A man shared his success story after he followed a Martin Lewis tip and received a £750 tax refund.
George, from Hillingdon in west London, contacted the BBC Martin Lewis podcast after he was able to secure the backdated money.
He said: “I’m one of the 2.1 million who did not know about the marriage tax allowance. Thanks to your advice, we’ve managed to backdate our claim, as we were married in 2019. Within a few days of submitting the online form, the cheque came through for £742.15.”
The allowance applies to people who are married or in a civil partnership are not to those who are simply living together.
A person who earns below the £12,570 annual threshold for paying income tax can transfer 10 percent of their allowance to their partner, if they are on the basic 20 percent rate.
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This means the person who receives the allowance will not pay tax on an additional £1,260 of their yearly earnings, a tax break which is currently worth up to £252 a year.
Mr Lewis said there are still “millions missing out” on the allowance. He explained: “The non-taxpayer can give 10 percent of their Personal Allowance to the taxpayer, so that taxpayer than has more money they earn that isn’t taxed.
“It’s worth over £250 this year and it can be backdated for four prior years, which if you did that would mean a cheque of over £1,000 coming to you, and your tax code altered. You absolutely should have a look into that if you’re in that situation.”
George also said he is about to get his council tax band reassessed as he is currently in Band E while the rest of properties on his street are in Band D, meaning they pay less tax.
People should be cautious when looking at getting their council tax reassessed as they need to follow two vital steps before requesting a reevaluation from the local council.
The first step is for a person to compare their property with similar homes nearby, to see if they are in a lower band.
This can be done online through the respective valuation agency for whichever country in the UK a person lives in, although Northern Ireland has a different system, where the equivalent of council tax is taken through the rates system.
The second step is to find out how much the property was worth when the band system was set up.
This will then confirm if the property should be in a lower band. If a person does not take this second step, if they ask for their property to be reassessed, they may stay in the same band while their neighbours are moved up and end up paying more tax.
A council tax rebate can be backdated as far as when the band system was put in place and can be worth thousands of pounds.
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