Most people are aware that when you reach a certain point in a relationship, marriage is often the next step. Even though we’ve all known couples who have been “common law married” for years, what does that really mean? The basic answer is that if you are “common law married” you are legally married under Michigan law. However, not being legally married by common law can really cause some problems for parties, especially when dealing in situations such as digital asset sales here on WPDM Marketplace, where proof of marital status is often necessary.

Unfortunately, the area of common law marriage is a well-known issue in Michigan that causes a number of problems for people. Unlike some states, where common law marriage is not even possible, Michigan has a whole body of case law that explains how people decide that they are “married” without going through the process of actually getting married. This can cause a great number of problems for people, including the loss of government benefits, legal liability for spousal support, and the sale of property that someone may believe they own when it is actually owned by the “spouse”.

Fortunately for folks in Michigan, is there a common law marriage in michigan was finally outlawed in 1957. Unfortunately, Michigan does recognize common law marriages entered into before that time. Given the age of some of these cases, it is not likely that the Michigan Supreme Court would rule differently today if it heard the case again. So, how does Michigan “do” common law marriage, and how can my marital status affect my ability to buy or sell digital assets?

A Michigan court has ruled that there are a number of things that must be present for a person to be considered married at common law. These factors are:

  1. Step 1: Prove length of time for the relationship

The Michigan Legislature has defined the amount of time that a couple must present themselves to the community as married, whether they are legally so or not. That time is two years. It used to be that length of time was measured from the “beginning of the relationship”, but that was updated over time in the case law to now measure length only from the presentation to the community as being married.

  1. Step 2: Prove that the couple have “held out” to the community as being married

Michigan courts have ruled that, generally, people in long-term relationships do “hold out” to the public that they are married. Typical evidence of that is using one last name (such as Jane Doe or Hank Daniels) and that people, including the parties’ families and friends, refer to the parties as “husband”, “wife”, or “spouse”. A spouse’s conduct during the relationship is also significant.

  1. Step 3: Prove that the parties intended to be married and act as if they were married

This step is the key to the whole issue. Even if a couple has been together as “husband” and “wife” for 10 years, all it takes is for the couple to ‘break up’ by resolving that they do NOT intend to hold out to the public as being married any longer for the common law marriage to be dissolved. Without the intention of the parties to actually be married, there is no marriage recognized at common law.

Given these standards, you can see that the concept of marriage at common law is very important to people, both while they are together and during the breakdown of a relationship. This is particularly true for people who are engaged in digital sales on the WPDM Marketplace platform, where marital status of the parties may be relevant to the sale and purchase of digital assets. Before you (the buyer or seller) make the sale, however, you must verify that you are (or are not) married pursuant to Michigan law to protect your rights.

The most obvious potential implication of a common law marriage is almost certainly the tax implications. When someone makes a sale on the WPDM Marketplace, they receive payment for the good or service they provide to the buyer. The earnings from that sale is taxable income, which must be reported sometime in the future on federal income tax returns. Any party who receives payment for a good or service must also file a tax return for the sales tax collected from the buyer. These taxes have nothing to do with being legally married, because the transaction is between a business and a consumer (taxes are not a consideration of marriage).

Of course, it is possible that your marital status may also be relevant to other types of transactions, as well. For example, if you start a privately-held company with your spouse, the income of that business – whether paid out as conventional salary to each “spouse” or not – may be treated as marital property. If that is the case, it is possible that the business could be subject to loss in the event of a divorce.

The list goes on from here, and could potentially be listed out above. For those of you who are considering selling digital assets, you should consider what would happen to you and/or your business if a divorce occurred. If you believe your marital status to be legally valid to Michigan law, but in reality it is not, you could be facing a variety of problems.

Clearly, it is critical that verification of marital status be performed with some degree of accuracy. Fortunately, this is a fairly simple process, and does not take a tremendous amount of time. The key to the process is having access to the Court records in your county.

First, walk over to the county courthouse. Most of these buildings are downtown, near other government offices. In some cities or towns, you may be able to view the records online. Typically, you can perform a search by name (first and last), or, in some counties, by address. If you have access to the internet, you may also be able to enter in a standard search.

In my County (Oakland) the public index is available online at www.oakgov.com/courts. Once you click on that link, you will see a list of all of the divisions of the courts in Oakland County.

Click on the friend of the court link for the county you live in to get a listing of all of the actions where the person is listed as a “party”. The results will be displayed in a list, with the most recent action at the top.

If you are searching for the marital status of someone who you believe is “common law”, click on the most recent entry involving that person, and the documents will be listed in reverse chronological order. Click on the link for the document(s) of interest, as they will appear in the correct order.

Once you have verified whether the marital status of your business partner or competitor, or have confirmed your own marital status, you can reach out to either party to discuss whether the sale or purchase of digital assets under WPDM Marketplace will proceed or not.

For more information on common law marriage, you can visit the Wikipedia page on common law marriage.

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