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

kilapot

DLK wrote: »

Maybe be some tax break for couples where one parent doesn't work because you have young children and wish to stay at home with them. There appears to be benefits available to help parents back to work and pay childcare costs, where is the break for parents looking after their own children?

hmmmm transfering your tax benefit to your partner...... isn't that still possible? I dunno but it used to be and SHOULD apply to civil partnerships even the same sex ones.....and to those co-habitors with children thats only fair. So i somewhat doubt you're gonna have 'sham marriages and sham kids' juts to get a tax merge.

Hmmmm... by they way I hate the lack of 'single male in a rush for a pack of beer' car parking spaces at my local supermarket.

harryhound

Now that some benefits are paid through the tax credit system, I bet there are lots of fake families in the system (kids that have grown up kids that have died parents with two jobs etc. etc.)
The howls of rage when the tax man catches up with the "forgotten" changes in personal circumstances, tends to support my hypothesis.

Paul_Herring

kilapot wrote: »

hmmmm transfering your tax benefit to your partner...... isn't that still possible?

Only if at least one of you were born before 6 April 1935: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/married-allow.htm

magicdogsbrain

I don’t think its fair that my Mrs and I are far worse off than a couple earning the same combined income but more equally balanced (wife works part time and I am well into 40% threshold).
I really like the idea of couples with children being able to share and apportion their combined tax threshold between them.

Marriage should not be the criterion - it should be couples living together with children. I dont know how you would police it.

Mabaggins

Current CTC is calculated for married and co-habiting couples. so a new sharing of tax credits should be done on the same basis. They have no problems doing it for CTC.
It would be wrong to not include us cohabiting couples from this tax break and count us as 'married' for CTC. As in my own rights i would be due more CTC. They cannot have it both ways.
Also why tax us as a couple all our lives then when we die we are taxed as non-related and are hit by inheritance tax as we are not married.

toracat

Married with 1 kid.
Tax break would be very useful. Husband too ill to work, but no diagnosis so can't get any benefit status for illness and can;t get jobseekers. Child benefit and small amount tax credits (i work full time). Child unable to go to nursery as can't afford fees.
Have prescription prepayment cert for him.
I earn less than if the 2 of us were on minimum wage.
if we had a tax break, or if our earning before tax levels were added together into a 'couples' one, then would make things lot easier

teddyco

Again, I feel that the issue over tax has once again been diverted away from the real problem.

The biggest problem with the current tax system involves three things:

1. Taxes are currently too high.
2. Too much money is wasted by the government and given to the wrong people in the UK.
3. The people who possess the majority of the wealth in the UK are not paying their fair share of taxes. This includes the numerous non-doms and other wealthy individuals who benefit from the UK economy but cleverly dodge the system by 'living' on the Isle of Man, Monaco or Switzerland.

For example, in a 2007 article in the Times, Warren Buffet was paying a 17.7% tax rate while a worker earning $60,000 was paying 30%
of his earnings in taxes. I would assume that those same injustices are happening here in the UK too.

Arguing over tax breaks for married couples is like trying to put out a forest fire with a paper cup full of water.

harryhound

We are all falling for being bribed to vote for a repayment of our own money.

That said there are a number of people in this country who would find it difficult to earn (say) five dollars a day in a global economy.

Mark_Beech

I am sitting here with steam literally coming out of my ears!

Does it not occur to all the selfish marrieds out there that they are sharing the costs of running a household and that (some of them) are already subsidised by the state via child benefits and family credit and maternity pay etc etc.
Guess who contributes to all this government largesse without benefitting from it .......... single people living alone .... of which there are more than 10 million in this country.

People who have been lucky enough to meet someone they can share their life with have no idea how blessed they are.

I am middle aged and still single .... largely due to significant ill health throughout my life. I still have to run a household and (on my own) pay all the same bills as couples, not benefit from meals for two or multiple special offers or bigger loaves of bread etc etc.

I guess its not really surprising that (seemingly) all the marrieds voted to give themselves more income at the expense of single people.

Oh ...... and guess who takes up the slack when parents go off from work on Maternity/paternity leave.

Rant over.

irishwench69

Hey everyone

Interesting debate so far! Looking at this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6992961.ece

My opinion? This is more a symbolic gesture about the value of a stable family unit and how marriage helps towards that, than some anti-single legislation.

There is a lot of evidence out there to suggest that marriage is important when raising children, even more so than those in a committed relationship. Old fashioned? Maybe, but it does seem to be true!

While there will always be exceptions to this (single parents, maybe widows / widowers), they can often get support from other areas / credits, and it is time for someone to stand up for marriage and the value of this for creating a stable family environment.

I would ideally like to see this bought in for all marriages, but can see the need to ration this, at least initially, considering the state of the economy. Lets face it, a lot of problems currently are down to not having a stable familly environment - anything we can do to encourage famillies to stay together should be a good thing surely?

Oh and btw, I'm living with someone, not married, no kids......so my view isn't based on all the money I'd be rolling in if this came in

IW x