Marriage may be going out of fashion, but it is likely there will still be plenty of romantics willing to tie the knot next Saturday - Valentine's Day.

Back in the mid-1980s around 400,000 intrepid souls married each year - now the figure is down to around 300,000 and still falling.

If you are going to make it legal, what could be more romantic than getting hitched on February 14? Indeed, statistics show that the number of marriages rises sharply on Valentine's Day.

For anyone who is planning a trip down the aisle or to the registry office next Saturday, it's time to look behind the romance and flowers and get down to the thorny question of finances.

Marriage may mean togetherness, but, as far as the Inland Revenue is concerned, married couples are now treated as two independent taxpayers. Since April 1990 husbands and wives have been taxed on their own income and gains, and they have had their own allowances. Each is responsible for filling in their own tax returns and for paying their own tax bills.

That said, the Revenue blesses marriage with several perks. One of them is the married couple's tax allowance.

These days this reduces your total tax bill by a fixed amount. It is no longer used to reduce your income for the purposes of calculating the tax due, but is knocked off your bill after all the calculations have been done.

For this tax year, which ends on April 5, the maximum saving is #274.50 for people under the age of 65.

The allowance goes automatically to the husband, but can be transferred to the wife or split between you. If you know that one of you won't be paying tax, allocate the married couple's allowance to the partner who will, otherwise it will be wasted. This must be done before April 6 if you want the change to be in force for the new tax year.

However, it won't be too late if it is not until the end of the tax year that you realise you have some married couple's allowance left. If your tax bill for the year is too low to use up all the allowance, you can opt to have the unused part deducted from your spouse's tax bill instead.

The same is true of the blind person's allowance. If you don't use this fully because your income is too low, it can be transferred to your husband or wife even if they are not blind.

And it's not too late for old-hands at the marriage game. You can backdate transfers of unused married couple's allowance for up to six tax years before the present one - that's back to the 1991-92 tax year - and, with a bit of luck, be in line for a rebate.

In the tax year you marry, you get a proportion of the married couple's allowance depending on the date of your wedding, and only those marrying in the first month of the new tax year - April 6 to May 5 - get the allowance in full.

A couple getting married next Saturday, for example, would save only #45.75 this tax year because of the married couple's allowance.

Perhaps it's a second marriage for you. If you are claiming the additional personal allowance because you've been bringing up children on your own, you are entitled to keep this in the year that you remarry.

It makes sense to continue to claim the additional personal allowance because it's given in full for the year, whereas the married couple's allowance is reduced proportionately, depending on the date you marry.

Tax is not the only consideration for the newly-married, of course. Other important financial questions couples should be asking themselves include:

n Do we need to make or change a will? Marriage automatically invalidates an existing will.

n Do we need to have joint bank accounts? You may agree to pay into a joint account for the household bills, but keeping some of your own money separate makes sense too.

n Do we need to have a joint mortgage? There could be difficulties if you split up.

n Should we be adding each other's names to our pensions? Company schemes may offer generous benefits to the wives and husbands of members. And you can arrange for some of your personal pension to go to your spouse too. Make sure you benefit.

n Should we be thinking about life insurance now we have new responsibilities?

n Are children part of our future plans? Should we be thinking about planning for school fees and career breaks?

This may be the first time you've needed expert advice and it could be well worth talking over your plans with an independent financial adviser. For details of advisers based in your area, call 0117 971 1177.

Don't forget insurance either. If you're a budding romeo planning a surprise involving a sparkly ring next Saturday, make sure your plans won't be sent awry by an unsentimental burglar.

If you bought the ring with a credit card, you may already have insurance cover.

Cards issued by Bank of Scotland, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, MBNA, Abbey National and the Halifax, among others, give protection for, typically, 90 days from the date of purchase. However, the level of cover varies, so make sure that it's enough for the ring you've chosen.

If you don't have protection from your credit card, check that the ring is covered by an existing policy - your parents' contents insurance, perhaps, if you don't yet have a home, and therefore insurance, of your own - or arrange cover separately.