De Facto Relationships
10.29. Where any provision of the present law depends on a marriage relationship, a formal marriage is necessary, although in some circumstances an illegitimate or adopted child may qualify as a dependant. The Committee is conscious of the change in social attitudes that could lessen the significance of formal marriage. An extension of the law so that the status of ‘spouse’ would include a partner in a de facto relationship would, in the Committee's view, be desirable if it were possible to define such a relationship in a manner that would not pose undue problems of interpretation and application. The Committee has, however, concluded that it is not possible to define the relationship in a satisfactory way. One context in which proof of the relationship will be important is the election of family unit treatment. The restrictions on the election could not be conveniently applied. Thus the requirement that an election must be made within a stipulated time after marriage would pose the problem of establishing the commencement of the relationship. The claim for a concession for a dependent spouse made in a previous return would assist; but no such claim would have been made where, because both had income, no tax advantage could have been obtained. Another context is the application of provisions against income-splitting. The Commissioner could not enforce the law in regard to a de facto relationship without what might be thought to be an unacceptable invasion of privacy.