Nice article, I never really thought about people being punished for their convictions in being married...such a shame. Makes you wonder who comes up with these taxes and for what purpose?

@ Curt,
She's not crazy. She's talking about legal divorces where couples still stay together. The benefits you mentioned are still available to cohabitating couples.

I, for one, am happily married and I like the legal protections that go along with the piece of paper, but sometimes it does feel like there's a huge hidden cost to that legal validation.

I can't recall anyone I know divorcing to save money, but I have seen plenty of couples stay unmarried (at least in the legal sense) because they knew that getting legally married would mean that they'd lose too much needed money for college scholarships or government aid like healthcare. I think people are more tolerant and understanding nowadays, but they still get people pestering them about when they're going to get married.

Divorce, from what I have heard, can often be financially devastating -- especially for the spouse/partner who may have been pursuing career interests that were not as lucrative as possible, for the sake of the marriage and children.

I have heard from my parents, though, of older couples (widowed, in their 70s and 80s) ) who now have partners but opt not to marry because of potential financial losses associated with social security, pension payments, etc.

I too am nervous about getting married because I am pretty sure that will throw us into AMT. If separately we pay plenty of taxes (and believe me, we do), why on earth should we have to pay more together??? We live together now and share fiances, so there is really no need for us to marry except for pressure from family and society.

Statistically, in 1/3 of households the wife earns more than the husband. This may sound strange but I have a few friends who have divorced and are quite happy with the outcome. Their husbands were a drain financially and in the end, separating the finances worked out for the best! Guess the coin turns both ways nowadays!

My husband and I are deeply in love with eachother, we have two beautiful children together. We rarely argue... we "discuss" anything that is ever an issue. We're responsible adults and parents...

long financial downward spiral story shortened - since we married 3 years ago, our finances have been a disaster... we've lived together and had our finances combined for 7 years total. Marriage accomplished one possitive thing for us... it showed the holy union of our devotion to eachother in front our family and God. however, we married in a courhouse, to save money, no lavish wedding expenses what-so-ever. We're not spenders... we're practical penny-pinchers... yet we are payday to payday based on some medical issues w/ one of our two children, a loss of a job a few years ago, and having to utilize all savings to get through it all, not to mention a disasterous money-pit house we bought a few years ago to remodel and sell... we modestly remodeled it and we finally sold-it... didn't make a penny as we sold it one year ago, bad timing w/ the economy. We're renters now and have basic utilities. No credit cards any more... just a lot of debt incurred from the circumstances listed above...

Our moral and ethical backround is that of people 100 years ago... we're a very conservative couple grounded in our religious beleifs... but there's a 'but'...

Next month... December 2008, our Christmas present to eachother is going to be a divorce... on paper... legally... but NOTHING else will change... our love for eachother and our children stays the same... our living arrangements stay the same... our family and friends and especially our children will not know that we've 'divorced'... nothing is going to change EXCEPT our finances... for the better. And this will be in many aspects...

we have so much debt that we would really like to go bankrupt, as much as both of us are against bankrupcy it's our only option... unless we were willing to live in our car for about 10 years... our financial disaster will be with us until death do us part... left for our children to inherit... I do not want our children to inherit a financial disaster that was brought upon their parents in their mid 20's due to unexpected circumstances... we've done everything 'right'... so why has it come to this point? We tried hashing out the 'why'... it goes no-where, the 'why' for us has been unexpected circumstantial event after event after event... which has put us deeper and deeper into financial turmoil...

there's a catch to bankrupcy though... my new career will abruptly end if we go bankrupt. If my husband and are 'divorced' he can go bankrupt without my ccareer being jepordized as our credit will no longer be 'combined'. Most of the dept is in his name so this will really help the cause.

There's many more aspects that will help financially as well. I will go on state aid for daycare and food assistance for 6 months to a year, to in-turn use the extra available money to pay off my debts. With my husband going bankrupt after we 'divorce' his extra money will catch up our rent and utilities and then go to savings and retirement funds. We will however most likely re-marry once we've regained our financial stability and savings... however the possibility reamains that we could remain 'divorced' for the long-term tax break. I will be receiving a guarenteed pay increase in just less than one year and I will also be done with school... this is where I will also not have to utilize any further state assistance.

In five years I will be making enough that my husband could stay home or work part-time, plus our youngest will be in school and that means no more child-care costs...

We have written out our VERY detailed financial plan for the next five years and through retirement. The 'divorce' aspect will reverse the speeding train and get the ball rolling in the right direction.

It's sad that taxes and expenses in which the government and society have created do not fully support the traditional marriage... they punish us for having values and morals and wanting to be a traditional 'family'. They make life much easier for the 'broken' and non-traditional family... it's so backwards....

Enough stated.