§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the aggregate of income tax rate and social security contribution rate payable by a married couple with a single wage, with two children and on average earnings, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States of America and Japan, respectively.
§ Mr. MooreFigures for average earnings in the countries concerned are not available. The only information available relates to average production workers' earnings (see note 1). Using those figures the information requested is given in the table following:
Column 1-Effective rate of Income tax plus social security contributions per cent Column 2-Effective rate taking account of child benefits where payable percent United Kingdom 29 21 France 13 5 Germany 29 24 United States 23 23 Japan 14 (17) 14 (17) Notes:
1. The figures relate to the estimated gross earnings of average production workers in manufacturing industries in each country in 1983. These are derived from updating the published OECD figures for 1982. Although the figures relate to broadly similar groups of people, the average production worker may be at very different points in the national income distributions in the different countries.
2. Personal reliefs, employment income reliefs and other standard reliefs have been taken into account, as well as income tax relief for social security contributions in France, Germany and Japan.
3. The figures in brackets include local income taxes at typical rates.
Different countries assist families with children in different ways — some rely entirely on cash payments, while others give tax allowances, and some give both. Column 1 shows the effective rate taking into account tax allowances granted. Column 2 shows the effective rate taking in addition cash benefits into account (by deducting them from tax payable). There are no child benefits in the United States of America, and none for a two child family in Japan.