David Cameron’s proposal for a marriage tax break prompted the Sunday Times to run a feature on how couples can already lower their tax bills.
The main tax break is that husband or wife can transfer assets to their spouse with no capital gains tax. The result is that the lower taxpaying spouse can pay no or much less income tax or capital gains tax on those assets, including not just deposit accounts and shares but also holiday properties and buy to let investments. They can also ensure that both of them use their annual ISA allowance (£11,250) to move assets into tax-free form.