Now we’ve all had a while to consider the chancellor’s inheritance tax (IHT) allowance decisions and realised that he hasn’t really given us anything. It is merely a different way of giving people what they all should have had before if they had their wills and taxes arranged correctly – the full £600,000 nil rate band tax allowance.
There’s no further help for unmarried people, who are unfairly tax inefficient, so perhaps we will see a rise in same sex couples entering into civil partnerships in order to take advantage of these tax provisions. This will give both parties the full £600,000 allowance of IHT payments to be balanced between them as they find fit.
On a serious note many writers on this subject can see widows and widowers getting together in a marriage relationship also, to make the most of the tax advantages. There could be a boom for the over 65’s getting married for tax reasons. We haven’t heard about getting married for tax saving reasons since a previous government did away with MIRAS, mortgage interest relief at source.
In 2006 it was reported that marriage rates had slumped to an all time low with statistics from the Office for National Statistics showing a 10% fall in 2005. Are these statistics about to make a u-turn? Separate ONS figures showed that there were 18,000 civil partnerships in the first year following its introduction in December 2005.
Did our government really mean to put this situation to those who are in the positions mentioned above? It has long been a government focus to sway towards the married fraternity as opposed to the unmarried section. Is this their way of getting unmarried people to the alter?
If you’re still wondering about Chuck and Larry, then you’ll find the movie information on the internet. It’s a comedy about two guys who marry for tax and pension reasons.
