Martin Lewis warns married couples they could be owed £1250 they don't know about

Martin Lewis has issued an important announcement to married couples, as it turns out that some of them might be able to claim as much as £1,250 from the government.

So, with that in mind, if you’re married, you’d better check this out.

The MoneySavingExpert founder is full of wee pieces of advice like this one, and he frequently uses his platform on the TV – as well as his social media accounts – to keep the public up to date with his latest discoveries.

This time, it comes through his Twitter and concerns people who are married, but only one is paying the basic rate of tax.

Apparently, this could be as many as two million couples in the UK, so there’s a fair chance it might apply to you.

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Lewis says that loads of those eligible couples aren’t claiming marriage tax allowance, which allows you to transfer £1,260 of your personal tax allowance to your partner to bring their annual tax bill down.

This year, that would be a tax break of £252, but you can also claim back for four previous tax years too, taking that to £1,242.

It only applies to couples for whom one is earning beneath their tax allowance, though.

So, if you’re in a marriage or civil partnership and both parties were born after 6 April 1935, and one of you pays the basic 20 percent tax rate, whereas the other is a non-taxpayer, which is to say, earning less than £12,570, you can claim.

You’ll be on the basic tax rate if you earn between £12,571 and £50,270, by the way.

In a Twitter thread, Martin explained: "URGENT pls share. Are you married or in civil partnership if so - Is one of you a basic 20% taxpayer?

“The other a non-taxpayer (earn under c£12,570/yr) If so ur [sic] likely due up to £1,300 tax back, but if you don't sort by Wed 5 April you risk losing £100s."

There’s the important warning – the end of the current tax year is 5 April, so you need to hurry up or you’ll only be able to claim back to 2019/20, whereas before 5 April you can claim back to 2018/19.

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Martin continued: "Many asking me 'We're pensioners can we do this', 'I'm a volunteer can I do this', 'I'm on maternity can I do this', 'I'm self employed can I do this', YES!

“It's simple, if you're under 85, and in a tax-year don't pay tax, then you can give this to your 20% tax rate paying spouse."

If you want to apply, go to the HMRC website or call 0300 200 3300, it should be the person earning least who makes the claim.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to people who are living together but aren’t in a marriage or civil partnership.

You might struggle to sort that out by tomorrow.