§ 28. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why rebates for Pay As You Earn earned by wives assessed on temporary codes are repaid not to the wives but to their husbands.
§ Mr. Harold LeverA wife who has paid too much tax under P.A.Y.E. may get it repaid during the course of the tax year through the P.A.Y.E. machinery. Otherwise, under our system of aggregating incomes of husband and wife the repayment is due in law to the husband; but he can nominate his wife to receive the repayment.
§ Mr. Fletcher-CookeSince this money never belonged to the Revenue and was earned by the wife, why should it be repaid to the husband, and why should the wife be put to the task of getting it back from her husband, with whom she may be on bad terms?
§ Mr. LeverI am afraid that as long as we preserve the system of fiscal intimacy whereby a wife's income ranks as the income of her husband, there will be no solution other than the present solution.