'Should married couples get a tax break?' poll discussion

2loula

Tax is tax on a person, nothing to do with bribing people to love eachother ! Next you will have to go to church to get tax relief ( Bet the idiot does it too ! ). Make it simple and clear and hopefully less people will get away with avoiding it.

Paul_Herring

adriantanis wrote: »

1) As a married couple, the two of you can only consider one main home to be capital gains tax free. If you're not married, you're allowed two homes cgt free.

In order for this scheme to work, the 2nd partner has to be 'living' in their home. Which means 2 people paying single person's council tax on 2 properties.

jrawle

No there should not be tax breaks, either for married couples or those in a relationship. Or else, are the government going to pay for dating site subscriptions?

There is always an assumption that single people choose to be single. While a small minority might, many do not. Not only do those people already have to pay extra council tax (75% instead of 50% for a couple living together) they also face loneliness. Too many people already feel pressured into "finding" themselves a relationship for social or financial reasons, and this ultimately results in more divorces, more broken families, because the two people weren't really right for each other in the first place.

So no, there should be no extra incentive to rush into a relationship. Instead, perhaps some of the discrimination that exists against single people should be addressed. It's now one of the few groups of people against whom discrimination is quite legal, and given that most people don't choose to belong to the group, and can already be unhappy with their lives through no fault of their own, it's about time this was tackled, not made worse.

zygurat789

The point is that governments influence the behaviour of the individual by taxation, ie increase in tobacco duty to reduce smoking and pension relief to encourage savings.
If the government decides, in its wisdom, that marriage is a good thing then it can arrange to reduce the taxes on married couples and as discussed above this would have the effect of increasing the incidence of marriage in society.
The state of marriage gives rise to certain extra responsibilities which are harder to relinquish with a formal contract in place. It is this avoidance of the responsibilities which has given rise to the increase in single mothers, to the creation of the CSA. It is also the avoidance of this responsibility which gives rise to more unhappyness than being held together by a contract.
To all those who think that this would cost other taxpayers money yes you're right and you deserve to pay it for behaving, according to the government, in an antisocial way.

Paul_Herring

zygurat wrote:

ie increase in tobacco duty to reduce smoking

Are you serious? All increasing tobacco duty does is decrease the tax take due to increasing numbers of people sourcing their nicotine from outside the UK tax system, and keeps the anti-smokers happy because they think the government is doing something about smoking.

zygurat789

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Are you serious? All increasing tobacco duty does is decrease the tax take due to increasing numbers of people sourcing their nicotine from outside the UK tax system, and keeps the anti-smokers happy because they think the government is doing something about smoking.

There's none so blind etc.

chrissie121

robin_banks wrote: »

Not married, been with my partner for 6 years, have 2 kids. Why should a married couple get a 'tax break' over us simply because we're not married.

Why not???

alleykat67

Can anyone explain why single parents (who may be alone for all sorts of reasons, not necessarily through their own choice) should be penalised? Bringing up a child is a serious and expensive responsibility and most single parents do the best job they can. Of course it is better in most instances for children to be brought up by 2 loving parents, but sometimes it is not possible. Sometimes it is better for a child to be brought up by 1 loving parent rather than in an unhappy household or with a parent who is abusive and doesn't want to be there. :embarasse I think the Conservative Party may be underestimating the reaction of single parents to this discriminatory proposal.

Dave101t

single parents would not be penalised, simply married couples would be rewarded. there is a difference.

Paul_Herring

chrissie121 wrote: »

robin_banks wrote:

Not married, been with my partner for 6 years, have 2 kids. Why should a married couple get a 'tax break' over us simply because we're not married.

Why not???

Because marriage is a religious thing, not a political thing (despite the politicians meddling with it)?

Why should a couple be 'discriminated' against because of some religious ceremony, in which the - let's be honest - religion doesn't really mean that much to many people these days?