Marriage

Before the election, the Conservative party spoke about 'recognising marriage within the tax system'. This was all part of their ethos of rewarding people who 'do the right thing'. The way it would work was that a lower-earner within a married couple would be able to transfer part of their personal allowance to their partner, to benefit them by up to £150 a year. So your 'reward' would be about £3 a week. Enough to send any happy couple tripping up the aisle....

It was to be limited to basic rate taxpayers. Then the child benefit storm broke, and David Cameron suddenly started talking about extending it to ALL married couples, to compensate for the loss of the child benefit (surely a crazy idea - taking money which helps with the costs of children and giving it to couples with no children who have no extra costs). It also wouldn't help lone parents. Not to mention that for a couple with 4 children, their loss will be £3k, which is not really compensated by a paltry £150.

They have gone quiet about who will be eligible for this tax 'break' - but the narrative seems to have reverted to talking about 'lower income' families, so I would guess that they are hoping to quietly drop the idea of all married couples being eligible. My feeling is that there is no need whatsoever for a married couples' allowance, but perhaps the child benefit should revert to a tax allowance per child, with a payable benefit for lower income families. That would recognise that a household income of £45k is spread a lot more thinly when supporting a family of 4,5,6 or more people, than a household of 1 or 2 people.

So, question time! Who will be eligible for the married couple allowance, and why is it considered more valid than a family tax allowance for children?