QUICK LEAD
MARRIAGE
Whether you want it or not
Are you calling me
common?
My dear, only for tax purposes....
The potential perils of being declared merely
half a "household income" unit
Two people living under the same roof for just over a year, presumed (and you likely will be presumed) to be living "conjugally," are in the eyes of the state a common-law couple -- required by law to file a joint tax return.
If you're both well-off you may end up even better off. (And, some hope, bought off feeling sorry for anyone who is not.) But if one of you is truly "the better half," things could get dicey. Whoever is the "dependent spouse" may face further dependence, failing to quality for social benefits he or she might have got as a lower-income "single" guy or gal.
Whichever of you is financially ahead of the household average may some day have reason to seek shelter in the Love that Dares Not Declare Its Assets. Don't forget: our "right" to "spousal equality" -- that victory on the road to gay marriage -- was won in a case all about "palimony." Raised to the dignity of alimony.
GET FREE
For more on mandatory matrimony, see:
Spouse touting
Introduction
Better questions
And much better answers
The Law Commission of Canada's Beyond Conjugality
Paying the price
Some of us paying more than others:
Demanding the same respectable rights;
willfully dismissing social wrongs
(A long, if ignored, 1999 exchange among members of Egale
-- after same-sex couples "won the right to sue our exes")
Platitude: attitude
Putting the Bullshit Detector to marriage mavens much-touted "Choice"
This just in!
The latest damn details...
(Including some court rulings on common-law)
Ideas in play (List of contents)
Gay marriage? Wrong question (Lead page)
My home page
This page: http://www.rbebout.com/getfree/tax.htm
October 2002 / Last revised: February 8, 2003
Rick Bébout © 2002 / 2003 / rick@rbebout.com