Have prepared my online 2025 tax declaration, and at the end it asks if in September you wish to be taxed separately from your partner, or remain as one household? Am trying to weigh up the pros and cons of making my choice, and wondered if anyone else has a take on this? My pension income is half my husbands, so I always thought one household might be better, but on trying a rough simulation on this year’s income, we might be slightly better off taxed separately. Just not sure what to do!
Fiona, I’m not sure it’s about being taxed separately - that only really exists for the special situations of separating/divorcing/year of marriage/spouses living under different roofs.
The change you refer to is purely about ‘individualised’ prélèvements. There should be no difference to the overall liability of a married couple, merely a more tailored, perhaps fairer, allocation of prélèvements based on the different incomes of each spouse. Here is some useful guidance…
Thank you. That’s a really interesting explanation. I see, it’s all about "prélèvement at source. So they are suggesting going forward in September if this is assessed individually, then it will be 8.1% for my husband, and nil % for myself. And it’s not the final taxation, which as you say will always continue to be a joint household. Can I ask where you managed to find that information, because I googled so many times to try and find an explanation! Thanks, really appreciate the explanation.
Happy to try and help. Here you go…
Thanks so much. Will forward it to a friend as well, who was raising the same query. Will get my declaration signed off and submitted tomorrow… yeah!