Two straight Canadian men to marry each other

[andrewducker]

There's an article here about two straight men who have noticed that there's a significant tax break for married couples - and are planning to take advantage of it.

Which, I think, just goes to show, that if you allow people to do things for one reason, they'll do it for their own reasons too.  Or as William Gibson once said "The Street finds its own uses for things."

How long, one wonders, until marriage is broken down, and you get to form your own contract using a CC-style choose-your-own-license?

I would like {Insert Name Here} to (a)inherit all my worldly goods (b)have power of attorney (c)love, honour and obey me (delete as applicable)

Comments

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

It's punishment if it's not worked out fairly, which it currently isn't. Trying to decide what's an acceptable level of inheritance and what isn't is incredibly complicated: I don't think that a fair inheritance tax is feasible.

The current economic system makes it important to provide incentive to create wealth and use it within the UK. The tax system actually provides a disincentive, meanwhile large multinationals are essentially immortal (for tax purposes). Private institutions are almost the new landed gentry, but with greater flexibility and fewer concrete constraints - inheritance tax doesn't address this.

[andrewducker]

Inheritance tax isn't aimed at corporations - although it will affect shares and suchlike, obviously.

And inheritance tax isn't going to affect incentives to create wealth - it tends to hit people several years after they cease to create it any more...

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

Inheritance tax isn't aimed at corporations

That's precisely my point. A tax aimed at ensuring wealth isn't concentrated in the hands of the few doesn't work so well when the few are multinational corporations who don't pay it.

And inheritance tax isn't going to affect incentives to create wealth
It does affect incentive to keep wealth within the UK, which is the point I was making. People transfer their income abroad and often as they get older try to build that income abroad too - partly for tax reasons.

[andrewducker]

Moving your money abroad won't stop you paying inheritance tax on it - if your will is executed in the UK (or you are legally domiciled here) it'll still get hit by UK inheritance tax.

And there are still many, many people worth vastly more than the average person, who do pay it. There are other taxes aimed at corporations. Corporation tax, and employers NI for two.