§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether in the event of women in receipt of pensions due for previous service in the post office marrying a clerk still in postal employment their joint incomes are liable for income tax; whether his attention has been directed to cases in which the joint incomes of the two persons, being less than £200 per annum, have been treated as the salary of the husband for income tax purposes; and whether he can state the reasons for this action.
(Answered by Mr. Ritchie.) In such cases as these to which the hon. Member refers, the incomes of husband and wife are aggregated for income tax purposes. Of course, if the aggregate income is 296 less than £400, it is taxed only on the excess over £160. A pension received by a married woman living with her husband is not a profit "from any business carried on or exercised by means of her own personal labour," so as to entitle the husband to make a separate claim for exemption or abatement in respect of it under Section 5 (1) of The Finance Act, 1897.