Love was in the air this week as TS enjoyed the flowers and devotion that comes with Valentines Day. Thanks, boss. But down at Ernst & Young, affection and candle-lit dinners were not the priority.

Instead, E&Y called on couples to cast aside cooing and cuddling and 'consider the fiscal benefits of proposing to their loved one on the romantic day'.

The firm drew up a 'checklist of the key tax benefits of matrimony', highlighting how getting married can be a good decision, even if you are not in love.

'Marriage is a prudent option, if only in tax terms, because of capital gains and inheritance tax benefits,' enthused E&Y's Patrick Stevens.

TS can only imagine how successful that line has been when dropping the big question. You can always rely on accountants to suck the life out of a romantic occasion.