Advised to get married whilst doing wills

[mustytrusty]

Went to a solicitor with DP today to arrange our wills. We have mortgage, two dc's and been together 23 years. Have been advised that for tax reasons we should think about getting married.

I have no desire to be married. Not to him or anyone else, and I never have wanted to be.

Does anyone know if there's a campaign to make the tax situation for long-term couples
mirror that of married couples?

Boggles my mind that in this day and age unmarried couples can be treated differently than married.

You can do a civil partnership now, it’s not just for gay couples. I’d do that or very simple register office wedding with just the children and a couple of friends / family members to act as witnesses.

No the tax exemptions which apply to spouses and civil partners apply only to spouses and civil partners. How would you define “long term partner” and how would you prove that status to HMRC?

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/registering-a-civil-partnership/

No there isn’t. The government wants to encourage marriage (hence the tax breaks).

I’ve often seen it said on here why should partners get the same benefits as spouses when they’ve gone through the process of making legal obligations to each other? I agree, for the sole reason it PROTECTS the person who doesn’t want to provide the same benefits and protections as marriage offers. Think of it like this - if someone moves their partner in, why should the person moving automatically get a claim on the property or half their assets etc. It would be a nightmare and so many wouldn’t get into serious relationships.

It must be OPT IN. You opt in by getting married.

If someone wants the benefits of marriage like tax relief, just get married.

If you want to save on IHT and residential nil rate band; get married.

If not, don’t.

@GhoulWithADragonTattoo
can you? I didn't know that. I'm not sure what that entails. I'll have a look.

I'm still interested to know why having a piece of paper trumps having a joint mortgage and shared children though. I just don't really understand why it matters when it comes to tax purposes.

If you want the protections, get married or a civil partnership.

DH and I are exactly the same as pre-marriage. No rings, no title or name changes. We don’t even have a joint bank account. We married 20 years ago. It was literally a piece of paper for us.

As far as I’m aware the answer is no. I think though they are looking at making inheritance tax even wider in its capture of assets and therefore more expensive. Your solicitor is giving you very sound financial/legal advice.
reliefs for inheritance tax

taken from google search :

What are the changes to inheritance tax in 2027?
But from 6 April 2027, that exemption is set to end. Under the new rules: Unused defined contribution pensions (such as SIPPs) will be included in your taxable estate on death and may be subject to 40% inheritance tax, depending on your total assets. 8 Jul 2025
https://www.clearcutfp.co.uk
New Pension IHT Rules in 2027: What This

the government has an easy solution for long term couples. Marriage or civil partnership is the government recognizing that your relationship is a legal and economic partnership. From the government’s perspective, it has no more meaning than filling out business incorporation papers. Why would they need to create a new process when one already exists?

Marriage/civil partnerships are legal processes.

If it’s the fancy day and the expense you don’t like, you don’t have to have that.

The State provides two different forms of very cheap contract you can enter into with your partner to obtain tax advantages. If you don't want to enter into either of those I think that's on you.

And yes. As said above, you can enter a civil partnership for the same benefits. It’s been an option for quite some time now, and may suit those who don’t wish to be known as husband and wife.

We went the civil partnership route , been together 30+ years, 2 kids, but wanted the tax protection from a legally recognised position. Very low key, simple meeting, no vows or speeches. Definitely worth it

Or register office staff can act as witnesses if you don’t want to invite anyone at all.

I started a similar post a while ago OP because it didn’t seem fair to me that the surviving partner might have to sell their home to cover the IHT bill when their partner died. I got absolutely slated

It boggles my mind that someone would want to have children with someone they didn’t want to marry, but each to his (or her) own!

How would you decide when to treat unmarried couples the same as married ones, if not by having an institution like marriage in which both partners make a clear commitment to each other. If they lived together? Had children together? Had been together for a year? 5 years? 10 years?

Would you be happier with a civil partnership if you don’t want to be married?

It’s not always a tax advantage, as Angela Raynor found out when it was revealed that she and her husband had claimed different properties as principal private residences.

As others have pointed out, there would be pros and cons to being treated as a couple by default.

The citizens advice link I attached says it is available for gay or straight couples. Have a look at your Council website and look up giving notice of civil partnership to gets things underway. It gives all the rights of marriage but in a more modern way.

Similar situation here. DP and I don’t want to marry (we’re both divorced).

2 kids,been married for 20 years etc. we are about to book a civil partnership for all the reasons mentioned. It’s literally a meeting and costs £56 on Wednesdays only 😆

I have a Will (DP doesn’t) so this will be null and void and will have to be redone.

I didn’t want to marry and I wanted to protect my assets (I bought the house before we met and wasn’t prepared to lose half of it if we split). Now we have been together a long time and I see it as our house.

I can understand why people don’t want to get married, it’s expensive to get divorced and often is messy.

If either of you has a reasonable pension then you are pretty much forced to get married or have a civil partnership before April 2027 unless you want to lose a huge chunk of it in IHT.

We are have booked in to get it done and won’t even mention it to anyone else. £50 and it will save us £100,000’s.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5264119-to-wonder-why-there-isnt-public-outrage-about-this?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

There are advantages to being married/having a civil partnership and there are advantages to being single. You can’t have both.
I really don’t know what all the fuss is about. It is only a document. If you go into a business partnership you have to fill out forms and have it legalised. It is the same.

That a good point you will need to redo wills after civil partnership or civil wedding.

The same way any contract works - it's a record of a legal agreement between two people.

What are the reasons you don't want to get married?

Why?
Surely if Minnie is leaving everything to Micky and vice versa it does matter if the will is before or after marriage?

Op probably doesn't what to change her name anyway so will remain Minnie Mouse

The iht exemption is intended to recognise that married/CP couples are likely to run their finances as a unit. Of course there are other things that suggest a commitment- such as having children- but marriage/cp is the only way to benefit from the exemption. After all, you can have children with multiple partners but can only have one marriage/cp at a time.

Just have a quickie ceremony of youre concerned about iht. No need to treat it as anything other than an administrative matter if that is your preference.