Putting all the hearts and flowers to one side, the dress, the cake, everyone in their finery, and your nan doing Gangnam Style, all marriage really boils down to is a legal arrangement. A legally binding contract between two people that ultimately regulates a divorce. But what changes in law once those rings are exchanged? Read on to find out.
Putting all the hearts and flowers to one side, the dress, the cake, everyone in their finery, and your nan doing Gangnam Style, all marriage really boils down to is a legal arrangement. A legally binding contract between two people that ultimately regulates a divorce. But what changes in law once those rings are exchanged? Read on to find out.
If you have a family law issue and you are concerned that you may require legal advice to understand your options, contact specialist family law solicitor Joanne Major. Joanne is the founder of her specialist family law firm and has spent her 25-year legal career specialising in family and matrimonial cases.
Marriages in the UK are governed by the Marriage Act 1949, which sets out the legal requirements that should be satisfied for a recognised and valid marriage to exist. For a marriage to be valid and therefore legally recognised, it has to have been registered. Registration commonly requires notice to be given by the parties to the superintendent registrar of the local area, followed by a civil or religious ceremony within 12 months.
What are the legal changes when you marry?
Marriage is a legally binding contract which creates certain legal rights and responsibilities on the parties. Whilst a couple signs the register and receives a marriage certificate, there is no formal written contract setting out the terms of the marriage. Instead, rights are enshrined in law under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
Once people realise there is a contract created by marriage and how the law governs any potential separation, they may be more inclined to think about entering a pre-nuptial agreement. This can help safeguard assets acquired before marriage in the event of a divorce or dissolution further down the line. If there is no pre or post-nuptial agreement, the assets will be considered joint and part of the matrimonial pot available for division.
Getting married ties two people together in several ways. Most significantly, their assets, and liabilities, are jointly intertwined. This does not change unless the marriage or civil partnership is dissolved by way of divorce or dissolution.
Assets that merge upon marriage extend to things such as:
In addition, relief from inheritance tax, transfer of property upon death , and wider recourse to financial relief upon separation are all legal benefits to being married. Such advantages are not available when cohabiting couples separate.
What legal rights does marriage/civil partnership provide?
Marriage and civil partnership both provide some key legal rights. These are:
- In the absence of a pre-nuptial agreement, when you marry, your assets will be considered jointly owned. If the thought of this horrifies you, or if you have a wish to ringfence your assets, you should take legal advice and consider entering into a prenuptial agreement before getting married.
- Pensions are generally considered as being matrimonial assets, meaning your spouse will usually have certain rights over your pension and vice versa. Again, taking legal advice as to the potential implications of this will help you consider your options.
- Being married can make the issue of parental responsibility for any children you have simpler. Birth mothers automatically have parental responsibility and being married to your child’s mother at the time of birth usually means that the father will have it too.
- If you do not have a valid will, your spouse will typically inherit all or most of your estate. Even if you have a will before marrying, getting married will invalidate it. It is therefore really important to make a new will when getting married that clearly sets out your wishes for your estate in the event of your death. If you die without a will, laws known as intestacy rules provide a spouse with some protection. If the estate is worth more than £322,000, the spouse will inherit all the personal property and belongings of the deceased, the first £322,000, and half the remaining estate.
- You can usually transfer assets tax free between spouses including when one spouse dies.
What are the advantages of getting married?
Successive governments love to socially engineer marriage and civil partnership, and so provide a number of financial incentives to reward this commitment. These are:
- Tax breaks via the Marriage Allowance. This lets you transfer £1,260 of your Personal Allowance to your husband, wife or civil partner and reduces their tax by up to £252 in the tax year (6 April to 5 April the next year).
- If your spouse or civil partner dies, you may be eligible to receive extra payments from their pension or national insurance contributions, provided you have not already built up the full basic state pension entitlement yourself. In addition, you may inherit some of their additional state pension. Exactly how much depends on a range of factors such as retirement date. If you are not at state pension age and remarry before you reach it, you will not be entitled to your deceased spouse’s pension. It is also worth noting that many workplace, personal, and private pension schemes will only pass on benefits to a surviving partner if the couple had been married.
- When you die, your spouse will not pay inheritance tax, as these are automatically exempt.
- Unused inheritance tax allowances can be transferred. There is no inheritance tax to pay on the first £325,000 of anyone’s estate. Tax is only paid above that figure. Therefore, if any of this is unused when a spouse dies, the remainder can be passed across to the surviving spouse. The same also applies to any unused portion of the £125,000 property allowance which reduces tax that the beneficiaries of the will have to pay on the sale of a house.
- You can inherit your spouse’s ISA allowance. Any savings and investments kept inside tax-free ISAs are exempt from inheritance tax. The ISA allowance itself can also be passed onto a spouse.
- Savings and investments can be freely moved between spouses with no risk of inheritance tax, or capital gains tax. Additionally, if you are selling shares which will attract capital gains tax, for example, you will receive an annual allowance of £11,700 profit tax free. If you go over this figure, you can pass some of the asset to your spouse first to use up both your allowances.
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