Family Solicitors

Senior judge and chairman of the Marriage Foundation think tank Sir Paul Coleridge has suggested that married couples who stay together should receive tax breaks for saving the taxpayer money on expensive divorce proceedings.

The Daily Mail reports that Sir Paul floated the idea at a debate on co-habitation at the Marriage Foundation.

Divorce costs the state around £40 billion a year in – including more than £18bn in extra benefit payments to separated partners, £1.8bn on treating mental health problems following separation and divorce and nearly £5.5bn in social services costs for separated couples.

The senior judge retired as a family judge in the High Court in 2014 and said:

“Why not give people an incentive? People would know that if they were together for five years their tax allowances would get bigger – and it would get bigger still after ten years.

“Couples who were on the point of breaking up would think that if they could stick it out for another two years or so there would be money in it for them.”

Sir Paul is still active on the bench and said that the “small scale tax break” the Prime Minister offered couples from this spring was “ridiculous”.

In 2010, David Cameron promised a tax break for married couples, which means married couples and civil partners who are not higher-rate taxpayers can transfer £1,000 of their tax-free allowance to their spouse or partner from April this year.

“Where is the incentive for people to stay together?” Sir Paul said.

He said that more tax allowances would “reward families that remain stable” – as well as encouraging couples facing separation “to try to stick it out”.

”We need tax incentives and they would have a real effect on the way people behave.

“They would also reflect the reality that people who stay together do not cost the state much – whereas couples who split up cost the state an absolute fortune.”

Sir Paul that a milestone tax break would give newlyweds a small advantage over unmarried couples –and further tax breaks at five and ten years of marriage could also be tied in to the birth of children within marriage.

Couples celebrating their Silver Wedding for staying together for 25 years could expect a “major boost” to their income, compared with couples who had never married.

Sir Paul is known as one of the most experienced family judges in the UK – but he has ceased supporting laws to force co-habiting couples to have a financial duty to each other, which is supported by a majority of family judges and lawyers.

Sir Paul said, however, it was “dangerous” to blur the distinction between marriage and cohabitation because co-habiting couples on average separate after three years together, whereas the average marriage only ends in divorce after 11 years.

Duncan Lewis Divorce Solicitors

Duncan Lewis divorce solicitors are able to advise on all aspects of divorce, including contentious divorce cases, ancillary payments, child residence and contact, pre-nups, civil partnerships and co-habiting agreements.

Duncan Lewis divorce solicitors are also able to advise on mediation and dispute resolution – as well as judicial separation.

Duncan Lewis can advise on divorce proceedings and childcare under UK law and Islamic law.

For expert legal advice on divorce and family law, call Duncan Lewis divorce solicitors on 020 7923 4020.