an amount set for each year. The income of the wife is never taken into account.
• The minimum MCA that you can receive is £2,540 for 2008/09 (£254 off your tax bill) and you will be entitled to this amount no matter how much income you have.
• Have a look at the table below. If your age falls into a particular category and your income exceeds the corresponding figure in red - you will just receive the minimum MCA for 2008/09.

• If the husband's income is over £27,790 for those aged 66-74 and £28,090 for those aged 75, but does not exceed the amounts in the table above, you will receive more than the minimum MCA but less than the full allowance in 2008/09.
• To work out what allowance you will be entitled to, you can follow the calculation through the stages involved.

(i) First, work out your income before allowances

(ii) Work out your allowances if there are no restrictions

(iii) Work out the amount by which your income exceeds the lower limit we mentioned for reducing your personal allowance

(iv) Divide the difference by 2

(v) Reduce the total allowances in (ii) by the answer from (iv)

(vi) Finally take off the personal allowance given from the reduced allowances to leave the MCA available.

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Maintenance payments

• If you separate or divorce and either your spouse/civil partner or you were born before 6 April 1935, then a husband or wife or civil partner making maintenance payments by Court Order is entitled to claim a reduction to their tax bill. The payments must be made to the ex-spouse or ex-civil partner. Payments to or for the benefit of children do not qualify.
• The deduction to be claimed is:
• 10% of £2,540 (£254) or
• 10% of the amount paid, whichever is the smaller
• Full relief, as well as Married Couple's Allowance, is available in the year of separation but not after the spouse or civil partner remarries.

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Charitable Gifts

• When you make a payment under the Gift Aid scheme you are treated as if the amount you actually give to the charity or Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) has already had tax at 20% taken off. The charity or CASC can reclaim the 20% so the gift you are making is your payment plus tax.

• If you are a non-taxpayer have a look at the section on Gift Aid

Kevin - charitable payment - tax relief Kevin aged 71 pays tax at 20%. During 2008/09 he makes a payment to the National Trust of £800. The charity actually receives: Kevin's payment £ 800 Tax @ 20% (reclaimed by charity) £ 200 Total gift £ 1,000 If Kevin were a 40% taxpayer he would receive additional tax relief of (40-20%) £200 on the payment of £1,000.

• Incidentally although it does not affect your own tax - for the tax years 2008/09 - 2010-11 - the charity will be able to claim an extra 2% of tax back on your Gift Aid payment on top of the 20% mentioned above. This is to compensate them for the drop in the basic rate from 22% in 2007/08 to 20% in 2008/09.

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