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Are you getting married to save on inheritance tax?

Journalist: Aaliyah Ahmed, The Times

ended 20. August 2026

I am looking to hear from couples who are considering, or have decided to get married because of the financial and inheritance tax benefits.

Perhaps thye have been together for years but never wanted to marry, and recent changes to inheritance tax have made you reconsider. Or maybe they are planning to tie the knot specifically to protect your partner from a potential tax bill when you die.

This is for a story for The Times. Your story can be shared anonymously if preferred.

Please get in touch if this sounds like you.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Steven Greenall
Director at Greenall Estate Planning
As an estate planner I have clients who are contemplating marriage due to the IHT allowances. They have a long standing relationship, but when I explained the figures to them, they have decided to formalise the relationship
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Mike Staton
Director at Staton Mortgages
Me and my partner are currently in the process of planning for this. It's scarey as we own 3 businesses and our own home and are concerned that after 16 years together and 2 children, a piece of paper means we have no legal entitlement if one of us die
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
I’d prefer to comment anonymously, but the proposed pension and IHT changes have definitely pushed marriage higher up our agenda.

We have been together for years. Money that should have gone toward a wedding went toward a house deposit in the late 1990s, when soaring property prices made that seem far more sensible.

Our running joke/plan was always to slope off to Las Vegas one day and get married spontaneously, thereby avoiding the need for a big day. Although the current political climate in the US has rather taken the shine off that idea!

Under the proposed rules, remaining unmarried could potentially create an IHT liability of around £320,000 in my circumstances, and growing. I’m only in my early 50s and built my pension for retirement, not as an IHT vehicle.

As an IFA, I understand the consequences and can plan accordingly. I worry many unmarried couples won’t realise how significant the financial difference between married and unmarried could become until it’s too late.