marriage
The fall out from the IFS' latest study on marriage: time for a grown-up discussion?
Should we really still be arguing about who makes the best parents?
"...The Institute for Fiscal Studies yesterday published a report that found no positive influence of marriage per se on the outcome of children. However, children of married people seem to develop better which can be explained by differences in characteristics of those parents who choose to marry and those who don’t... it is not hard to guess the correlation correctly..."
Tax and Marriage: Perspectives from Europe
A comprehensive analysis of whether tax and marriage really do go together 'like a horse and carriage...'
"...income splitting can be very advantageous for those couples where one partner earns less than the individual tax allowance of £6,475. An example: one spouse earns £4000 per year, the other spouse £12,475. The first pays no tax at all, the second pays tax on £12,475-£6,475=£6,000. At the basic tax rate of 20 percent this is a tax bill of £1,200. Now, let’s apply income splitting. The combined income of the couple if £16,475. Divided by two this is £8,237.50. So each spouse is allocated (for tax purposes) an income of this amount. For tax calculation the personal tax allowance is deducted: tax of 20 percent is paid on £8,237.50 - £6,475 = £1,762.50; the tax take is £352.50 each. Multiplied by two, this is £705, considerably lower than the tax bill of £1,200 in case joint income splitting is not applied. So maybe income splitting should be restricted to those married couples on very low income?..."
Civil Partnerships: An Opportunity And A Test
Oxford University Don and NextLeft contributor, Stuart White, opens a Disraeli Room cross-party debate on the equalities bill, civil partnerships and religious liberty with a call to action
"...The proposed amendment is not intended to place any obligation to host such ceremonies on those faith communities who are unwilling. The supporters of the amendment believe in religious liberty. Those faith communities who wish to be able to host civil partnership registrations on their premises should be free to do so. And those communities with a corporate view against allowing this should be no less free to refuse to do so. Thus, the amendment, placed by Lord Alli before the Lords this Friday afternoon, states that: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, this clause does not oblige any religious organisation to host civil partnership ceremonies if they do not wish to'..."
