Should married couples be taxed jointly, sharing their allowances and tax bands?
The UK has taxed adults individually since independent taxation was introduced in 1990. Married couples and civil partners can currently transfer up to £1,260 of unused personal allowance if one partner is a non-taxpayer and the other a basic-rate taxpayer, worth up to £252 a year. A small Married Couple’s Allowance worth up to £1,170 in tax reduction also remains for those born before 6 April 1935.
16 Opinions
Pushing either married or unmarried people in any financial way is completely unfair. The system could be improved but not at the expense of either. This is why the Government needs to find another way.
Households, regardless of marriage status, should be judged by the sum of their earnings.
YES with a BUT Only if it include all forms of relationships, otherwise many will miss out. Simply because many in the UK today don't see the needed to 'get married', just to satisfy the beliefs of an outdated fairy tail spun by our religious leaders. So it must include all those in civil partnerships or any other form of long term relationship equally..
We do not want to do anything that either incentivises or disincentivises marriage for tax reasons. Marriage should be a personal decision for the couple involved, not a financial decision made to game the tax system, and this change would set up all kinds of perverse incentives.
It's particularly unfair when you consider for all the negatives such as a family / couple having too much money or income is used against them in terms of benefits but never in their favour
Society should support stable families. this is one way to do that.
Yes but only for monogamous marriages. I can see it being abused by those whose religions allow polygamy.
Tax allowances should be shared between a MARRIED couple, with extra allowances for being married and for each child born. The system needs to incentivise marriage and family!
Yes. A marriage is one household. Taxing them as two strangers punishes the single-earner family. Share the allowance and the bands. The tiny transfer we have now is a gesture. Independence is not served by pretending the home has no joint bill. Design it so the second earner is not trapped. Recognise the family first.
It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing, it could apply only to couples with a non/low earner. It's mad the difference between a single earner on 60k or a couple both on 30k. It pushes both to get jobs when we know that there are many vital roles that are not employed work.