If you're blind or partially sighted we offer advice on tax issues and can explain the main tax allowances, benefits and concessions that you could be entitled to.
You can get in touch with our Tax Advice service team if you or someone you care for needs our help by calling our Helpline on 0303 123 9999, 8am-8pm weekdays and 9am-1pm on Saturdays, or by emailing us at [email protected].
You can also download our tax allowance, tax tips and VAT relief factsheets:
Are you using your digital Personal Tax Account yet? Access your account and find out about the services available here.
Our Cost of Living: advice on Tax video helps summarise and identify what tax allowances you may be entitled to.
Blind Person’s Allowance is an extra amount of tax-free allowance, find out below whether you are entitled.
The Blind Person's Allowance is added to your tax-free Personal Allowance and increases the amount of income you can have each year before you start paying tax.
The Blind Person's Allowance for the tax year 2024-25 is £3,070, regardless of your age or income.
Find out more Blind Persons Allowance
If you’re married or in a civil partnership and one of you earns less than £12,570, you could benefit from the Marriage Allowance.
Marriage Allowance lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner if they earn more than you. This reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year (6 April to 5 April the next year). To benefit as a couple, you (as the lower earner) must have an income of £12,570 or less. Your partner must be a basic rate taxpayer.
You can backdate your claim to include any tax year since 6 April 2020 that you were eligible for Marriage Allowance.
Find out more Marriage Allowance
We work with different teams across RNIB, as well as other organisations, and can refer you to services to make sure you are getting all the help you need. Below are a few case studies of some of the people we've helped.
Andrew was referred to our tax team by an RNIB Sight Loss Adviser, following a benefit check. Andrew had recently been registered severely sight impaired and was paying tax on his occupational pension.
We advised him about the Blind Person’s Allowance. Andrew is married and was born in 1933. We also informed him about the Married Couple’s Allowance which he was not aware of. We called HMRC with Andrew and claimed Blind Person’s Allowance and Married Couple’s Allowance which was backdated four years. As a result, Andrew will pay no tax in the future and he received a refund of £2,500.
Following the benefit check, Andrew was awarded the higher rate of Attendance Allowance. He was very grateful for all our help. He was not aware of these benefits previously and he would not have been able to make these claims without our help.
James is registered severely sight impaired (blind) and explained his only income is a monthly payment from a company income protection plan which is taxed at source. James contacted us for help with claiming Blind Person’s Allowance and to check he was paying the correct amount of tax.
We called HMRC with James, they had no record of the insurance payments and advised these policies are usually not taxable. James was certain he had paid more than £5,000 in tax. On further investigation, we found the company were paying tax to HMRC under CT61 (Income Tax on company payments). The company had been deducting tax at 20 per cent on the whole payment and James had not received a Personal Allowance or the Blind Person’s Allowance since 2016.
James was advised to complete tax returns for all years since 2016 and going forward. An appointment was arranged with HMRC to complete the tax returns. Following this, James was informed that he had overpaid £6,000 in tax in the last 4 years which was refunded to him. James was thrilled with this and said he wouldn’t have known about this without our help.
Mary and Brian are an elderly married couple and were referred to our tax service by RNIB’s Advice Service. We spoke to Mary about the Marriage Allowance which she thought had already been claimed. Their biggest concern was Brian’s occupational pension had stopped being paid. We looked into this and found the missing pension was a lifetime pension from a previous employer.
We contacted HMRC who told us the pension had ceased in 2019/20. We contacted the pension provider and found the pension had stopped due to incorrect bank account details being used. Brian provided the correct details to the pension provider, and they issued a pension back payment of £9,325 and reinstated his regular monthly pension payments.
Once we had sorted out the pension problems, we called HMRC again and found the Marriage Allowance had in fact not been claimed. HMRC added the Marriage Allowance to Brian’s tax code and backdated the claim to four previous tax years. The couple received a tax refund and are very grateful to RNIB as they did not know where to turn to for help.
