Any downsides to not getting married?

Mojisola

NannyV wrote: »

Anyway, so could we still get the same inheritance privileges if we don't get married but set of the relevant documents with a solicitor? As that would be a decision maker .... if the tax man benefited a lot from us not marrying!

No.

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/intro/basics.htm

NannyV

Mojisola wrote: »

No.

www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/intro/basics.htm

So if we don't get married, and have a house valued at 700k, and both of us died, the children would get 325k tax free but the other 325 would be hit with inheritance tax ....... if we were married they wouldn't pay tax on the 700k as we would have transferred over the other 325?

angeltreats

Lovelyjoolz wrote: »

Oh and while there's no tax benefit (other than inheritance tax) to being married at the moment, Iain Duncan Smith is supposed to be introducing something next year. Might only be about £100 tho!

There is another tax benefit actually - if you have stocks & shares or anything subject to CGT, you can transfer them between spouses with no tax liability which means you essentially get two CGT allowances every year.

Re the IHT question in the post below - a similar thing applies in that you can pass assets from one spouse to another without using your IHT nil rate band. If for example you have a house worth £700k, you're not married and one of you dies, if the surviving spouse inherits the whole house it would use up the dead spouse's nil rate band (plus there would be a bit of IHT to pay on top of that, as half the house is £375k, so 40% of £50k). When the second spouse died they would have their own £325k NRB to use, so the taxable part of the house would be 700k - 325k = 375k so the IHT bill would be £150,000.

I have had more than a bit to drink and am not explaining this well at all, sorry.

Mrs_Ryan

I'm down as my OH's emergency contact on his mental health records rather than his next of kin- that's his Dad. However it's also quite uniquely stated that if there are decisions to be made re his mental health care I'm to make them and he doesn't want certain family members involved. It's also stated that his Mum and her family are not to be told anything as they are estranged. When I went into hospital again my next of kin was down as my mum- I'm happy for her to make any decision for me as she is a retired nurse and she knows what I think. I wouldn't frankly want OH making any decisions about my care and even if we were married I would request that he not be named as my NOK. However I've seen situations where someone died alone as their partner wasn't allowed to be with them and they had no other family which I don't think is right.

Mojisola

Here's another couple of benefits only available to married people -

https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/overview

https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-allowance/overview

claire16c

loulou123 wrote: »

We were together 14 years before getting married, and on a daily basis being married makes no difference, but its the NOK reason that made us decide to get married in end....along with all the normal reasons!

I had a major op and as I was in intensive care only immediate family were allowed in and that didn't count my now husband, he did get into see me eventually but it caused him stress when all he wanted to do was see me.

Then my hubby was really ill and ended up unconscious in hospital, and the staff wouldn't tell me anything until they'd spoken to his mum (his NOK at that time.)

This was the kick we needed to make it official.

Out of interest if something like this were to happen again and it was a case of not being allowed into a room (rather than say signing for an operation ) what if he's just said 'I'm her husband'. It's not like they check or would have any way of checking anyway.

But obviously you'd probably be in too much of a panic to think well they might not let me so ill lie, but just seems strange they wouldn't even let him in.

claire16c

NannyV wrote: »

Hi, can I jump on this thread?

We really need to make a Will and get finances/nok sorted, where do I start? Who do I use, will one solicitor do it all? What is the average cost?

Other half and I have been together for 12 years and have 3 children together, a joint mortgage, he earns significantly more than me and pays all the mortgage and bills etc. out of his account, I have my own seperate account and put money into savings and pay for stuff for the kids/holidays etc. We also each do one ISA a year and then split the rest of the cash into savings equally in each name.

We contemplated getting married in a registry office for the reasons of us not having wills etc. and inheritance tax ..... but just felt un-easy doing this as that isn't what Ive always seen marriage as! I never wanted to get married, hated big days etc. and my Mum always 'put up' with my dad and his affairs and his rages because 'you have to work at marriages' ..... that is why I have never wanted to get married.

Anyway, so could we still get the same inheritance privileges if we don't get married but set of the relevant documents with a solicitor? As that would be a decision maker .... if the tax man benefited a lot from us not marrying!

I would get a will done ASAP to make sure you have someone named to take care of your children id be more worried about that than anything else if you don't have one right now.

You have to work at relationships too & you are not a carbon copy of your parents, if your husband ever had an affair which he could do whether you were married or not you could boot him out if you like! If you don't like the idea of a huge day then why not do the registry office thing? If you always saw marriage as a big faff then surely doing the registry office would be a good rather than bad thing?