§ Mr. Silvesterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the proportion of married couples where both husband and wife are earning who currently have investment income to aggregate.
§ Mr. Moore[pursuant to his reply, 14 February 1985, c. 291]: It is likely that a high proportion of two-earner married couples have some investment income. The Inland Revenue's survey of personal incomes does not provide information on this point, because of incomplete coverage in the survey of investment income on which liability to basic rate tax has already been satisfied (for example by deduction at source or under the building societies' composite rate arrangements). However, one third of those two earner couples shown in the latest survey (for 1982–83) as having investment income had some of this income recorded as belonging to the wife or owned jointly by the spouses. This should be treated as only a broad indication of the likely proportion for two earner couples in general.