And just a few weeks ago, the tax-free Personal Allowance was frozen again for another three years, all the way until 2031. That will mean it’s been stuck at the same level for a decade, after it was first frozen in 2021. The end result is that because of ‘fiscal drag’, more and more people are going to end up paying more and more tax on their earnings, as wages increase to counter inflation, and more people earn money that becomes subject to income tax in frozen brackets.

The Personal Allowance is the amount of money you can earn before you start paying tax and it remains at £12,570, which it’s set to stay at until 2031 at the earliest. That means everything you earn above that is taxed at 20%, or 40% on earnings above £50,270 for a higher rate taxpayer and 45% on earnings above £125,000 for an additional rate taxpayer.

But there is one way you can increase your tax-free Personal Allowance – and it requires you to be married or in a civil partnership.

Couples who are married or in a civil partnership can increase their tax-free take-home pay by £252 per year and backdate their claim until 2021-2022 as well.

Gov.uk explains: “Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner. Your Personal Allowance is the amount you can earn before paying tax.

“This reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year (6 April to 5 April the next year).

“…You can backdate your claim to 6 April 2021 (the 2021 to 2022 tax year) for any years you were eligible for Marriage Allowance.”

HMRC will then adjust your tax code to give you the money you’re owed, which when added to the standard Personal Allowance for the year (£12,570) comes out at £13,830 tax-free instead of £12,570. This then allows you to save £252 of tax thanks to the extra allowance.

This applies to up to four separate tax years if you backdate the claim. This means you could be looking at a tax rebate of up to £1,260 in total, or £5,040 of extra tax allowance across the four years, which would give you £1,260 in you pocket (20% of £5,040).

You can then backdate this for four years, too. If all of the tax-free increase is put in the same tax year, this then boosts your Personal Allowance by £5,040, giving you an additional £1,260 tax-free, and taking your Personal Allowance to £17,610 for the current tax year. In turn, this gives you a £1,260 tax saving for the four years’ worth of £252 per year.

In order to be eligible, one partner must pay no income tax – so earn under £12,570. For example if one of the couple is no longer working, has lost their job or is taking a career break for childcare.

The other must be a basic rate taxpayer earning between £12,570 and £50,270 (once pension contributions are deducted).

This process, called the Marriage Allowance, enables the lower-earning partner to transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to their partner and reduce their tax bill by £252 for each year claimed (20% of £1,260).

For 2024-25 a slight change was made that also allows someone earning between £11,130 and £12,570 to transfer their Personal Allowance, although earnings inbetween those amounts are still liable for tax. It does still work out to a saving, just not as great as those earning less than £11,130.

You can only backdate your claim for the current year and the past four financial years, so 2020-21 will be too far back now, but you can claim for this current year and the past four back to 2021-22.