# Married vs. Married and living apart



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2011)

A friend of mine asked me this question about his tax return.

in 2009, he was married so he ticked married on his tax return. 

For 2010, he ticked married but living apart and didn't seem to be given the option to be jointly assessed. 

I assumed that they can continue to be jointly assessed as she has no income. 

On a separate issue, I suggested him to tick the "married" box instead, but he got a message saying that all subsequent data would be deleted.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2011)

Are married couples living apart still entitled to the Home Carer's Tax Credit? 

From IT 66



> The dependent person(s) must normally reside with the married
> couple for the tax year.



Does this mean that the married couple mist live together?


----------



## Mrs Vimes (17 Nov 2011)

Hi Brendan,

There is actually a leaflet on this, IT3 which explains most of it.

I assume your friends are actually separated as opposed to living apart for work reasons.

I assume in your friend's case he is paying maintenance, if not they are both taxed as single people. In the case where he is paying legally enforceable maintenance to her they must both elect joint assessment in writing. If she has an income separate assessment must apply.

The dependent person referred to in the IT66 is the child or elderly/disabled person, not the caring spouse.

Obviously, if she was earning and he wasn't, reverse pronouns.

Sybil


----------



## ClubMan (17 Nov 2011)

Mrs Vimes said:


> I assume your friends are actually separated as opposed to living apart for work reasons.
> 
> ...
> 
> I assume in your friend's case he is paying maintenance, if not they are both taxed as single people.


Do you mean judicially separated or still married but living separately?


----------



## Mrs Vimes (17 Nov 2011)

You can be separated for years without getting a judicial separation.

To quote Revenue:



> A couple are considered separated for tax purposes if the  separation is likely to be permanent or it has been made legal.


I was really asking whether the couple were living apart because, eg she is living near family in Cork and his job has moved to Qatar as opposed to "unhappy differences" having arisen.


----------



## Black Sheep (17 Nov 2011)

The OP has stated *"married but living  apart"* that suggests to me that no legal seperation is in place. Therefore my assumption is that in the absence of a formal arrangement the couple are still a married couple.

However as they are living apart they are not eligible for Homecarers credit both of them may be entitled to the single parent credit if both parties are working now or in the future


----------



## Mrs Vimes (17 Nov 2011)

Black Sheep said:


> However as they are living apart they are not eligible for Homecarers credit both of them may be entitled to the single parent credit if both parties are working now or in the future



The IT66 does not make any reference to whether the carer and the claimant (here: wife = carer, husband = claimant) are living together.

It only says the dependant (ie elderly person or child) has to live with the carer (with exceptions).

Married person's tax credits is the same as one parent family but rateband is higher. Also the child might never stay over with the husband if he doesn't have suitable accomodation so he may not qualify.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2011)

Thanks for all that. 

They have not entered into a formal legally enforcable agreement yet. 

They are living separately and this will be permanent. I am not sure when she moved out but I think it was during the tax year 2010. 

So from IT3, he cannot claim joint assessment for 2011. They will have to be assessed separately. This will be expensive as she has none, or negligible income. 

If he does a legally binding separation agreement, he can get a deduction for maintenance. 

*For tax year 2010
*


> *Joint Assessment prior to Separation: *
> The assessable spouse, i.e., the person who is chargeable to tax on the couple's joint income will be:
> 
> 
> ...



So, he should have ticked the Married box, and not the "Married but living apart" box. 

Brendan


----------



## Mrs Vimes (17 Nov 2011)

For 2010, the year of separation, he is taxed as married, given that she has no income this is straightforward.

For 2011 and subsequent, without legally enforceable maintenance, in his case he can have married credit but single rateband:



> if the voluntary payments are sufficient to *wholly or mainly maintain* the spouse, the payer will be entitled to claim the married persons tax credit. *However, only single persons standard rate cut-off point is due*. The spouse receiving the payments can also claim single person's tax credit against his/her income (if any).



As Blacksheep said above, if there are children then he would be better off if he could claim one parent family credit (due to increased rateband).

If they sort things out legally, they would likely be in a more favourable position from a tax point of view. They would need to calculate whether they should be taxed as a married couple or whether they would be better off to make the maintenance taxable (if his earnings and level of maintenance allow them to take fuller advantage of her rateband).


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2011)

Mrs Vimes

Thanks for that. 

Do you fancy doing a Key Post on 

"tax planning for separating couples" ? 

Or maybe it's done somewhere else and we can link to it? 

No pressure  

Brendan


----------



## devlin (19 Nov 2011)

*married but separated*

A married couple , both working and jointly assessed, separate ( but not legally.)
How are they assessed for tax? If  as single persons what difference will it make to their tax payments?


----------



## Mrs Vimes (23 Nov 2011)

One keypost as requested.
Comments/queries welcome


----------

