Widowed person or surviving civil partner

How are you taxed in the year of bereavement?

The amount of tax you pay in the year of the death of your spouse or civil partner will depend on how you were taxed before they died. You may have been taxed under joint assessment, separate assessment or separate treatment.

Joint assessment

Under joint assessment, you may have been the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner. If so, in the year of the death of your spouse or civil partner, you will:

• continue to receive the married person or civil partner tax credit and rate band 
• pay tax on your own income for the full year
• pay tax on your late spouse’s or civil partner’s income from 1 January to the date of their death.

If you were not the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner, you will:

• receive the increased personal tax credit available to a widowed person or surviving civil partner in the year of death
• be assessed on your income from the date of death of your spouse or civil partner until the end of the year.

You cannot claim the Single Person Child Carer Credit (SPCCC) in the year your spouse or civil partner dies as you are already receiving an increased personal credit.

Separate assessment

If you were taxed under separate assessment before your spouse or civil partner died, the tax credits you receive after their death depend on whether you were considered to be:

• the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner
• the non-assessable spouse or other civil partner.

You are considered to be the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner if either:

• you were the assessable spouse or civil partner before you or your partner chose separate assessment
  
• you are the spouse or civil partner with higher income if you were never jointly assessed.

If you are considered to be the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner, you are:

• assessed on your full income for the full year as normal
• entitled to the single person’s allowance for the year and the single rate band
• entitled to use unused allowances, reliefs and rate bands of your deceased spouse or civil partner as normal.

If you are not considered to be the assessable spouse or nominated civil partner, you have 2 taxable periods in the year.

Pre-death period

You are assessed on your income from 1 January to the date of death under separate assessment in the normal way.

Post-death period

You are assessed on your income from the date of death to 31 December. In this period you are:

• entitled to the increased personal tax credit available to a widowed person or surviving civil partner tax credit in the year of death for this period
• not entitled to use any remaining unused allowance, reliefs and rate bands from your deceased spouse or civil partner.

Separate treatment

If you were taxed under separate treatment before your spouse or civil partner died, you will receive the increased personal tax credit available to a widowed person or surviving civil partner tax credit in the year of death.

Next: How are you taxed in the years after bereavement?