In the UK tax system, personal allowance is the threshold above which income tax is levied on an individual's income. A person who receives less than his/her personal allowance in taxable income (such as earnings and some benefits) in a given tax year does not pay income tax; otherwise, tax must be paid according to how much is earned above this level. Certain residents are entitled to a larger personal allowance than others. Such groups include the over 65s (followed by an increased allowance for over 75s), blind people, and married couples where at least one person in the marriage (or civil partnership) was born before 6 April 1935.
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History
On 22 June 2010, the new Chancellor George Osborne, as part of the coalition deal which seeks to increase the Personal Allowance to £10,000 from April 2015, made the first increase of £1,000, making it £7475 for the 2011-12 tax year. During the 2011 Budget, the allowance was raised by £630 to £8,105 from April 2012. In 2013, George Osborne revised the plans to increase the Personal Allowance and bring forward to date at which it would reach the £10,000 target. This resulted in the allowance being raised to £9,440 from April 2013, before being increased to £10,000 from April 2014, a year earlier than originally planned.
Married Man's allowance
Married Man's allowance was the allowance for a legally married couple. The allowance was given at the man's highest rate of tax. During the early 1990s the then Chancellor Norman Lamont overhauled the allowance and introduced the 10% allowance, which meant that all men had the same amount of money in their pocket, irrespective of highest tax rate. The allowance was scrapped from April 2000, first being announced in Gordon Brown's 1999 budget, with the exception of people married or in civil partnerships where one spouse was born before 6 April 1935.