It’s one area where I think the US have it right - a married couple can pool their tax allowances.
If one person is earning to support another too, I think they should get the benefit of the other person’s allowance.
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Not bad considering 20K goes into deep frying mars bars 
Edit - Did you see the deep fried chocolate orange recently??
Can honestly say… i’ve never had one.
Edit: wtf…
Speaking to Texan colleagues… they deep fry butter…
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I saw a Gordon Ramsey clip of him talking to a chef somewhere in America.
Asked what was in some deep fried cheese thing…
“This cheese, that cheese (I can’t remember their names), and skimmed 0% fat cheese”…
His response…
“So you put 0% fat cheese in this, and then deep fry it in fat?” 
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Marriage and children do not always coincide - you just create a different kind of discrimination.
Looked at another way, it’s a great incentive for parent A earning 60k to take time out and earn 10k less. Less money, but more time 
We know a retired couple who use their fuel allowance to buy ski passes every year.
To call the system broken is an understatement
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Hopefully that’s where Civil Partnerships come in.
Partner and children don’t always coincide
I could go on about this all day! The system is just ridiculous. The take home pay of a couple each on £50K is massively more than one person on £60 but they also then get the full child benefit.
Well, not sure about that.
How many people who didn’t want to enter into a legal undertaking in a civil registry office because it was called marriage are going to enter into that obligation just because it’s called a civil partnership?
Again, it’s the state gone mad.
The state didn’t want to introduce them but were taken to court for discrimination and were forced to do so
Slightly off topic though
Hey, taxation is the price of civilisation.
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The madness is that they were trying to maintain the “sanctity” of marriage in the first place long after the horse had bolted.
But yes, somewhat off topic.
On topic, I know cash ISAs are out of favour with some, but failing to use your allowance may prove shortsighted.
Check out innovative finance ISAs as well… Potentially nice returns, tax free
I would pick out a favourite charity or two for gift aid and the like…
Taxation is civilisation
Personally, pension contributions and share schemes through my employer tend to be the best options for me. Purchasing shares through salary sacrifice (capped at a specific amount) and retaining them for 5 years means they aren’t subject to income tax. Obviously comes with the usual ‘your investment can go up as well as down’ health warning.
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At least you’re allowed to put it in your pension!
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