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MARRIAGE

Stockholm braces for drop-in wedding deluge

Las Vegas it isn’t, and chances are Elvis won't be anywhere in sight, but this weekend's mass 'drop-in' wedding at Stockholm's Skansen wildlife park is expected to draw hundreds ready to say "I do", The Local's Geoff Mortimore discovers.

Published: 10 June 2011 10:35 CEST
Stockholm braces for drop-in wedding deluge

Statistics show that over the past three years, more people than ever in Sweden have turned their backs on traditional religious wedding ceremonies in a church, opting instead for civil services.

With this in mind, coupled with the fact that one often has to book months in advance for a ceremony at the popular and stately Stockholm City Hall (Stadshuset), the management at Skansen saw an opportunity to offer a unique twist on the “drop-in” wedding concept.

“We were expecting about 50 couples last year,” recalls Tasso Stafilidis, one of the wedding officiants.

“In the end we had over 300, it was chaotic but the response was fanastic”.

Inspired by last year’s success, officials at Skansen have decided once again to provide couples looking for a unique wedding experience.

Stafilidis believes the venue itself is a major draw, especially for those coming to Stockholm from other parts of the country.

“We soon realised that there was a demand for this kind of event and it proved to really popular. Holding it at Skansen is important, because it means a lot to people, not only as a culturally historic landmark, but also because it is such a popular place,” he explains.

Convenience is a major factor alongside the obvious novelty value.

For Stafilidis though, the most striking aspect of last year’s cermeony was its diversity.

“Last year I carried out 65 services. Many of them were couples who had been living together for 20, 30 years who took the chance to make their relationship official. But we also we had young couples, different ethnic groups, different nationalities, same sex, mixed race, every possible combination really,” he recalls.

The convenience aspect is key for Emma Shanti and her husband-to-be, Hasse.

The pair from Gothenburg in western Sweden will be among the many exchanging vows on Saturday.

“We were not really into the idea of a traditional service, so we were looking for an alternative. When we heard about the drop-in ceremony it just seemed to be a fun thing to do. We just wanted to keep things simple,” says Hasse.

For anyone thinking about tying the knot, it’s not too late. Just pop over to Skansen on Saturday with an ID in hand, as well as 500 kronor ($80).

Of course, one should also bring plenty of patience as well, if last year’s experience is anything to go by.

Proceedings begin at 10am on Saturday morning and each service takes about ten minutes.

Officials promise that everyone who is there before 3pm can leave as a married couple.

To avoid the kind of logistical difficulties of last year, when queues snaked around the block and couples were left waiting several hours, organisers have worked hard to improve the procedure this year, including the introduction of a simplified queueing system.

For those really acting on a spur of the moment whim, everyone and everything you could possibly need will be in place.

Skansen provides both religious and civic officials, musicians, witnesses, photographers food, and, if you’re getting pre-wedding jitters, or want somewhere to celebrate afterwards, the champagne bar is handily located close by.

“The beauty of it is that it can be really personal, couples appreciate the ease of it and the fact that they are not bound by the obligations and traditions that can sometimes dominate these occasions” says Stafilidis.

If you do decide to take the plunge, best of luck…and there may be just enough time to dash down to the dry cleaners with that Rhinestone one-piece you’ve been saving for a special occasion!

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MARRIAGE

Ehegattensplitting: How did Germany’s marriage tax law become so controversial?

Ehegattensplitting, literally translated as “spouse splitting,” is a German policy which allows married couples to save taxes by dividing their income. Some argue that the policy, in place since the 1950s, should be abolished.

Published: 12 May 2021 18:17 CEST
Updated: 22 October 2021 14:32 CEST
Ehegattensplitting: How did Germany's marriage tax law become so controversial?
Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Rolf Vennenbernd

How does Ehegattensplitting work?

Ehegattensplitting refers to how married couples’ income taxes are calculated under the German law. At the end of a financial year, couples can opt to file taxes jointly through Ehegattensplitting. If they choose to do so, the income of the two spouses will be added together and then halved. 

The tax authority calculates taxes for the couple’s average income and then doubles that amount to arrive at a final tax figure. The total amount of income taxes owed to the government based on Ehegattensplitting is often less than the amount owed if each partner had filed separately. 

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about paying taxes in Germany

The optional system benefits couples in which one partner makes substantially more than the other, and it also applies to marriages in which only one spouse earns an income. Single-earner couples will typically reap the most benefits. On the other hand, if both partners earn roughly the same amount, they gain no advantage from Ehegattensplitting. 

With very few exceptions, “the elegant thing about full income splitting, as it is in place in Germany, is that there’s no constellation where a married couple pays more in taxes than two single individuals,” explained economist Katharina Wrohlich, of the University of Potsdam and DIW Berlin, in an interview with The Local earlier this year. 

Why is Ehegattensplitting controversial then?

On the one hand, advocates of the policy often cite the special status of marriage under the law and argue that marriage is a cooperative economic arrangement which should be recognised as such. 

On the other hand, critics have suggested that the law can often discourage women from working – either at all or in part-time positions – and that it is unfairly preferential to higher-income households.

Wrohlich explained the gender-equality-based criticism this way: “The drawbacks are that both partners face the same marginal tax rate. So, the secondary earner, which is mostly the woman in Germany, faces a much higher marginal tax rate than she would if she were taxed individually.”

As a result, “there are very strong negative incentives to either take up work or to increase working hours, in particular for married women,” she said.

Timm Bönke, an economist at Free University Berlin, noted that even though some spouses will be discouraged from working, there is “no loser” because the couple also gains tax advantages.

Instead, according the Bönke, “the disadvantage is that Germany loses a lot of money by having [Ehegattensplitting] because it is discouraging work and, on the other hand, you have a lot less revenue from taxation,” which could go towards funding education or child care, for example. 

Another criticism has to do with social policy.  As Wrohlich explained, “This kind of tax subsidy through income splitting increases with income. So, very high-income couples profit much more from this kind of policy than families with low incomes. And this is perceived to be very unfair, at least among some people.”

Additionally, some critics argue that Ehegattensplitting ought to take into account whether or not a family has children. 

Two wedding rings on a text reading ‘joint assessment’. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andrea Warnecke

What is the history behind Ehegattensplitting?

Married couples in Germany have not always enjoyed these tax benefits. In fact, in the years prior to the late 1950s, many German couples were at a financial disadvantage when it came to taxation. This disadvantage resulted from the progressive tax system first introduced in the 1920s, whereby higher incomes are taxed at higher rates.

Under this system, a married couple would jointly pay taxes at the higher rate associated with the sum of their income. As a result, the typical married couple would pay more in taxes than they would have as unmarried individuals. 

READ ALSO: ‘Ja, ich will’: What it’s like to get married in Germany

By the early 1950s, the added tax burdens on some married couples — often called the “marriage penalty tax” — had garnered public concern.  In 1957, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the existing tax law discriminated against married people and was thus unconstitutional.

Although several alternative policies were considered, the German legislature ultimately passed the Tax Amendment Act of 1958 which introduced Ehegattensplitting. It has been in effect ever since.

Since the 1950s, the German Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of Ehegattensplitting. In 1982, the court defended the policy under the premise that it properly recognizes marriage as a cooperative arrangement. In 2013, the German government allowed civil partners, including same-sex partners, to split their income for tax purposes, as well.

What are possible alternatives to Ehegattensplitting?

Since its inception, several reforms to Ehegattensplitting have been put forth. 

One possible alternative to Ehegattensplitting involves a transferable tax-free personal allowance, which is the amount of untaxed income that each person is entitled to receive.  In Germany, you are entitled to a basic exemption of roughly €10,000, which decreases with higher incomes.

According to the proposed reform, “the idea is that in a married couple, both are, in principle, taxed individually, but as long as one spouse does not use up his or her own personal allowance, he or she can transfer it to their partner,” Wrohlich said. 

Another possible reform would involve moving towards the system of family tax splitting used in France. Wrohlich explained that the French and German systems are actually very similar: “In France, married people without children can do exactly the same income splitting as in Germany, only that, in addition, if they have children, they get additional splitting factors.”

In this system, income is split further for each additional child, with added benefits following the birth of the third child. 

Should we expect Ehegattensplitting to stick around?

The possibility of reforming Ehegattensplitting may gain renewed attention in light of the federal election. Within the past year, both the Greens and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have proposed reforms to the policy of Ehegattensplitting.

The SPD, Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) are currently in coalition talks to form a new government. 

Some experts are pessimistic about any radical reform to the law. Bönke told The Local earlier this year: “I don’t think that in the near future you will see that income splitting is abolished. ”

Instead, he believes it is more likely that “income splitting is opened or will be made available for different kinds of families that are not married”. But, he noted, making more people eligible for income splitting will likely disincentivise even more people from taking up work. 

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