According to Independent Financial Advice Promotion, couples unnecessarily hand over £224m of tax to the Inland Revenue each year.
Take income. Many types of income can be shared between a couple – from pensions and savings accounts to property and shares – to double up the £5,435 personal allowance (the amount of income someone under 65 can earn tax-free).
And it’s not just non-earning partners who should make use of their allowances, says Anne Gregory-Jones, head of tax at accountants Hays Macintyre, in The Daily Telegraph.
It also makes sense to shift income-producing assets into the name of the lower earner if one partner is a basic-rate taxpayer and the other is on the higher rate.
Also, don’t forget about capital gains tax (CGT), says Mark Atherton in The Times. The annual CGT allowance rises £400 to £9,600 for the 2008/2009 tax year, so a couple, who get one each, could shield gains of up to £19,200 by a “judicious division of their assets”.