Money expert Martin Lewis has urged UK households to claim as much as £274 from HMRC with two tax loopholes which you can ‘backdate’ for the past four years – but there’s a deadline coming in April.

Martin returned on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on Tuesday to urge people to claim any tax allowances that they may be owed before the new tax year starts on April 6. That’s because these tax claims can be backdated for the past four years, but from April, the furthest-back tax year – 2020-21 – will no longer be claimable, which means any money you’re owed from these two claims will no longer be available to claim backdated.

There are several different tax allowances you can claim going back to 2020, but two of them which Martin talked his viewers through could be worth £262 together for the financial year 2020, which will no longer be claimable from April 6, 2025.

First, the Marriage Tax Allowance. This is where couples who are married legally are able to transfer some of their tax-free allowance to their partner if they don’t work. This is worth £1,250 if you backdate your claim for four years but the £250 for the 2020-21 year will no longer be available after April.

Martin explained: “You need to be married or in a civil partnership. Just cohabiting with kids doesn’t count. This is where the non-taxpayer can give 10% of their tax-free allowance to the 20% taxpayer (40% it doesn’t count), and therefore they have more income that they can earn without paying tax on it.

“It’s worth about £250 a year, you can back claim four years, that’s about £1,250 but if you were eligible four years ago in 2020-21, you need to claim now or you’re about to lose the ability to back-claim to that tax year.

“It’s a big subject I covered it in detail in the show on February 13, watch that back.”

Martin also said that if you wear a uniform to work you could benefit from a tax reclaim all the way back to 2020 as well.

He added: “It could be a branded t-shirt, it could be a full uniform. If you do and you wash and repair it yourself, then you can claim a tax rebate, it’s the P80 form on gov.uk you do not need to pay anyone to do this for you.

“You get £60 a year allowance so if you’re a basic rate taxpayer you get 20% of that, £12 a year, higher rate taxpayer it would be double that because you’re paying 40% tax.

“It’s not huge, it would be £60 going back this year and four previous years, £24 going back that way but it’s worth checking out – the uniform tax rebate.”

In total, together both of those claims made for 2020-21 could be worth between £262 for a basic rate taxpayer, or just £24 for a higher rate taxpayer (not £274, because higher rate 40% taxpayers cannot claim the Marriage Tax Allowance).

But there are other things you can backdate to 2020 too which could be worth even more.

Martin also talked about PPI payouts in 2020, adding: “It was a big year for PPI payouts. Check right now. Many unnecessarily had tax deducted from their payouts. Tax was deducted automatically, it’s the same tax as savings.

“It was taken off you, but most people can earn £1,000 a year of interest in savings without paying tax so shouldn’t have been paying it. If so, you can claim the tax back via the government R40 form on gov.uk.

“It’s easy to do it yourself, don’t pay anyone. You may need some help in which case there are free PPI payout reclaim guides online that you can read that will take you through it.”

The Martin Lewis Money Show Live is still available to watch on ITVX.