Separate tax returns when jointly assessed

A friend is jointly assessed with her husband. He is self employed but she is a PAYE worker. Can she submit a separate PAYE tax return? She has made pension avcs on which she wants to reclaim tax but due to disputes between them about money she would rather do this outside a joint return. It is a rather tough situation and I am trying to help out and so I would be grateful for any advice. Happy Christmas everyone.

I'm pretty certain that someone can't be partially jointly assessed and partially separately assessed. It's all-in or all out!

She could go online and tweak the tax credits between the two of them so she'd get the full benefit of the avc tax credit, but in that case, he'd become aware because he would be issued a new TCC.

She also has the options of requesting either separate assessment or separate treatment, but in either case my understanding is that her spouse would need to confirm the new arrangement online.

If jointly assessed, refunds will also be issued jointly, not just to the relevant person e.g. in the case of AVC's.

Thanks everyone for that very helpful information

Itchy said:

If jointly assessed, refunds will also be issued jointly, not just to the relevant person e.g. in the case of AVC's.

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The tax refund will be divided according to the amount of tax that was paid by each partner. If the husband is paying a lot more tax than the wife then he will be paid more than half of the AVC refund. She can submit a separate return but this may not be as tax efficient as a joint return.