Marriage and Dutch tax return, we recommend both! Marriage is quickly laughed at, but should you? We are excited about you getting married.
Marriage and Dutch tax return
We meet many internationals in the office and during the Expat Housing Seminars. The international chose well thought about the Netherlands as their destination. The lifetime job is often secured. The search for an house is either on its way, in progress, or just purchased.
Then I inquire if the couple is married. The answer is nearly always, no, we are not. Some have no money for the party. Others are already challenged and bored by their family about the subjected, some find it old fashioned.
Then I ask, but happens if you die tomorrow?
Legal aspects of Marriage
You would imagine that a conversation takes a turn for the worse if I stated one of the couple dies tomorrow. That is never the case, it is laughed away. So I ask: do your in-laws like you? The response is nearly always: yes they do. Then I tell them: No, they do not!
So your partner dies tomorrow, your in-laws hate you, and they want to cash on their inherited part of the house as soon as they can. In addition to that, all the belongings of your partner are taken by them, even the jacket that still has the smell of your partner. There you are, alone.
Marriage on a Monday morning?
If you do not want the party, simply marry and tell the family later when you do want to give the party. If you thing marriage is expensive, marry on a Monday morning, often that is for free in cities.
Registered partnership or Marriage?
The result is more or less the same. That said, if you are travelling the world as you as internationals are already doing, explaining abroad that you are legally connected via a registered partnership is not always that easy.
The Dutch tax return
If you are married and you are registered with city hall at the same address, you are tax partners. But being tax partners is not solemnly determined by the marriage, it can also happen if you both own your main residence, or when you have children together.
Indeed the marriage does not make a difference tax wise versus the other reasons to be tax partners, the marriage is mainly for the afterlife that I am concerned about.
Tax is exciting
We think tax is exciting, but we are also a supporter of the marriage. Not for tax related aspects, but for the legal implications you can encounter when you have not formalized your relationship. Hence you should not be surprised if I do ask that personal question during a meeting. The answer is not so much important as the fact that the couple realizes the aspects of not having formalized their relation.
