Me and the hairdresser are often the first to find out.
Before the engagement has been announced on Instagram.
Sometimes before the future in-laws have been told.
Through a client call, a message, an offhand question at the end of a meeting, I know.
You and your partner are planning to get hitched.
It makes sense when you think about it.
Big life changes come with big questions, and when you’re self-employed or running your own business, the financial questions are never far behind the personal ones:
- Will it affect my tax?
- What happens to the business?
- Do we need to do anything differently?
This one is for you if you’re recently engaged, planning to get married, or considering a civil partnership. (And yes, civil partnerships are very much still a thing, and now available to any couple, whatever your orientation. More on that in a moment.)
Whether you’ve just got engaged, your wedding or registration date is a few months away, or you’ve been married a while and never quite got round to the financial conversation .. there’s something here for you.
So get yourself a cup of tea and let’s have a proper chat.
Does it actually make financial sense to get married (or enter a civil partnership)?
This is the question people feel slightly awkward asking, but it’s a completely reasonable one (you know, you’re allowed to be sensible as well as romantic!)
And the answer is ‘sometimes, yes’.
For some couples, formalising your relationship brings genuine tax advantages, and this applies equally whether you’re getting married or entering a civil partnership. The two are treated identically by HMRC.
Marriage allowance is the one most people miss. If one of you earns less than £12,570 (the personal allowance, at the time of writing), you can transfer £1,260 of it to your higher-earning partner.
That’s worth up to £252 a year.
It’s not going to pay for the honeymoon, but it’s simple to claim through HMRC and can be backdated up to four tax years, so couples who’ve never got round to it could be sitting on a helpful £1,000.
There are also inheritance tax implications worth knowing about. Transfers between spouses and civil partners are exempt from inheritance tax, which matters more than people realise when there are businesses, properties, or significant savings involved.
And pensions, too. Death benefits, survivor benefits, the whole picture changes when you’re legally recognised as a couple rather than just living together.
I’m not suggesting that anyone goes and makes their relationship formal just for a tax break. But if you were already planning to do it anyway, it’s good to know the financial case can stack up, too.
Getting married when you run a limited company
This is where it gets a bit more interesting. If your spouse or civil partner is going to be genuinely involved in the business, even in an admin or support capacity, there might be a case for bringing them in as a shareholder or director.
If you do it properly, this can allow profits to be distributed more tax-efficiently between you.
But it needs to be set up correctly, and HMRC pays attention to arrangements that look like profit-sharing without genuine involvement.
So this isn’t a shortcut to try without proper advice, and it’s a conversation to have before the wedding or registration, not after.
Every situation is different.
For some couples it makes complete sense. For others it’s just not the right fit.
But if you’ve never thought about it, I think it’s worth talking about.
If one of you already owns a home
This one catches people out more than almost anything else.
In England and Northern Ireland, the relevant tax is Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), collected by HMRC.
If one of you already owns a property and you’re buying a new one together, a 5% surcharge applies on top of standard SDLT rates.
It’s charged on the full purchase price so on a £300,000 home, that’s an extra £15,000 you might not have factored in.
If you’re a home mover, there is a refund available if you sell your previous property within three years of completing the new purchase, but the timing has to work in your favour.
In Wales, the equivalent is Land Transaction Tax (LTT), administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority.
Wales uses a separate set of higher residential rate bands for additional properties, starting at 5% on the first £180,000 and rising through higher bands above that.
It’s a different structure to England’s flat surcharge, and the rates were increased in December 2024, so if you’ve seen older figures floating around online, they may be out of date.
In Scotland, the system is called LBTT (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax) and it’s set by the Scottish Government, not Westminster. So when stamp duty changes make the news, those usually apply to England only. Scotland does its own thing through Revenue Scotland.
The Scottish surcharge is called the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), currently at 8%, charged on the full purchase price.
On a £200,000 property, that’s £16,000 on top of your standard LBTT bill. As with England, there is a refund available if you sell your previous home within 36 months of completing the new purchase.
Whichever part of the UK you’re in, getting caught off guard by an unexpected surcharge is the kind of thing that causes real stress at what should be a happy time.
Best get it looked at with your accountant before you start putting in offers.
A note on pensions
Yes, I know. It’s not the most romantic topic when you’re knee-deep in finding the perfect venue and choosing fruit cake over madeira. But it’s worth a mention if you’re promising to be with someone until you’re both old and grey(er).
When you get married, it’s a really good time to review the beneficiary nominations on your pensions.
Because these aren’t automatically updated when your circumstances change. And pension providers pay out based on who you’ve nominated, not necessarily who you’re married to.
It takes about twenty minutes, and it’s the kind of thing both of you will be glad you did.
And if you’ve both got pensions from previous jobs sitting quietly in the background, getting married is a good prompt to get a clearer picture of where you both stand.
It doesn’t need to be a big project.
And knowing what you’ve got is better than not knowing, I promise.
The one nobody thinks about: your will
Here’s something that often surprises people. Getting married is a legal event, and yes, it affects your will, but the rules are different depending on where in the UK you are.
In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, marriage automatically revokes any existing will. If you made a will before you got married and you don’t make a new one, you are effectively intestate: your estate gets distributed according to standard rules, which may bear no resemblance to what you actually want.
This catches people out more than you’d think, particularly if you have children from a previous relationship, a business, or specific wishes about who gets what.
In Scotland, the rules are different. Marriage doesn’t automatically cancel your will. But that doesn’t mean your existing will still reflects your life as it now is. Scottish law gives a surviving spouse or civil partner certain rights to a share of the estate regardless of what the will says.
Either way, getting married or entering a civil partnership is an ideal moment to either make a will if you don’t have one, or review and update the one you do.
This is a conversation for your solicitor rather than your accountant but I’ll always flag it, because this is exactly the kind of thing that falls through the gap between professions while everyone’s busy thinking about the flowers.
When to have this conversation
My honest answer? It really is earlier than you think. Here’s a rough shape for you:
If you’ve just got engaged and one of you owns a property, runs a limited company, or has been in a previous marriage or civil partnership, come and have a chat now (before the event planning takes over your brain entirely). The property and business questions in particular are much easier to navigate before you’re in the middle of things.
If your wedding or registration date is a few months away, this is the moment to sort the will, review pension nominations, and make sure any business decisions (like adding a shareholder) are in place and set up correctly. Your solicitor for the will, and we can handle the rest.
If you’re already married and none of this happened at the time it might not be too late, I promise. The marriage allowance can be backdated up to four tax years, pension nominations can be updated any time, and the will conversation is one worth having regardless of when you got married.
A 45-minute clarity session is usually all it takes. We look at your situation together, flag anything worth looking at, and you go back to enjoying being married or engaged with one less thing rattling around in your head.
That’s what I’m here for. That, and cake.
Come and have that chat
If you’re getting married in the next year or two (or you know someone who is), please share this with them. A lot of the financial questions around marriage are simple once someone explains them properly. They just rarely get explained at the right time.
When you’re ready, book a Clarity Session. And we’ll have a proper look at your situation together.
Be you. Be brave. Build a better business.
Gillian x