It’s a stealth tax rise which has been forcing households across the UK to pay more tax for years already, and by 2031 when the Personal Allowance thresholds are finally unfrozen, it will have been stuck at the same level for a decade.

But there are ways to increase your tax-free Personal Allowance and earn or claim up to £28,322 in a single tax year without paying any tax on it thanks to five different HMRC schemes and rules which can theoretically all be claimed together.

The Personal Allowance is set at £12,570, which is the amount you can earn before paying tax on your income. It was last raised in 2021, and was due to be raised again in 2028, but has been frozen for another three years, all the way to 2031.

Because it’s not rising with inflation, more and more people are being pushed into paying tax who previously wouldn’t have, in what’s known as fiscal drag.

But there are several rules which HMRC employs which will allow you to boost the amount of tax-free cash you can take home in a single financial year for those who can take advantage of all of the allowances.

The first is Marriage Allowance. This is worth £252 per tax year, which runs from April to March.

Laura Suter, personal finance expert at AJ Bell, explains: “The marriage allowance is a great way to claim some money back if one half of the couple earns less than £50,270 a year and the other either earns less than £12,570 or doesn’t earn any money at all.

“The government lets those who are married or in a civil partnership share their tax-free earnings allowance each year. It means that if one of you hasn’t used up your personal allowance of £12,570 a year you can hand it over to your partner. That could save you up to £252 in the current tax year. It’s thought around two million couples are eligible for this tax break but not claiming it, and even those where one half of the couple is retired can claim the tax break.”

Next is the £1,00 Trading Allowance. This allows you to earn up to £1,000 tax free from side hustles or other money-making schemes like selling on eBay or Vinted or from walking dogs and other side jobs.

Ms Suter explains: “The good news is that if you earn less than £1,000 a year from your side hustle then you won’t usually need to fill out a tax return. Just make sure you keep track of any relevant paperwork proving your income in case HMRC asks for it later. If you earn more than £1,000 from your side hustle in a tax year you’ll still benefit from the tax break, but you’ll need to fill out a tax return to declare the extra income and pay any relevant tax.”

The rent-a-room scheme is one of the most significant tax-free boosts available.

This is a tax break for anyone who rents out a room in their home, which makes taking in a lodger a great way to generate extra tax-free income.

Ms Suter says: “You can make up to £7,500 a year tax-free through rent-a-room relief, which will save you up to £1,500 a year as a basic-rate taxpayer or £3,000 a year if you pay income tax at 40%.

“You must be renting out a room (or multiple rooms) in your home, rather than a separate flat, and the room must be furnished. But it’s not limited to a room, you can rent out as much of your home as you like. You can also use it if you run a B&B or guest house, so long as it’s in the same property you live in. You don’t even need to own the home to benefit, you could be renting out part of your rental property – however, you’ll need to check that your lease doesn’t prohibit that.

“You don’t have to let the room for a minimum period of time. But be aware that if you own the property jointly with someone and split the income you only get half the relief per person. If you earn less than £7,500 a year from renting out a room you won’t need to fill in a tax return, but if you earn more than the tax-free limit you will.”

Then, tax-free childcare will allow you to claim up to £2,000 a year per child towards the cost of childcare.

Ms Suter says: “The allowance is split into £500 per quarter and requires you to open a tax-free childcare account and pay money in. For every £8 you pay into the account the government will add £2. You then pay the nursery directly from the childcare account.

“Not all parents will be eligible: they must both be working and each earning the minimum wage for 16 hours a week or more, but also earning less than £100,000 adjusted net income per parent.

“You can claim the money per child and use it up until 1 September following their 11th birthday. If you have a disabled child, you can claim up to £4,000 per year up until their 16th birthday. You can also claim tax-free childcare at the same time as claiming the 30-hours of free childcare, assuming you’re eligible for both. You’ll need to log in to your government gateway account and register for tax-free childcare from there, and the government will then approve your account before you can get started.”

Finally, you can make use of the £5,000 tax-free Savings Allowance, aslo known as the Starting Rate for Savings, as long as you earn no more than £12,570. If you earn over that amount but less than £17,570, you can still make use of the scheme, but you lose £1 of the allowance for every £1 over the threshold you are.

Ms Suter says: “Anyone with income of £12,570 or less gets a £5,000 tax-free allowance for their savings income. Called the ‘starting rate for savers’, it means that you don’t pay any tax on the interest on your savings up to £5,000.

“Based on the current top easy-access account savings rate of 5%, that means you could have up to £100,000 in savings before you’d be hit with the tax. If you were taxed on that £5,000 of savings income it would equate to £1,000 of tax for a basic-rate taxpayer – so it’s a very generous tax saving.

“Even if you earn between £12,570 and £17,570 you could still benefit from this tax-free savings allowance, but on a smaller amount. For every £1 of income you earn over £12,570 you lose £1 of the savings interest tax-free allowance. For example, someone who earns £1,000 over the limit will be able to earn £4,000 of savings interest free of tax.

“This trick is particularly handy for couples where one has a low income but as a household they have a decent amount in savings. If you transfer the bulk of the savings to the lower-earning half of the couple you can maximise the tax-free limit. Retiree couples could also find it handy, as if one of them is just reliant on the state pension they will be within the earnings limit and often retirees have large cash savings pots to live off during retirement.”