What are your thoughts on the practice that some couples are doing of getting divorced for financial reasons? This topic has been raised to us recently & I find it pretty disturbing.

It sounds like those people place their finances before their marriage. And anything that comes before the marriage will eventually tear it apart.

I find it disturbing too. Not sure what tax issues are being raised, but for every tax benefit of being single there is usual a tax disadvantage of being single. Income taxes vs estate tax...being two possible good and bad. Either way IMO it is a screwed up reason to get divorced.

That is not much of a marriage when it is cheapened to be less important than taxes. And like blackraven said, I don't know what disadvantages there are to filing married versus single. Usually the married person has the advantage.

On the whole married people are more financially successful than single people.

People will make up an excuse to do what they want to do, but this one isn't even a good excuse.

Now, if somebody were actually talking to me about this, I wouldn't put it that way, because it would be disrespectful. As someone who wants to save marriages, I would want to know more about their marital situation. I would want them to consider other solutions to their problems, as well as the problems divorce would bring. I would probably encourage them to read Dr. Harley's book Buyers, Renters, and Freeloaders, which shows a lot of the differences between married Buyers and living-together Renters. A couple that would get divorced "for financial reasons" is clear a Renter couple - married Renter couples is pretty much an epidemic in our society.

As someone who wants to save marriages and help better the culture around me, I would like to try to persuade such a couple to consider adopting the Buyer's agreement. That's a really tricky thing to do, and it probably wouldn't succeed - but I'd give it a shot.

The title of your thread says "divorce for tax purposes," and the question in your post says "divorced for financial reasons."

I can think of two situations for getting divorced for tax or financial reasons.

Tax: If a couple has been living together for a while but not married, and they decide to split up, they have to pay gains tax on any joint property or investments they decide to split. Partners in a marriage who decide to divorce and split property/investments don't have to pay tax on their share until they later sell the property.

It might be better for an unmarried couple in such a situation to "get married" solely for the purpose of then getting divorced in order to avoid a tax hit.

Financial: The second situation is where one spouse has a spending addiction. Just like alcohol or any other addiction, a spending addiction can ruin a marriage. If the addicted spouse is unwilling to seek help, the other spouse may need to divorce in order to protect themselves financially.

Hotblack Desiato once spent a year dead for tax reasons, which makes about as much sense.

There have been people throughout history who viewed marriage so sacred that they married in secret, often under penalty of death.

You, sir, win the internet. Besides, it costs a lot of money to send a ship into the nearest star as part of your concert.


Anyway - just guessing here - but there are some shady reasons to divorce tax-wise.

For instance; my wife could get a large tax return were she a "single" mother of three, because her yearly earnings would be under the poverty level - vs our combined income which is 3 brackets up. If we perjured we could louse the system and make some minor, ill-gotten, financial gains.


I know a few people who have refused to marry simply because of the "single-parent" tax returns.


Obviously not people who put much value on marriage...

people also shack up to qualify for free housing.