COUPLES MISSING OUT ON TAX BREAKS

JUST a third of couples eligible for the Government’s new marriage tax break have signed up — despite a £1.5 million promotional campaign.

The perk introduced in April last year allows married couples to transfer one spouse’s unused personal allowance to the other.

Currently, if you earn under £11,000 you do not have to pay any income tax.

Under the new rules couples are allowed to transfer up to £1,100 of this allowance to their partner — saving a basic rate taxpayer up to £220 a year.

In a further boost, if you were eligible for Marriage Allowance in the 2015 to 2016 tax year, you can backdate your claim to 6 April 2015 and save up to £432.

But according to HM Revenue & Customs, just 1.34 million of the 4 million married couples who were forecast to claim have done so. This is despite the Government spending £1.5 million of taxpayers’ money promoting the scheme in the past 12 months. Readers have written to Money Mail to complain they are struggling to claim the tax break.

Many were told this was because HMRC experienced difficulties with its computer system when it was first launched.

HM Revenue & Customs says that on Christmas Day, 258 couples applied for the allowance and a further 1,046 did so on New Year’s Eve. You can apply at gov.uk/ apply-marriage-allowance.