Cyprus Income Tax: Married Allowance?

[geoffreys]

I hope someone can clarify for me regarding Married Allowance.
It was my understanding you can claim €2400/- off your gross income, is this the correct figure?
(Married couple, retired, taxed jointly, wife has no independent income)
Geoff.

[keving]

I didn't know that a married allowance exists in Cyprus.

I thought that individuals in Cyprus (whether married or not) each has a personal allowance of €19,500. And each individual completes his / her own tax return if tax is payable (again whether married or not). And no part of the personal allowance is transferable to a married partner if it is not fully utilised.

I'd be interested to know where you got your figure of €2,400 from.

[geoffreys]

I didn't know that a married allowance exists in Cyprus.

I thought that individuals in Cyprus (whether married or not) each has a personal allowance of €19,500. And each individual completes his / her own tax return if tax is payable (again whether married or not). And no part of the personal allowance is transferable to a married partner if it is not fully utilised.

I'd be interested to know where you got your figure of €2,400 from.

Well it was mentioned on another forum (now defunct) last year; at the time it surprised me too but I was busy and so
just made a note of it in my file.
Now it is tax return time again it would save me €180 in tax if true.
I hope maybe someone else can shed light on it.
Regards the €19,500 threshold I did check this with the tax office 4 years ago. My wife has no income and they do not
accept "zero returns", so as I do submit one I asked them if I can claim double, i.e. €39K. You can guess their answer!
They didn't mention the €2400 married allowance at that time, but maybe (I live in hopes) it came in since then?
Geoff.

[trevnhil]

There is no wife's allowance

Trev..

[emgee]

Never heard of a wife's allowance, Mrs Emgee has her own Tax Number.

Alan

[Poppy]

I've never heard of it here either but I would certainly check with the tax office. Certainly when we return to the UK I will be able to claim some( I think 1k) of my husbands allowance as he will not be liable for tax but I will.

[keving]

In the UK a spouse can transfer £1,100 of his/her personal allowance as long as his/her income is less than £11,000 and the recipient's income is less than £43,001. Both husband and wife must be born after 5 April 1935.

[Poppy]

Thank you Kevin - yes that will apply to us which reminds me I must ring the Inland Revenue as they could not answer a question for me and promised to ring back within 5 days and they havn't. I rang them to advise them we were retunring to live in the UK and they asked me when we first came to live here. I told them April 2007 but they wanted to know the exact date which for the life of me I can't remember! Why a few days makes any difference in the scheme of things some 10 years later I don't know but I told them they should know as we did the double taxation here which they were of course notified of.

[geoffreys]

I've never heard of it here either but I would certainly check with the tax office. Certainly when we return to the UK I will be able to claim some( I think 1k) of my husbands allowance as he will not be liable for tax but I will.

Yes, I'll be doing that. Thanks Poppy.
Geoff.

[keving]

Dont forget there have been a couple of other good changes to income tax whilst you have been away: basic rate tax payers don't pay any tax on the first £1,000 of interest received; and there is no tax on the first £5,000 of dividends received. Interest is now paid gross and you don't need to declare it unless there is tax to pay.

[Firefly]

Geoffreys and Poppy

Married couples allowance is really easy to claim, all you need are both Nat. Ins. numbers, fill in a small form and submit, really easy online. Not all UK couples are aware of this allowance, and I have passed the info to two other couples, who then applied and had the allowance granted. Both thanked me for it, but I owe it to Kia Picanto on CL.

Jackie

[Poppy]

Thanks Keving - very useful! I have phoned the Inland Rev again and they tried to tell me that they had tried to ring me twice but the times they quoted were 15.15 and 15.30 their time when I know for sure we were in anyway because they did not get through to us they have given me a tax code in error for January as we are still here so have now amended it to February but I cannot sort out having my husbands allowance until I am actually back in the UK so have to ring them again then. Must say they were not particularly helpful as I have not got a clue as I was working in the UK 10 years ago so had to ask them quite a few questions such as from which of my 3 pensions would tax be deducted which they advised me would be the bigger of the three - hope this is correct ! I was trying to do as much as I could whilst still here but not working out!!

[Kia Picanto]

Geoffreys and Poppy

Married couples allowance is really easy to claim, all you need are both Nat. Ins. numbers, fill in a small form and submit, really easy online. Not all UK couples are aware of this allowance, and I have passed the info to two other couples, who then applied and had the allowance granted. Both thanked me for it, but I owe it to Kia Picanto on CL.

Jackie

Jackie, how kind of you to mention me. I posted the info on CL quite some time ago, and included the link. It's not a fortune, but as we all know, 'every little helps'. (I'm currently part of the WASPI campaign, which I discovered thanks to Juliesewell - trying to get the UK Gov't to sort out the pensions fiasco). Good to see many of the 'old faces' from CL on here

[Kia Picanto]

Here's the link for the UK GOV info on claiming the Marriage Allowance.

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

[Poppy]

Thanks very much Firefly and Kia Picanto - much appreciated!

[geoffreys]

Getting back to Cyprus income tax, I called in today at the Tax Office; they confirmed there is no married allowance.
More's the pity!
Geoff.

[Kia Picanto]

Getting back to Cyprus income tax, I called in today at the Tax Office; they confirmed there is no married allowance.
More's the pity!
Geoff.

Claim the UK allowance then.

[geoffreys]

Getting back to Cyprus income tax, I called in today at the Tax Office; they confirmed there is no married allowance.
More's the pity!
Geoff.

Claim the UK allowance then.

Not possible. I am a non-resident in UK and so pay no tax there. I am taxed on my "world-wide" income in Cyprus.
Geoff.

[Kia Picanto]

Getting back to Cyprus income tax, I called in today at the Tax Office; they confirmed there is no married allowance.
More's the pity!
Geoff.

Claim the UK allowance then.

Not possible. I am a non-resident in UK and so pay no tax there. I am taxed on my "world-wide" income in Cyprus.
Geoff.

That's the whole point of me posting this info on here, and previously, on CL. You don't actually NEED to be resident in the UK to claim this. However, you do need to have a Personal Allowance. Maybe you don't have this. Many in Cyprus do.

[keving]

Claim the UK allowance then.

Not possible. I am a non-resident in UK and so pay no tax there. I am taxed on my "world-wide" income in Cyprus.
Geoff.

That's the whole point of me posting this info on here, and previously, on CL. You don't actually NEED to be resident in the UK to claim this. However, you do need to have a Personal Allowance. Maybe you don't have this. Many in Cyprus do.

It's true that you can have a UK personal allowance (and therefore a marriage allowance) if you live in Cyprus ...

www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad/taxed-twice

But wouldn't this mean that your UK pension would be subject to both UK and Cyprus tax, with the double taxation agreement meaning that you have to pay the higher amount of tax, and either the UK tax or the Cyprus tax is refunded, which ever is the lower?

Extract from above link ...

"Each double-taxation agreement sets out:

the country you pay tax in
the country you apply for relief in
how much tax relief you get
If the tax rates in the 2 countries are different, you’ll pay the higher rate of tax. The tax year may start on different days in different countries"