Newly weds could lose tax advantage
People who have just married could be stripped of tax arrangements that allow them to pay less in the year of the wedding
NEWLY WEDS may lose tax arrangements that allow them to pay less income tax for the year in which they married.
According to Le Figaro, the government wants to change the system as part of a hunt for ways to maximise tax income so as to reduce the national debt.
Under the current rules, if a couple marries in a given year, the partners submit three tax declarations, a personal one each up until the date when they were married, plus a joint one for income from that date to the end of the year. Because of the progressive tax bands, this has the effect of reducing the total paid.
The government is looking at replacing this by making couples make either one joint declaration or two individual ones for the whole of their first year together, said Le Figaro. The change would come in from declarations for 2011 income, made in 2012. People divorcing in a given year would also be affected: they would have to make personal declarations for the whole year in which they divorce, not a joint one and then two personal ones.
The Figaro report has yet to be officially confirmed by the government.
DayWalker Fotolia.com
