Married couples 'punished by tax system'

cocktail

DW123 wrote: »

Hear, hear!!

I live with my partner who cannot work due to a serious disability. Having worked for 17yrs her employment was terminated through ill health. My salary is the sole income (she does get incapacity benefit though & DLA). Here's where some of you will disagree with me. I am a 40% taxpayer and with what's left over when the treasury has taken their share is used to pay mortgage, household bills, etc and raise a 5 yr old. The couple across the road both have jobs (both lower band tax payers). My gripe is they are allowed to keep a larger proportion of their cobmined income even though they earn slightly less than our total household income. Their son is also 5 and at school age, no childcare costs.

Furthermore because the cmbined income is more than the threshold for child tax credits we get nothing. They get something.

all this discussion just shows how complicated the system has become.
Tax should be based on individual income,not house hold income.

I think in your case DW123,both what u may feel and what the couple down the road may feel about the situatio , can be justified.this is because the system is wrong.

This cannot be fair. Income tax should be based on gross houseehold income.

individual income tax is what it says,

DW123_2

individual income tax is what it says,

yeh i know, i was gonna talk about something connected to the quote but then went off on one. Sorry for the irrelevance!

MissMoneypenny

Cat695 wrote: »

Sorry NDG I can't marry you now if I'm going to be 20% worse off

I thought you were female!

brummybloke

chewmylegoff wrote: »

what those benefits really represent is what your wife would get if you did genuinely leave her. not some extra money you could get if you disingenuously (or rather, illegally) structured your relationship differently.

i'm assuming that your wife doesn't work if the benefit of you moving out would be that high. if that's the case then what do you think the appropriate system should be, should you decide to walk out on her? what benefits should she get to raise a child on her own if you genuinely left?

the only reason that the figure appears warped to you is that you are considering as extra money you could get if you broke the law.

im not married, so it would not be 'breaking the law'.
my mrs doesnt work at the moment, we have moved areas and she couldnt transfer her job. i earn too much apparently for her to get any kind of job seekers allowance or such like, that there is £50 per week.
she could get a part time job and then get topped up to £15k through working tax credits instead.
she would be entitled to free housing as having a child under 16 gives her this right, no council tax plus mine reduced.
free nursery equates to £40 per day, 5 days per week, well that in itself is £200 per week.

there are several other benefits she would also get, one off grants and such like.

but because we live as a family we get nothing, no tax breaks, no job seekers allowance for her,no free nursery, she gets £19 per week child benefit, that is it, nothing else. we live apart, then booooom she gets all of the above, then i rent out my house which i had before i met her, move into the social housing as a family again and you can then add on an extra £750 per month in rental income on my place.

hence my original point, if we lived apart we would be cash in pocket £22k at the very least better off per year

cocktail

DW123 wrote: »

Hear, hear!!

I live with my partner who cannot work due to a serious disability. Having worked for 17yrs her employment was terminated through ill health. My salary is the sole income (she does get incapacity benefit though & DLA). Here's where some of you will disagree with me. I am a 40% taxpayer and with what's left over when the treasury has taken their share is used to pay mortgage, household bills, etc and raise a 5 yr old. The couple across the road both have jobs (both lower band tax payers). My gripe is they are allowed to keep a larger proportion of their cobmined income even though they earn slightly less than our total household income. This cannot be fair. Income tax should be based on gross houseehold income.


Furthermore because the cmbined income is more than the threshold for child tax credits we get nothing. They get something.

income tax should be based on individual incomes not gross household incomes.
DW123 , what u feel about the situation and what the couple down ur road may feel about the situation may both be justified.
The system has become too complicated and may need to be replaced by a simpler one where there are no benefits for children and parents have to work to support their children according to the lifestyle they want to pursue.. Perhaps increasing the threshold for income tax and therby giving more money in hand to all individuals to do as they want, spend on children's needs, education, etc or on fags/bingo/,,,,the lst goes on.

SingleSue

What free nursery? I do know that every child (regardless of family income) is able to have free nursery from the age of 3 but these were never anywhere near £40 per day anyway.

She may be entitled to social housing but the reality is that there are actually very few available..any part time earnings she would be bringing in would be taken off the housing benefit so earn too much and she would not get it, the same with council tax benefit (apart from the 25% single person reduction).

It may not be breaking the law in an official sense (although it sails pretty close to the wind) but it is morally wrong.

Also, what one off grants? I have never received any of those.

CFC

DW123 wrote: »

Hear, hear!!

I live with my partner who cannot work due to a serious disability. Having worked for 17yrs her employment was terminated through ill health. My salary is the sole income (she does get incapacity benefit though & DLA). Here's where some of you will disagree with me. I am a 40% taxpayer and with what's left over when the treasury has taken their share is used to pay mortgage, household bills, etc and raise a 5 yr old. The couple across the road both have jobs (both lower band tax payers). My gripe is they are allowed to keep a larger proportion of their cobmined income even though they earn slightly less than our total household income. This cannot be fair. Income tax should be based on gross houseehold income.


Furthermore because the cmbined income is more than the threshold for child tax credits we get nothing. They get something.

Sorry, what you appear to be saying in essence is that they earn less than you, so they get tax credits and that's not fair?

If you recall, one of the reasons the married credit and joint tax thing was done away with was because it predicates one person having all financial knowledge about the other in a relationship.

longtimelurker_2

Does this really just apply to married couples - or does it mean married or living together as if you are married (as they like to term it)?

treliac

CFC wrote: »

If you recall, one of the reasons the married credit and joint tax thing was done away with was because it predicates one person having all financial knowledge about the other in a relationship.

I wouldn't want a marital 'relationship' where it was witheld.

chewmylegoff

brummybloke wrote: »

im not married, so it would not be 'breaking the law'.
my mrs doesnt work at the moment, we have moved areas and she couldnt transfer her job. i earn too much apparently for her to get any kind of job seekers allowance or such like, that there is £50 per week.
she could get a part time job and then get topped up to £15k through working tax credits instead.
she would be entitled to free housing as having a child under 16 gives her this right, no council tax plus mine reduced.
free nursery equates to £40 per day, 5 days per week, well that in itself is £200 per week.

there are several other benefits she would also get, one off grants and such like.

but because we live as a family we get nothing, no tax breaks, no job seekers allowance for her,no free nursery, she gets £19 per week child benefit, that is it, nothing else. we live apart, then booooom she gets all of the above, then i rent out my house which i had before i met her, move into the social housing as a family again and you can then add on an extra £750 per month in rental income on my place.

hence my original point, if we lived apart we would be cash in pocket £22k at the very least better off per year

so in order to get this you would need to defraud the system, as you would be renting out the house you live in now, and all living in the social housing she gets for being a single mother.

so you would be breaking the law, married or not. essentially the only way for her to get those benefits would be for you to pretend that you're not living with her when you really are, or for you to actually split up.