'Married couple £1000 tax break' being reported before 2015

veryintrigued

So then - what are the details?

Is it 'nailed on' this will happen?

What does it mean in real terms for all permutations of married tax payers?

Will it be automatic?

Am I too keen?!

anselld

It will presumably allow up to £1000 of existing personal allowance to be transferred. Hence it will only benefit couples where one person does not currently use their personal allowance ( and only by £200).

antonic

Remember that it was the Tories back in the 1990`s that first starting restricting the value of the Married Couples Allowance to first 20% of its value and then 10% of its value and then abolished it completely in 2000.

(It is still available for anyone born before 6th April 1935).

As a total cynic I would say that this is a pre-election bribe, as the next General Election is in 2015 !.

1jim

antonic wrote: »

As a total cynic I would say that this is a pre-election bribe, as the next General Election is in 2015 !.

I'd say you are right, though you saying it made me think about Greece, one of problems in Greece was that successive governments tended to work out which group they needed to win over to win the election, so they gave tax breaks aimed at specific groups....over time most groups had lots of tax breaks and tax revenue went down.................... It's a thought

Tigsteroonie

Well, if it's intended as a bribe, it's not going to work for me - it's not big enough.

At the moment I fall into two tax categories:

• Single for the purpose of tax allowance
• Part of a couple for the purpose of tax credits

In the future I could add:

• Married for the purpose of transferring 1/10 of my tax allowance

Is it any wonder the country is in a mess? We can't even decide people's status.

Forget this. Make sharing tax allowances optional - but tie it to credits/benefits so that you can't be a couple for one and single for another. Don't penalise those who don't marry (why aren't civil partnerships available to all?) And merge CB into CTC.

^^That's the basis of my manifesto - who wants to vote for me?!!!!

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

It's an absolutely disgraceful policy designed to support outdated Tory ideas of what a family should be. Anyone who's in favour of this should be ashamed of themselves.

longforgotten

Hey, I'm married, and I'll take anything that's offered.....

If you chose not to get married that is your choice. You have not made a formal commitment to each other as again you have chosen not to for some reason.

Living together can be for a life time or for five minutes. At least getting married shows that you have made a commitment and if anything should happen, say a spouse dies, you know exactly how things are.

Just be cynical about it and get married........it is your choice and it doesn't have to be an expensive 'do' !

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

wonderful, £20 a month. But hang on, it is only if the current Ms BoP does not use all her allowance.

brewerdave

Watching it reported on BBC this a.m I'm not sure how they get the figure of 4 million couples to benefit - just did a quick calculation on our possible situation after my wife's planned retirement date in 2016 (on full state pension and VERY modest final salary scheme pension) and both of us will be over the expected tax free allowance figure. Poor but nor poor enough!!!

Tigsteroonie

I have already formally linked myself to Marley by virtue of declaring both incomes for a joint tax credit claim. Why should we need to be married for a different (small) tax refund? My point is that there shouldn't be different criteria - you are either a couple for tax purposes, or you aren't.

datlex

I think it is totally on fair on those of us who are unmarried and live on our own. We pay by far a bigger percentage of our income in tax compared to couples who live together already regardless of whether they are married or not. I'd love to see for once some support for those who live on their own. (the 25% council tax discount still means we pay more than each person in a couple pays).