It’s Valentine’s Day – a day for lovers around the world to shower one another with gifts and love and affection.

Combining two lives in a new way of being takes a lot of work, and included in that is the question of finances.

Do we put all our money together? Do we keep separate accounts? How much should we each contribute to our joint expenses?  So many things to consider…

At some stage after declaring your “coupledom”, you’ll need to consider the appropriate point in time to declare each other as a spouse in your tax return.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), provide the following definition of “spouse”:

Your spouse includes another person (of any gender) who:

• you were in a relationship with that was registered under a prescribed state or territory law
• although not legally married to you, lived with you on a genuine domestic basis in a relationship as a couple

I’ll leave that with you to think about, although I’m sure it can wait for a day other than today – go out and enjoy your Valentine’s Day x

Regards