Tax Liability (Hansard, 22 May 1979)

§ Mr. Field

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report the number of persons liable to tax and the number of persons taken out of tax for each financial year since 1945 on the following basis: (a) married 93W couples counted as one and (b) married women counted separately.

Year	Number liable to income tax	Numbers not liable who would have been liable if allowances of preceding, year had remained unchanged
				('000)	('000)
				(a)	(b)	(a)	(b)
1945–46	…	…	…	..	..	Nil	Nil
1946–47	…	…	…	..	..	..	2,000
1947–48	…	…	…	..	..	..	..
1948–49	…	…	…	14,300	..	..	Over 2,500
1949–50	…	…	…	..	..	Nil	Nil
1950–51	…	…	…	..	..	Nil	Nil
1951–52	…	…	…	16,200	..	..	..
1952–53	…	…	…	15,400	..	..	Over 2,000
1953–54	…	…	…	15,900	..	Negligible	Negligible
1954–55	…	…	…	16,600	..	Nil	Nil
1955–56	…	…	…	16,300	..	..	2,400
1956–57	…	…	…	17,100	..	Nil	Nil
1957–58	…	…	…	17,300	..	..	..
1958–59	…	…	…	17,700	..	..	..
1959–60	…	…	…	18,400	20,900	Nil	Nil
1960–61	…	…	…	19,200	..	Negligible	Negligible
1961–62	…	…	…	19,900	..	Nil	Nil
1962–63	…	…	…	20,100	23,200	..	..
1963–64	…	…	…	17,800	20,400	..	3,700
1964–65	…	…	…	18,500	21,100	..	..
1965–66	…	…	…	19,300	22,000	..	100
1966–67	…	…	…	19,700	22,800	Negligible	Negligible
1967–68	…	…	…	20,000	23,300	Negligible	Negligible
1968–69	…	…	…	20,700	24,200	-200	-200
1969–70	…	…	…	20,600	23,700	600	1,100
1970–71	…	…	…	20,000	23,100	1,300	2,100
1971–72	…	…	…	19,700	23,400	200	200
1972–73	…	…	…	18,900	21,700	1,800	3,000
1973–74	…	…	…	19,800	23,300	100	100
1974–75	…	…	…	20,500	24,500	500	1,500
1975–76	…	…	…	20,900	25,400	600	800
1976–77	…	…	…	21,300	26,000	500	800
1977–78 (provisional)	…	20,500	24,700	1,300	2,100
1978–79 (estimated)	…	…	21,200	25,700	200	400
(a) Married couples counted as one.
(b) Married women counted separately.
.. Not available.

Figures for numbers of taxpaying earning wives are available directly only since 1959–60 for years in which a survey of personal incomes was held. Estimates of the numbers of persons not liable to tax but liable on allowances of the previous year are often made at the time of the Budget Statement, on the basis of the information available at that time. For the earlier years these estimates have been included in the table where available. It has not been possible without expenditure of undue resources to determine whether these figures would need revision if they were recalculated in the light of the more recent—and more complete—information. In years when allowances and limits were not changed, it is, of course, known that no persons were taken out of tax.

94W