§ Sir J. Mellorasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of his reference, in paragraph 23 of Command Paper 6469, to the Government's policy that two persons of small income should not be liable to more tax if married than unmarried, he will define the income level at which this policy ceases to apply?
§ Mr. AsshetonThe statement in paragraph 23 of the White Paper to which my hon. Friend refers is a statement of the effect of the existing law which requires incomes of husband and wife to be treated as one for taxation purposes. If my hon. Friend will look at the Table on the last page of last year's White Paper on the Taxation of Weekly Wage Earners (Cmd. 6348 of 1942) he will see that for all joint earned incomes up to ₣1,500 joint assessment means less tax than separate assessment.