Get married! You might think what this has to do with tax. A lot, but marriage goes beyond taxation. Hence we encourage the marriage.
Get married! Why would you get married and to whom?
We are compliance tax advisors, that implies we process the tax returns. The income tax return is one of them. We process a lot of income tax returns during the year. In those returns we see young people purchasing a house together.
The action of purchasing a house together to make that your main residence has a tax consequence. The tax consequence is that you have become tax partners. The tax partners is an important aspect of the income tax return. That said, this status does not only apply in the income tax return, but also in the inheritance return and other tax aspects.
Becoming tax partners – not actually aware of
The young couples that become tax partners due to the purchase of the house are not really aware of that fact. It is something to read up about, we would like to suggest. Not too much, we think tax is exciting, you might think it is confusing. And you are right.
Why get married?
The only person that does not die among us is Sinterklaas, everybody else one day die. That is a fact, the unknown is when. If you they purchased with your partner a house together, it is possible one of you dies.
The family who inherits 50% of the house is aware of the booming housing market. And they did not like the friend of their family member with whom the house was purchased anyway. So the family might start actions to kick the other person out, as they want to sell their inherited part of the property.
To prevent this, or to legally get everything into line, the partnership should be made more legal. For that we have two options. One is the registered partnership via the notary. The other one is the old fashioned marriage. Both solutions have the same result. If the one person dies, the other person inherits. You do not need to rule over your death, but you can arrange to leaving others behind with less issues.
Marriage over registered partnership?
Everybody can do as they like, but being married has advantages over registered partnership. Especially international. As this article is addressed to internationals. Even though the Netherlands is a beautiful place to stay, you might not stay here forever. Then exporting your legal commitment in a marriage is more easy than a registered partnership.
The notary
We are not a marriage consultants, nor a notary. So to get the best advice in this field is to contact a notary. The best notary we know in this field is Bert Buma of the Buma Algera notary office.
Tax is exciting
We think tax is exciting. You might not look forward to a marriage and the obligatory party where your in-laws are also invited. That is not the point of this article. The point is to give the legal commitment between you two a thought and maybe formalize it better than it is now.
