Marriage

[debeast]

Do you still get tax breaks if you get married or has all that stopped now ?

[Pal]

Someone asked this a few months ago in a PM and I ran off a list of about 6 tax breaks you get by being married. Unfortunately I deleted the PM and I can't remember half of them now. These will do for now:

No inheritance tax when one of you dies
Tax free transfer of assets between spouses (useful for doubling up capital gains allowances and utilising capital losses by "bed and spousing" your assets.)

I will add any more I think of in due course.

Of course marriage for tax purposes should probably be frowned upon. ;D

[debeast]

Thanks for the info any more would be greatly appreciated :)

unfortunatly Marriage for me definatly wasn't a good money making tip

she loves SHOES :o

[Lawnmower Man]

Pal it was me you sent the PM to and I still have it ;D

Debeast, this is what Pal sent me;

Being able to transfer your allowances to the higher earning partner;
No inheritance tax on death of one of the partners if the estate is transferred to the survivor;
No capital gains if you transfer assets to your spouse;
No potential exemption issues for inheritance tax if you transfer assets to your spouse;
No stamp duty payable if you transfer your house from one name to the other (or from one name to joint names).

You also have to be married to get married persons state pensions (useful if one of you has never earned but the other has), and so on.

Cheers

LM :)

[debeast]

Thnaks for the info :)

[JohnBoy]

The above information was very useful.

I got married about 18 months ago and throughout the whole of tax year 02/03 (and indeed up to 1st June 2003) my wife was not employed or earning any money.
I was in full time employment paying 40% tax through the whole of this period.

Does the above mean that some of my wife's unused personal allowances in 02/03 could be set against my taxable income in that year, thereby reducing my overall tax liability (and so meaning I would be due a tax rebate)????

Or have I got completely the wrong end of the stick. :-[

Thanks in advance for any help.

JohnBoy

[PhiL_P]

I was wondering exactly the same after reading the above - my wife is a stay at home mum and isn't earning so can I use her tax allowance against my income?

Anyone?

[lisyloo]

I don't belive that you can use someone else's personal allowance against your income.

You can however put any savings in the name of your spouse and thereby pay no tax (or a lower rate) on your savings.

[mistral]

Bare in mind the failure of marriage in general and the fact that hardly anyone makes the course .

So In the long run this piece of paper will cost you a lot of money , not only in divorce lawyers but in the loss of your property and pension ect .

It is a shame we do not have good legally binding pre marriage laws to prevent cetain partners of either sex gaining a financial gain with no regard for love.

Note my position softens when children are involved .

I have a real issue with the custody battles and access rights for unmarried couples who split , the dad generally has no rights.

On this basis only, many will marry.

I personally think the reason that many marriages don't last is that people get married too quickly without having lived together to 'experience' each others habits they might find disgusting.

I have been living with my fiancee for 7 years now, going steady for 12 and we are getting married next year. The reason? Not money, but a bloody good excuse to have a really long honeymoon touring South America :D

I'll let you know how we get on ;)


Bare in mind the failure of marriage in general and the fact that hardly anyone makes the course .

So In the long run this piece of paper will cost you a lot of money , not only in divorce lawyers but in the loss of your property and pension ect .

It is a shame we do not have good legally binding pre marriage laws to prevent cetain partners of either sex gaining a financial gain with no regard for love.

Note my position softens when children are involved .

I have a real issue with the custody battles and access rights for unmarried couples who split , the dad generally has no rights.

On this basis only, many will marry.

[savvy]

"I personally think the reason that many marriages don't last is that people get married too quickly without having lived together to 'experience' each others habits they might find disgusting."


Relationships tend to break down due to a lack of communication and compromise ! :-/, !unlike these message boards!! !Its taking me ages to get through all this communication on here! ! ;)

[SuzieQ]

Sorry, but I don't agree that 'living together' prepares you for marriage. If you love someone, you will commit and accept the other, disgusting habits or not. It's complacency and taking each other for granted that causes the problems in a marriage. As for 'Dad's not having rights', it's often the case that fathers don't want to contribute fair maintenance to their spouse for care of the children - women (the main carers) often struggle and (for obvious reasons) become quite bitter towards the 'absent' father. But, hey, what's all this got to do with money saving tips ;)

[nh]

This is nothing to do with money saving but it is a very interesting thread! I have lived with my fiance for nearly two years, we bought our house when we had known each other just six months. We were (are!) just so in love. Living together has made us absolutely certain we can work through anything for the rest of our lives. Communication and having fun together is definitely the key! My brother's sister had been with her boyfriend about 10 years and they got married last year and never lived together. They lived with their parents and they are now struggling to adapt. I say definitely live together before marriage! And if you have ANY doubts, don't ignore them.

[Galstonian]

My brother's sister

Isn't your brother's sister your sister too? ???

[Fran]

Gal - 1) Person
2) Person's brother with one parent the same
3) Person's brother's sister with the other parent of the brother and another different parent.

Or something like that! :)

[nh]

Sorry! I must have got carried away - I meant my fiance's sister, not my brother's sister! Is that a Freudian slip? Don't even go there!

[terrierlady]

spare a thought for us grandparents in all this . when a couple splits we lose out especially if its our sons.Daughters tend to keep the children,so not so bad .we lose contact with the ex partner and then lose the grandchildren who we have come to love so much.A new partner sometimes does not want to know about g/parents from a previous "life".we are lucky emails keep us in touch.

[Fran]

Terrierlady -

You can apply to the court for contact as a grandparent. I'm not sure how successful this is though, and of course you've then got the problem of enforcing the order. Unfortunately the best way is the "amicable agreement", but as you say, this is very often difficult.

[mistral]

Terrierlady, this is a common problem for grandparents when things go wrong .

They can sometimes be the primary carer then loose all contact .

In some ways the same can be said for Fathers of unmarried children .

The woman generally is given custody and will control the rights of access.

One of the worst situations is where the Mother moves away taking the child with her , sometimes to the opposite end of the country .

[Shawz]

Call me "Old Fashioned" if you like but i totally disagree with couples living together before they get married !>:(

Whats wrong with getting married instead of living together.

I've been married for just over a year now and although our first year of marriage has been very tough, we are much happier being married instead of living together. Marriage shows a real commitment to each other. When you are just living together, one of you could just walk away if things got tough. !

Marriage vows(for better, for worse). We had the worse, now time for the better !:)

[Woby_Tide]

Call me "Old Fashioned" if you like but i totally disagree with couples living together before they get married !>:(

Whats wrong with getting married instead of living together.


OK then, you're completely old fashioned.

Whats wrong with living together before you get married?

I'll make a few assumptions but reading your post I'll wager any amount of money that before marriage you lived within 50 miles of your husband, probably even 10. If we were stucjj in the 1900's i might agree but nowadays life is extremely different and apart from outdated institutions like the church i can't see anyopne objecting to people living together before marriage.. On many levels it helps economy with house purchases, on personaly levels it helps people sort out issues etc before they are 'legally' joined. Just remember one size doens;t fit all. It's diversity that makes most countries what they are

[Shawz]

Well, Woby_Tide, you make some interesting comments.

If you were to wager your money I'm afraid you would have lost, as you were slightly out with your assumptions.
Before we got married I lived 180 miles away from my wife. :o
You say that the Church is an outdated institution.
Sadly for many people it is, but not for all.

I take on board your other points but don't agree with all of them. :)

[trafalgar]

I'm with you Shawz but then I've been called old-fashioned too ;D

No living together before marriage and I did it twice ;D

Good luck to you and your wife :)

[Shawz]

Thanks Trafalgar ;)

[filigree]

Being unmarried doesn't prevent nasty financial punch-ups when you break up. You still have to thrash out who gets the property, savings etc. One unmarried couple even went to court to sort out access to the damn dog!

Back to the tax thing - if one spouse isn't working, they might be eligible for Tax Credits, depending on the wage-earner's income.

[Trix]

Call me "Old Fashioned" if you like but i totally disagree with couples living together before they get married !>:(

Whats wrong with getting married instead of living together.

I've been married for just over a year now and although our first year of marriage has been very tough, we are much happier being married instead of living together. Marriage shows a real commitment to each other. When you are just living together, one of you could just walk away if things got tough.

I have no problem with you not agreeing with it for yourself but what is your reason for disagreeing with it for others? (AND with an angry emoticon!)

As you ask 'what's wrong with getting married before living together' (cost of a wedding - I'd rather spend my cash in other ways / not seeing why I need to / hate being centre of attention) I'll ask 'What's wrong with living together before getting married and come to think of it INSTEAD of getting married?

How do you know you're happier being married instead of living together if you haven't done it?
When kids and mortgages are concerned you can't just 'walk away if things got tough' and if you really loved each other you'd work through it married or not, kids and mortgage or not. I'm sure if you're that sort of person you'd walk out if things get tough no matter what your situation (which is why there is so much divorce)

My 'partner' and I have been together almost twelve years, have two children (one is disabled which many marriages can't even survive the pressure of) and a mortgage. We have had only a few rough times which we went to Relate to help us through the first time then worked things out ourselves the rest. He is my best friend and we're still in love (okay everyone go be sick now ;)) REALLY can't see why marriage will change that.

We're together through choice not because 'we can't just walk away because we're married'. It's actually more of a commitment if you use your reasoning - we're free to go during hard times but choose not to because of our love and personal commitment - not because of a legal commitment.

Good luck in your marriage though :). I believe in marriage for everyone that believes in it themselves and would never expect anyone who does believe in it to try living together instead. Each to their own and stand up for what you believe in but don't put down other peoples choices is what I say!

As for the original post - Tax Credits are the only thing I know about which can be claimed if at least one partner is working a minimum of 16 hours per week. Might be better asking on the benefits board. Then again I've just looked at the date of the original post and it was seven months ago ::)
Ah well - someone might have the same burning question ;)

[Shawz]

Well Trix,

I guess I have a lot of my views due to my upbringing and my religious beliefs. If just seems that a lot of people asume everyone will live together before getting married (or instead of) . There are still a few of us that pefer (and think that it's right) to get married instead.

As with everything it's down to personal preference.

Good luck to you and your partner and family :D

[Judi]

I happen to beleive if i am good enough to live with, i am good enough to marry. ;)

Do you accept on-line proposals?


















































Oops, this should have been on the insurance thread!

[Judi]

Shame :(

I guess there is no difference between "living together" and "getting married" if sex is the motivation. Most "living together" couples conveniently confuse sex/lust for love and are therefore happy to go on for as long as the sex is good in the name of "we want to see test the waters before legal commitment. The earlier people realised and acknowledged this the better for their own conscience. ???

[Woby_Tide]

I'm not surprised you've added a confused smiley on the end

I'll add some more because I've no idea what you are saying
??? ??? ???