Finances: Do We Need Expert Advice?

If you would like to further your reading, the following additional courses may be of interest:

• Don’t know where to start with the finances?
• What about filling in a Form E?
• What are ‘needs’ and why are they relevant?
• What is ‘sharing’ and when is it relevant?
• What about giving up a career?

Alternatively, if you’re ready to move beyond our courses to seeking expert legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances, then do consider taking joint legal advice here at The Divorce Surgery. Our specialism is in advising couples together, as to how a court would regard their situation. Our approachable, specialist barristers have extensive experience in every kind of financial remedy case, both large and small.  You can then use their detailed advice to progress your settlement discussions.

Another major consideration when it comes to decisions about divorce and its timing is tax. The treatment of Capital Gains Tax in particular will depend on how long ago you separated. Under the previous Capital Gains Tax (CGT) laws, separating couples transferring their assets had to do so within the tax year of separation to ensure no CGT was payable. After this period, any transfers were liable for CGT. For instance, if a couple were to divorce in December, they would have until April 5th to pay. However, a number of tax reliefs were announced by the Chancellor in the March 2023 budget, including an extension of this period of “no gain, no loss” transfers to three tax years. This affords spouses and civil partners who are separating and don’t live together more time to transfer assets between themselves as part of a divorce settlement. You should always take specialist and up-to-date tax advice if you have significant financial resources to divide, to ensure you structure any financial settlement and timetable any transfers of assets tax-efficiently.

It’s crucially important to be aware that if you remarry this will have a very significant impact on your legal entitlement to make financial claims arising from your former marriage. So if you intend to remarry, you really must sort your finances out first.