The married women's tax allowance (WEIA, wife's earned income allowance) used to actually belong to the husband, as married women were chattels, and their income belonged to their husband. The maximum was the same as the single person's allowance, but if earnings were less than that, it was restricted to level of earnings. For example, interest received by the wife would be set against the husband's code number. It was more of the wife's income affecting the husband's tax code than the other way round. A woman would get two allowances in the year of marriage or divorce. One for before, and one after. I did, when I got married in 1970. When that system stopped, women were treated as single people for tax.
For years, married men had a marriage allowance for the wife. They had to be legally married to get it, co-habitees weren't eligible. The allowance was given at the man's highest rate of tax. Norman Lamont stopped that when he was Chancellor. He introduced the 10% allowance, so that all men had the same amount of money in their pocket, irrespective of highest tax rate. Gordon Brown stopped the marriage allowance for all but those born before 05/04/1935, I think in about 1989. You can check dates in http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates , then into archives.How did the married mans tax allowance work?
Originally it worked the same way as the regular personal allowance - a deduction from gross income. Subsequently the increment between the single person's allowance and the married allowance was given as a credit (at basic rate only) against tax liability. In neither case did it affect the married woman's allowance.
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